Parashat Kedoshim
May 6, 2022 | 5 Iyyar 5782
Torah: Leviticus 19:1-20:27 | Triennial: 19:15-20:27
Haftarah: Amos 9:7-15
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In this week's Torah Sparks, you'll find a D'var Torah on the Parashah by Ilana Kurshan called "How Old is Old?", Vered Hollander-Goldfarb poses questions titled "Plugging the Loophole" and Bex Stern Rosenblatt writes a dvar haftara called "Perspective".
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How OId is Old?
Ilana Kurshan
Most public buses in Israel feature a sign that quotes from a verse in this week’s parashah: “You shall rise before the aged'' (Leviticus 19:32). The sign is intended as a reminder that if an elderly person boards the bus, a younger person who is already seated should offer to give up his or her seat. The use of this verse in such a context suggests that old age is a time of increasing frailty, and thus the elderly should be offered the opportunity to sit and rest while traveling across town. But the Talmudic discussion of this verse presents a deeper understanding of the commandment to rise before the aged, offering a new way to think about how we regard those in our society who are advanced in years.
The Talmud in tractate Kidushin (32b) discusses the implications of the commandment to stand before the aged as it appears in full in a single verse from our parashah: “You shall rise before the aged and show reverence to the old, you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.” The rabbis question whether the commandment applies in all contexts – is it necessary to stand before an elderly person if the encounter takes place in a bathroom, or in a public bathhouse? To answer this question, they draw on the middle of the verse, which mandates showing reverence. The rabbis explain that the mitzvah of standing applies only in a “place of reverence,” unlike a bathroom or bathhouse, which is a private place. In the bathroom, we are all just people, regardless of our age and stature; most of us would rather be anonymous. To stand before an elderly person in such a setting is inappropriate, as it is more likely to embarrass that person than to accord respect. According to this understanding, the commandment to stand before the elderly is not about the physical frailty that comes with age, but about the respect we accord to those more advanced in years.
Leaving the bathroom question aside, the rabbis further inquire whether we are permitted to close our eyes if we see an elderly person approaching. What if we wish to avoid the awkwardness of displaying reverence? Can we just look the other way and pretend not to see that person, or even turn a sharp corner to avoid the encounter altogether? The rabbis insist that no, it is necessary to acknowledge any elderly person who comes within a four-cubit distance. As proof, they juxtapose the beginning and the end of the verse: “You shall stand… and you shall fear your God.” The rabbis explain that the phrase “and you shall fear your God” appears in the Torah in situations when only God can know what is really happening. When we stand before the elderly, we must do so with fear and reverence for the One who knows the secrets of our hearts; we can’t deliberately look away, because there is no looking away from the Omnipresent. This explanation suggests that standing before the old is tantamount to fearing God – perhaps because when we accord respect to the old, we train ourselves to act with reverence, thereby better serving God.
The rabbis question whether all old people must be treated with reverence. Rabbi Yossi HaGlili offers a fascinating answer: “There is no elder except one who has acquired wisdom” (Kiddushin 32b), implying that “elder” is a synonym for a wise sage. In the midrash on the book of Leviticus, Rabbi Yossi HaGlili further explains that the term for an old person, zaken, is short for ze kana hochma, meaning “this one acquired wisdom” (Sifra Kedoshim 3.7.12). According to this understanding, age is not a chronological marker, but a sign of sagacity. Rabbi Yossi HaGlili thus invests the rabbis with the esteem and prestige that our parashah accords to the elderly. No wonder, then, that the Talmud shifts from discussing the commandment to rise before the aged to discussing the commandment to rise before a Torah scroll. We stand before the elderly not by virtue of their age, but by virtue of the wisdom they have gained over the course of a lifetime.
If age is less about wrinkles than about wisdom, then who decides who counts as old? The Talmud tells a story about two sages, Rabbi Ilai and Rabbi Yaakov bar Zavdi, who were once sitting and studying Torah when the elderly Rabbi Shimon bar Abba passed by. They stood up before him in reverence. Rabbi Shimon bar Abba responded by rebuking them, insisting that they were wrong on two counts: “First, you are Torah scholars, and I am just an associate [haver]. And furthermore, does the Torah stand before those who study it?” (Kiddushin 33b). Rabbi Shimon bar Abba is offended; why should the students stand before him just because of his age? What matters is not age, but wisdom, and they have acquired more wisdom than he. Moreover, anyone who is engaged in Torah study is considered like a Torah scroll, and the Torah does not stand before those who study it. In a parallel text in the Jerusalem Talmud (Bikkurim 3.3 [65c]), Rabbi Shimon bar Abba insists “I am not old,” and tells the pair of scholars, “Does the Torah stand before its son?” – implying that wisdom essentially inverts chronological age. Older does not necessarily mean wiser, but wisdom effectively makes you older.
Rabbi Shimon bar Abba insists that the pair of younger scholars should not rise for him, because they are the greater scholars in spite of their youth. Moreover, he declares that he, himself, is not old, because he still has so much more to learn. In a recent book about aging in rabbinic literature, Mira Balberg and Haim Weiss discuss the “ethos of Torah learning as an anti-aging mechanism,” whereby a continued engagement with Torah ensures that the scholar remains young, while also warding off the Angel of Death (see Balberg and Weiss, When Near Becomes Far [Oxford University Press, 2021]). But what is true of Torah learning is perhaps true of other intellectual activity as well. So long as we remain animated and engaged by all that we have left to learn, we will retain some of the vigor of youth in spite of the infirmities of age.
