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Chomer Lidrush
Ideas to turn your gears heading into the parsha
1) Why Jews Have Beards: When Youth is Not the Most Important Value
Tucked in Parshas Emor is the issur not to "shave the corners of their beards” (21:5). While halachic authorities debate the technical details — with which tools, on which areas, with what methods — Rav Ben Zion Firer z”l (prolific writer, Holocaust survivor and longtime rav of Nir Galim) drew attention to what I think is really a much deeper idea: the Torah’s affirmation of aging, and its sort of “resistance” to an idolization of youth.
We live in a world and a society where aging is hidden or viewed as a flaw. Yet the Torah insists on viewing things differently: The beard, says Rav Firer, is not a stylistic choice — it’s a symbol of age, of wisdom, of experience. It marks a life being lived, a sort of passage into maturity. To erase it in the name of fashion or vanity is to reject a Torah value: that with age comes kavod, seichel, and a reflection of divine character.
This is reflected by “Mipnei seivah takum” as well; age is not to be concealed or hidden, but honored — and the beard becomes part of that honor! The Gemara in Kiddushin 32b also reinforces this. Rav Yosef, though blind, would rise even for an elderly am ha’aretz, saying, “How many experiences has this man endured!”
The Midrash Tanchuma (Acharei Mos 12) adds another layer: the Torah distances us from the umos ha’olam obsessed with superficial beauty. To shave in imitation of those cultures is to adopt values foreign to the Torah’s emphasis on inner substance and restraint.
Finally, we see a similar perspective in the writings of Rav Kook zt”l, who famously wrote "HaYashan Yischadesh v’HaChadash Yiskadesh – the old will be made like new, and the “new” will be sanctified”. Our holiness does not come from brand-new innovation, but rather by learning from the “old”, using what was to rejuvenate how we are planting what’s to come.
2) Shiur: Why Smichas Yadayim by the Megadef?
The megadef in this week’s parshah is certainly dealt with thoroughly; first, he is taken out of the camp; then, everyone who had heard this blasphemy lays their hands on his head; finally, the community leadership stones him to death. What exactly is going on here?
We turn again to Rav Firer, who explains the puzzling inclusion of semichas yadayim in this process, and what semichas yadayim comes to accomplish in terms of internalizing something important.
Rav Firer highlights three important questions: why does a megadef specifically require semichas yadayim? We don’t see this process play any sort of role in any other misas Beis Din. Secondly, part of the required speech before a din tzedek execution necessitates the eidim and the Sanhedrin to absolve themselves of any weight or responsibility in this death. Why? What could they be guilty of? Third, we see that this formulation must be recited b’oznei ha’nidon. Why?
It's possible to err, even on the gravest of scales. Any court can make a mistake. Nevertheless, a Beis Din need not worry that they acted incorrectly and, God forbid, executed an innocent person. Why not? Because it was already guaranteed to them that such a thing would never occur (he quotes Brachos 6, Avos 3:6).
The rest of Rav Firer’s mehalech centers on the bottom line, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu becomes a partner with Beis Din. See the rest of his short piece for how everything ties in – a great source for a parashah or shalashudos shiur.
3) Rabbi Lamm: The Kohen Today
Kohanim, Rabbi Lamm argues, are born with an innate spiritual potential. Drawing on a chiluk between the “reason for” and “purpose of” mitzvos, he argues that simply having the potential for holiness is not enough to make a person holy. Kohanim – who still bless our kehillos and still receive the first aliyah – embody the distinction between potential and fulfillment.
"Religious life in Judaism is not a matter only of being holy, but of becoming holier," Rabbi Lamm teaches, seeing the raised hands of Birkas Kohanim to be gesturing toward our spiritual future. His 1962 drasha (also adapted in Drashot LeDorot) reminds us that every Jew possesses what Rav Kook called a "segulah kelalis" — an inherited spiritual predisposition —in other words, we are all like the Kohanim in that we have an innate spiritual potential. What makes us into a mamleches Kohanim v’goy kadosh is when we strive for the potential to be realized.
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