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American Heart Association

WERE FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE

ccording to rabbinic
thought, our behavior af-
fects us emotionally and
influences our character.
People know us only through our
actions; our innermost feelings
are hidden from their view.
When we take the time to per-
form a task properly, with atten-
tion to detail, the impression that
we give is that we do, in fact, care
about doing a good job. The same
is true about our ritual and reli-
gious behavior. When we care
about the mitzvot, we take the
time to do them properly; but the
converse is also true: By per-
forming mitzvot correctly and
carefully, we come to value them
more. The care with which we
perform the mitzvot raises their
value in our eyes.
For this reason, the priests and
their offerings had to be un-
blemished in every way. In the
Torah portion ofEmor, as in most
of the Book of Leviticus, the laws
of sanctity and sacrifice are dis-
cussed. In Emor the ritual life of
the priest, the kohen, is described.
The kohen must avoid all
forms of ritual impurity; he must
be ready and able to perform tem-
ple work at all times. Emor also
stipulates whom the kohen may
not marry, another example of
the perfection sought by the
Torah. Even the animals to be of-
fered had to be without blemish.
By seeking physical perfection
from the priests, the Torah mo-
tivates them to achieve moral
perfection as well. The impact of
the sacrifices on the spirit would
have been diminished had the
offerings themselves not been
perfect.
But how does the perfection of
sacrifices influence the rest of the
Jewish people? Although it is true
that the daily offerings had an
enormous spiritual impact on the
general population, the purity
laws did not affect them on a day-
to-day basis. Unless one wished
to offer a sacrifice, his or her state
of purity did not matter. Perfec-
tion and purity, in the ritualistic
sense, had little to do with the
majority of Israel.
It was the rabbis who took the
ideas of perfection, purity and
sanctity and brought them into
the homes of every Jew. They
recognized that the injunction to
be a "kingdom of priests and a
holy nation" needed to be made
into an immediate concern,
applicable to us all.

Ruth Bergman is executive
director of the United
Synagogues of Conservative
Judaism.

According to the rabbis, the
perfection sought by the Torah
for the priests and offerings ap-
plied to us all. Our homes are
temples; our tables are alters.
What we eat and how we conduct
ourselves need to be without
blemish, too. In striving, for holi-
ness we must seek purity in all
spheres of our lives. Fitness, the
definition of kashrut, extends be-
yond the food we eat. Not only
must our bodies be nourished —
by "proper," or kosher food — but
our souls need "kosher" nourish-
ment, too. Our money, our insti-
tutions, even our motives and
character need to be kosher. We
are commanded to behave in a fit
and proper manner in all aspects
of our lives.
The rabbis use the Cain and
Abel story to illustrate this point:
The rejection of Cain's offering,
they explain, had less to do with
the quality of the sacrifice itself
and more to do with Cain's mo-
tives and morals.
Both Cain and Abel acted
spontaneously and offered sacri-
fices without divine command.
The text tells us though, that
Abel offered "the choicest of the
flock"; Cain merely offered "the
fruit of the land." Abel seems to
have possessed a generosity that
Cain lacked. The rabbis picked
up on this and taught that sacri-
fice and prayer require devotion
of the heart. Motive matters as
much as the act itself; the two are
inextricably bound.

Shabbat Emor:
Leviticus 21:1-24:23
Ezekiel 44:15-31.

The daily regimen of sacrifices
and the details of priestly life
seem far-removed from our mod-
ern world. We do not need priests
to offer sacrifices and incense on
our behalf— we pray on our own.
The Temple no longer exists, and
the details surrounding the
priests and their duties, includ-
ing the physical condition of the
animals to be sacrificed, might be
perceived as irrelevant. But it is
precisely because we act on our
own behalf — we are, in effect,
our own priests — that we must
emulate the purity they were
required to seek.
Within all of us rests the po-
tential to achieve holiness in
every sphere of our lives. Through
the behavior and our motives,
whether in the synagogue, home,
or marketplace, we, too, must
strive for perfection and sanc-
tity. 0