I like to imagine that one day, when I am older and more wrinkled, I will board a bus carrying a heavy volume of Talmud, and a young person will offer me a seat. I won’t take it for myself, but perhaps I’ll take it for the sake of Torah – so that I might open the volume of Talmud and sink into my seat and learn.
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Plugging the Loophole
Vered Hollander-Goldfarb
This parashah is one of the concentrations of mitzvot (50+) found in the Torah.
Text: Vayikra 19:1-2
1And the Lord spoke to Moshe, saying, 2“Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy/consecrated, for I the Lord your God am holy.
- Moshe is instructed to speak this parashah to the entire congregation. Why do you think that this parashah should be addressed to all the people?
- How can a person be holy/consecrated? What is the reason given for the instruction to be holy? How does that impact your understanding of what might be expected?
- Is this a mitzvah for the community or an individual? How might this look in practice in both situations?
- Should v.2 be counted as a mitzvah? How does it relate to the more than 50 mitzvot that follow?
Commentary: Rashi Vayikra 19:2
Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel – This teaches that this section was proclaimed in full assembly because most of the fundamental teachings of the Torah are dependent on it.
- According to Rashi, why was this parashah told to the entire congregation? How would the experience differ when hearing it from Moshe vs. hearing it from a leader that learned it from Moshe?
Commentary: Rashbam Vayikra 19:2
You shall be holy - because He gave many mitzvot [in the following verses:] they were exhorted to make themselves holy and observe them.
- According to Rashbam, what is the relationship of this pasuk to what follows?
- Is this pasuk a mitzvah?
Commentary: Ramban Vayikra 19:2
…The meaning thereof is as follows: The Torah has admonished us against immorality and forbidden foods but permitted sexual intercourse between man and his wife, and the eating of [certain] meat and wine. If so, a man of desire could consider this to be a permission to be passionately addicted to sexual intercourse with his wife or many wives, and be among winebibbers, among gluttonous eaters of meat, and speak freely all profanities, since this prohibition has not been [expressly] mentioned in the Torah, and thus he will become an ignoble person within the permissible realm of the Torah! Therefore, after having listed the matters which He prohibited altogether, Scripture followed them up with a general command that we practice moderation even in matters which are permitted…
- According to Ramban, what does the mitzvah of “you shall be holy” ask us to do?
- Why has the Torah not specified prohibitions regarding the aspects of life that Ramban gives as examples of falling under “you shall be holy?” What life situations might you add as being restricted by “you shall be holy”?
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Perspectives
Bex Stern Rosenblat
Our haftarah starts bold and bloody. We read. “The eye of the Lord God is upon the sinning kingdom. And I will destroy it from the face of the earth.” You don’t want to mess with God. We were reminded just a few verses earlier that this is God, the Lord God of Armies, at whose touch the earth melts causing all who dwell on the earth to mourn. God calls to the waters of the sea and God pours them upon the face of the earth. As Ibn Ezra notes, this is what happened to the generation of the flood during the days of Noah. However, we received a promise then. God made a covenant not just with all of humanity, but also with every living being from the birds to the beasts that God would never again cut off all flesh with a flood, there would never be another flood to destroy the earth.
And yet, we find ourselves in the Book of Amos, thousands of years later in the Kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BCE and God seems to be threatening us again with that very same sort of disaster, something that can make the earth melt. During the time of Amos, something like this actually did occur. There was a terrible, life-altering, destructive earthquake. The Book of Amos finds itself in the tricky position of needing to explain the earthquake. Why would God do this to us? Hadn’t God promised not to destroy the earth again?
Amos offers two explanations. The first is that, although we deserve such a punishment, God did not in fact wipe out the world again. The opening verse of the haftarah continues, “But no, I will not totally destroy the House of Jacob.” God’s promise against total destruction after the flood is reinterpreted here. God may destroy most of humanity but God is bound by God’s covenant to Israel. The worst punishment God can bring against us is only almost total destruction - a few of us, a remnant of Israel, must survive. God can’t destroy all of humanity because there must always be a bit of Israel that survives.
The second explanation that Amos offers is much less grim. The Book of Amos closes with a promise of good, stable, times for Israel. As Robert Alter translates Amos 9:13, “Look, days are coming'' said the LORD, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes the sower of seed. And the mountains shall drip fermented juice, and all the hills shall melt.” The flood imagery and the trembling earth imagery are still present in this verse. However, the flood here is an abundance of wine from an incredibly productive harvest. The destructive melting of the earth that God caused by God’s touch in verse 5 is transformed here into a beautiful image of lots of wine to go around. These images hearken back to the Noah story as well. After the flood, Noah plants a vineyard, drinks the wine, and becomes drunk. His youngest son’s actions in response led to all sorts of trouble. But here, in our haftarah, we are given the vineyards as a blessing. God will restore us - we will “plant vineyards and drink wine, make gardens and eat their fruit,” such that we will never again be uprooted from our land. With a change in perspective and a glass of wine, Amos gives us hope after a cataclysmic disaster.
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