Parshat Emor
May 13, 2000
Rabbi Yosef Goldberg

The Torah reviews the holidays of the year several times. Both Parshat Mishpatim and Parshat Ki Tissa briefly mention the three pilgrimage holidays - Pesach, Shavuot and Succot. In Parshat Re’eih there is a longer exposition of those three holidays. Parshat Pinchas contains an elaborate discussion of the additional sacrifices that were offered on each of the holidays of the year, including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Parshat Emor also elaborates on all the holidays of the year, with references to rituals such as blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, fasting on Yom Kippur, dwelling in booths and taking the four species on Succot. The parshah also mentions certain Temple sacrifices not enumerated in Parshat Pinchas, such as the two breads that are brought on Shavuot with their accompanying sacrificial lambs.

Immediately, after the rather lengthy discussion of the holiday of Shavuot in Parshat Emor, the Torah suddenly interjects: “And when you harvest the crop of your land, you shall not completely harvest the corner of your field; and the gleanings of your harvest you shall not glean. To the poor and the stranger you shall leave them; I am the L-rd your G-d.”

What is this about? Why, in the middle of laws dealing with the holidays, does the Torah mention the agricultural mitzvot of caring for the poor and needy?

Rabbi Eliezer Yitzchak, the grandson of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin, explains that Shavuot is the holiday of the giving of the Torah. Although this fact is not openly stated in any of the sections mentioned above, we know that fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt, the Jewish people received the Torah.

Rabbi Eliezer Yitzchak explains that the spiritual milieu necessary for Israel to receive the Torah rested upon two foundation stones: one, the drive for mishpat—civil justice; and two, the drive for tzedakah and chessed—charity and kindness. Without these two traits engraved in the hearts and souls of the Jewish people, no meaningful observance of the Torah could take place.

Therefore, in its discussion of Shavuot, the holiday of commemorating the giving of the Torah, the Torah mentions the mitzvot concerning the care of the poor and the stranger. These commandments are meant to enhance social justice as well as to inculcate kindness and compassion in the Jewish persona.

This is the real reason why the Book of Ruth is read on Shavuot, Rabbi Eliezer Yitzchak explains. “Why was this book [Ruth] written?” the Midrash asks. “Only in order to teach us how great is the reward granted those who do kind deeds for the sake of others.”

The importance of charity to the Jewish soul is highlighted by Maimonides in the laws of gifts for the poor: “We are obligated to be more careful with the commandment of tzedakah, more so than with any other positive commandment, for charity is the sign of the truly righteous man, the genuine descendant of our father Abraham, as Scripture states: ‘For I have known him [Avraham] so that he shall command his descendants to do tzedakah.’ And the throne of Israel will be made firm and the true faith will stand only by dint of tzedakah, as Scripture states: ‘Through tzedakah shall you be made firm.’ And Israel will ultimately only be redeemed through tzedakah as Scripture states : ‘Zion in justice will be redeemed and its captives through tzedakah.’”

Rabbi Yosef Goldberg

Rabbi Goldberg is a Rabbinic Coordinator of the Kashruth Division at the Orthodox Union and rav of Young Israel of Wavecrest and Bayswater in Far Rockaway, New York.