A thought on Parshas Emor
"...v'lo yechallu es Shem kadshi...""...and they will not desecrate my holy Name..." (22:2)
This warning comes, according to the Chezkuni, to remind us that serving HaShem is intended to fulfill a lofty purpose. We approach Him as a demonstration of our reverence and in order to spread a sense of the sacred.
When we approach HaShem with motivations and agendas which confuse the sacred with the selfish, or when we doctor our worship with peculiar embellishments of an offbeat nature, this is a desecration of the "holy Name." It shows neither reverence to Him (since we are not doing what we are bidden to do) nor does it disseminate a sacred sense among others.
I had a strange consultation some while ago. A colleague of mine who practices an Eastern religion asked me to see one of her patients. He was a Jewish man who had decided to synthesize his native religion (Judaism) with Eastern practices which he found meaningful. He was going to speak at his son's bar mitzva and had composed a speech which drew from the folklore and mystical tradition of the sect he had joined. His therapist, meanwhile, said that she found it inappropriate but could not get this through to her patient. Knowing of my own faith and practices, she recommended that he see me in order to get a perspective of what a father should say on the occasion of his son's entry into manhood, what a son, at that juncture, needs and is able to hear, and what the tradition was all about. Of interest was that the man had already shown the speech to his rabbi, and she had approved, finding it deep and delightful.
The course which I chose with the man is not that relevant. The issue, however, is quite germane. When we approach HaShem, there is a purity and a loyalty which must encompass this process. We go to serve Him, on His terms, and the Torah has instructed us on discerning the holy from the profane. That is the context of avoda and that is the ultimate form of sacrifice, the delivering of our own will and motives to Him.
This is quite clear from the explanation of the Chezkuni. When he adds the thought that blending the sacred with the unbidden creates chillul HaShem - when one fails to impart holiness - and that this blocks the sense of the sacred, I found an illustration of this. When I asked the referring therapist why she was making such as issue of the matter and not just leaving it out of the therapy, her insightful (and perhaps spiritually oriented) response was that she felt strongly that trying to manufacture a concoction of disparate faiths would end up embarrassing the man's son, and humiliating the man among his peers and family. "There is nothing religious about making a fool of yourself", she asserted.
Real religion is the only real thing. Let's keep it real and do it right.
Please join my family in praying for the recovery of my son Yosef Ezra ben Devora. Good Shabbos. D Fox
This warning comes, according to the Chezkuni, to remind us that serving HaShem is intended to fulfill a lofty purpose. We approach Him as a demonstration of our reverence and in order to spread a sense of the sacred.
When we approach HaShem with motivations and agendas which confuse the sacred with the selfish, or when we doctor our worship with peculiar embellishments of an offbeat nature, this is a desecration of the "holy Name." It shows neither reverence to Him (since we are not doing what we are bidden to do) nor does it disseminate a sacred sense among others.
I had a strange consultation some while ago. A colleague of mine who practices an Eastern religion asked me to see one of her patients. He was a Jewish man who had decided to synthesize his native religion (Judaism) with Eastern practices which he found meaningful. He was going to speak at his son's bar mitzva and had composed a speech which drew from the folklore and mystical tradition of the sect he had joined. His therapist, meanwhile, said that she found it inappropriate but could not get this through to her patient. Knowing of my own faith and practices, she recommended that he see me in order to get a perspective of what a father should say on the occasion of his son's entry into manhood, what a son, at that juncture, needs and is able to hear, and what the tradition was all about. Of interest was that the man had already shown the speech to his rabbi, and she had approved, finding it deep and delightful.
The course which I chose with the man is not that relevant. The issue, however, is quite germane. When we approach HaShem, there is a purity and a loyalty which must encompass this process. We go to serve Him, on His terms, and the Torah has instructed us on discerning the holy from the profane. That is the context of avoda and that is the ultimate form of sacrifice, the delivering of our own will and motives to Him.
This is quite clear from the explanation of the Chezkuni. When he adds the thought that blending the sacred with the unbidden creates chillul HaShem - when one fails to impart holiness - and that this blocks the sense of the sacred, I found an illustration of this. When I asked the referring therapist why she was making such as issue of the matter and not just leaving it out of the therapy, her insightful (and perhaps spiritually oriented) response was that she felt strongly that trying to manufacture a concoction of disparate faiths would end up embarrassing the man's son, and humiliating the man among his peers and family. "There is nothing religious about making a fool of yourself", she asserted.
Real religion is the only real thing. Let's keep it real and do it right.
Please join my family in praying for the recovery of my son Yosef Ezra ben Devora. Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 10:27 PM
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