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Parshat Emor
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

"זב בקדשים לא יאכל"

"And You, with Your kindness, may You have compassion upon us and make us merit to honor the Torah and those who study it." (Sefardic Prayer for fifth hakafa of Simchas Torah)

According to the Reshit Hochma, the famous righteous figure of Hebron, the attributes of honor and awe are closely connected, as the verse says "to revere the honorable and awesome Name, HaShem Your God". In a similar way one is obligated to both honor and have awe before one's parents, compared to God in the sense that they have a cause and effect relationship towards their children, just as God has a cause and effect relationship towards all creation. Therefore, the honor given to the Torah and its scholars is an act of reverence towards the Giver of the Torah, HaShem.

In a similar way, the Torah commands to "have awe of the Temple", upon which are Sages explain that one is not meant to have awe of the Temple itself but rather awe and reverence towards God Who rests His Presence within the Temple. This obligation of reverence begins at the Temple Mount, the eighth level of holiness of the ten sections of holiness stemming from the Holy of Holies we have discussed in the book of Vayikra. This obligation of awe and reverence entails that one may not enter the Temple Mount with leather shoes or with the dust on his feet, or with a walking stick, or a visible money pouch/wallet. This law also entails that one may not spit there, except through a kerchief or the sort.

It seems that, just as we just explained, this attribute of awe on the Temple Mount also has connection to the types of people excluded from this location. These people are those who have impurity that departs from their very bodies, such as the zav/a, a baal keri, and a nida. Interestingly, our Sages learn that even a corpse itself, the highest level of impurity, may enter the Temple Mount, but yet the fore-mentioned individuals may not. The reason provided for this is that these individuals are explicitly mentioned in the pertaining verses, and that a fortiori (kal vehomer) may not be learned in this case from a corpse since there is a stringent aspect among these individuals more than a corpse, i.e that impurity emerges from their very bodies, unlike other impurities. Based on our previous understanding that the Temple Mount section (8th level of holiness) emphasizes the aspect of reverence and honor due to the Temple, we can explain that the inclusion of these individuals who have impurity emitting from their very bodies may be considered less honorable towards the sanctity of this site, even though their essential level of impurity is lesser than other impurities which are allowed within these boundaries.

In the past we have shown how the Torah's commandment to honor our parents also entails honoring our Patriarchs and Matriarchs, which also means honoring their place of rest, Hebron. Here too we see how the sparks of honor towards high spiritual presence in the Temple are essentially embedded in Hebron, the City of Patriarchal Honor. 

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #170

"I was waiting to hitch on a ride in Herziliya in order to reach Zefat (through a number of hitchhikes for such a long distance).. I waited for more than an hour, and now it was already past midnight... I decided then to pray intensively for a ride for 45 minutes... Just as I finished praying a car stopped and offered me a ride straight to Zefat..." N.A

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