Shlomo's Thoughts on the Torah

When blessing a holiday, we recite the blessing that God sanctifies Israel and the time. This is to teach us that God gave us the ability to set the calendar & He will abide by our decisions. It is a partnership.

The way to sanctify God's name is to do something moral and/or ethical in his name. It is not necessarily an obvious commandment. It could be giving a grieving grandmother gloves on a cold night.

Throughout the Torah education of our youth is stressed. We have to teach them the Torah and why we do things. If we do not, then they will not continue in our path.

The conditions of the priests serving in the Tabernacle seem strange until we realize that they represent God to the people and the people to God. Our behavior should be such even when we are not in our house of worship.

The Torah stresses that it is not enough that we keep the letter of the law but the spirit of the law. We have to remember that the 1st Temple was destroyed because the Jews kept the letter of the Law but not its spirit.

The Torah specifically states that we must pay our workers when we say that we will. We are not allowed to make them wait for their money. To do so would create societal divisions.

The Torah admonishes us not to communicate with the dead. Once someone has died, we have to let go. They have transitioned from this world to the next. We transition to this world without them.

In Parshat Kedoshim we start with the commandment to be in awe of your parents but that the Torah is paramount. The Torah is emphasizing that the basis of any good society is the family structure. And that the leaders of the family are the parents.

After going over the ritual of the service to be done in the Tabernacle and later the Temple, the Torah states that in order to be holy you have to follow the ethical and moral laws.

This week we read how the High Priest was responsible for the spiritual well-being of the Jewish people. If he does his job correctly then we will not sin, even accidentally.

The most quoted book at the American Constitutional Convention was the Book of Deuteronomy. And it was the influence of the American Constitution that Israel became a state.

Today we celebrate Israel Independence Day. One of the things that people do not realize is that instead of crying about our situation and the effects of Antisemitism, we got up and built a state.

King Solomon chose an orphan to be the architect of the First Temple because he was the best. This teaches us that our lineage doesn't matter as much as our accomplishments.

It is no accident that the festivals that Israel Independence Day and Jerusalem Day are both in the month of Iyar. It is during that month that we mourn the loss of the Bar-Kochba revolt. This is God saying the redemption begins here.

Morality that is not based on the Bible is flawed. We can reason a lot but sometimes our reasoning leads us down a dark path and allows us to commit horrendous acts.

Just because someone has a lot of degrees does not mean that they have wisdom. They usually show their lack of wisdom when they take evidence and come to the wrong conclusions

Today is Holocaust Remembrance in Israel. It is one week before Israel Independence Day. It is not an accident but shows that, even though we suffered the destruction of European Jewry, we got up and continued our mission.

While going into the details of the offerings to be brought in the Tabernacle, the Torah reminds us of the laws of Kashrut. To remind us that our daily lives are what makes the big things possible.

This week's portion is informing us that in the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, we have to be precise in our rituals. That the service is not a game. We cannot deviate from God's instructions.

The first thing that a priest serving in the Tabernacle did in the morning was to clean out the ashes from the Menorah. This was a dirty job, Aaron would look forward to doing it every morning.

It is interesting that the Torah refers to Passover as the Holiday of Matzoth. We have to remember that the goal was to get Egypt out of the Jews. The Egyptians had inventing leavening.

When we put the three main holidays in an American historical perspective we can understand them even better.

The Torah states that we have to give an offering for an accidental sin. One of the reasons for this would teach us that while we did it by accident, we are still responsible for our actions.

More than we keeping our rituals, our rituals keep us. If we did not keep the rituals, we would not have become better people. That is what makes us special.

Ritual is important. The Book of Leviticus deals with the ritual of the Tabernacle and the bringing of sacrifices. But if it is not tied to morality, it is meaningless.