Emor (—Hebrew for "speak," the fifth word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 31st weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the eighth in the Book of Leviticus. The parashah describes purity rules for priests (, Kohanim), recounts the holy days, describes the preparations for the lights and bread in the sanctuary, and tells the story of a blasphemer and his punishment. The parashah constitutes Leviticus 21:1–24:23. It has the most verses (but not the most letters or words) of any of the weekly Torah portions in the Book of Leviticus, and is made up of 6,106 Hebrew letters, 1,614 Hebrew words, 124 verses and 215 lines in a Torah Scroll. (Parashat Vayikra has the most letters and words of any weekly Torah portion in Leviticus.)
Jews generally read it in early May, or rarely in late April. Jews also read parts of the parashah, Leviticus 22:26–23:44, as the initial Torah readings for the second day of Passover and the first and second days of Sukkot.
Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Vayikra/Leviticus (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2008), pages 147–73.
First reading—Leviticus 21:1–15 In the first reading, God told Moses to tell the priests the priestly laws.. None were to come in contact with a dead body except for that of his closest relatives: his parent, child, brother, or virgin sister.. They were not to shave any part of their heads or the side-growth of their beards or gash their flesh.. They were not to marry a harlot or divorcee.. The daughter of a priest who became a harlot was to be executed.. The High Priest was not to bare his head or rend his vestments.. He was not to come near any dead body, even that of his father or mother.. He was to marry only a virgin of his own kin..
Second reading—Leviticus 21:16–22:16 In the second reading, no disabled priest could offer sacrifices.. He could eat the meat of sacrifices, but could not come near the altar.. No priest who had become unclean could eat the meat of sacrifices.. A priest could not share his sacrificial meat with lay persons, persons whom the priest had hired, or the priest's married daughters. However, the priest could share that meat with his slaves and widowed or divorced daughters, if those daughters had no children..
Third reading—Leviticus 22:17–33 In the third reading, only animals without defect qualified for sacrifice..
Fourth reading—Leviticus 23:1–22 In the fourth reading, God told Moses to instruct the Israelites to proclaim the following sacred occasions: Shabbat (Sabbath) on the seventh day, a day on which no servile work was to be undertaken Pesach (Passover) for 7 days beginning at twilight of the 14th day of the first month. Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) 50 days later.
Fifth reading—Leviticus 23:23–32 The fifth reading continues the sacred occasions: Rosh Hashanah (New Year) on the first day of the seventh month. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) on the 10th day of the seventh month.
Sixth reading—Leviticus 23:33–44 The sixth reading, concludes the sacred occasions: Sukkot (Tabernacles) for 8 days beginning on the 15th day of the seventh month.
Seventh reading—Leviticus 24:1–23 In the seventh reading, God told Moses to command the Israelites to bring clear olive oil for lighting the lamps of the Tabernacle regularly, from evening to morning.. And God called for baking twelve loaves to be placed in the Tabernacle every Sabbath, and thereafter given to the priests, who were to eat them in the sacred precinct..
A man with an Israelite mother, named Shelomith bat Dibri from the tribe of Dan, and an Egyptian father got in a fight, and pronounced God's Name in blasphemy.. The people brought him to Moses and placed him in custody until God's decision should be made clear.. God told Moses to take the blasphemer outside the camp where all who heard him were to lay their hands upon his head, and the whole community was to stone him, and they did so., 23. God instructed that anyone who blasphemed God was to be put to death.. Anyone who murdered any human being was to be put to death.. One who killed a beast was to make restitution.. And anyone who maimed another person was to pay proportionately (in what has been called lex talionis)..
Readings according to the triennial cycle Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to the following schedule:See, e.g., Richard Eisenberg, "A Complete Triennial Cycle for Reading the Torah," Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement: 1986–1990 (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2001), pages 383–418. Year 1Year 2Year 32026, 2029, 2032 . . .2027, 2030, 2033 . . .2028, 2031, 2034 . . .Reading21:1–22:1622:17–23:2223:23–24:23121:1–622:17–2023:23–25221:7–1222:21–2523:26–32321:13–1522:26–3323:33–44421:16–2423:1–324:1–4522:1–923:4–824:5–9622:10–1223:9–1424:10–12722:13–1623:15–2224:13–23Maftir22:13–1623:19–2224:21–23
In ancient parallels The parashah has parallels in these ancient sources:
Leviticus chapter 24 The Code of Hammurabi contained precursors of the law of "an eye for an eye" in Leviticus 24:19–21. The Code of Hammurabi provided that if a man destroyed the eye of another man, they were to destroy his eye. If one broke a man's bone, they were to break his bone. If one destroyed the eye of a commoner or broke the bone of a commoner, he was to pay one mina of silver. If one destroyed the eye of a slave or broke a bone of a slave, he was to pay one-half the slave's price. If a man knocked out a tooth of a man of his own rank, they were to knock out his tooth. If one knocked out a tooth of a commoner, he was to pay one-third of a mina of silver. If a man struck a man's daughter and brought about a miscarriage, he was to pay 10 shekels of silver for her miscarriage. If the woman died, they were to put the man's daughter to death. If a man struck the daughter of a commoner and brought about a miscarriage, he was to pay five shekels of silver. If the woman died, he was to pay one-half of a mina of silver. If he struck a man's female slave and brought about a miscarriage, he was to pay two shekels of silver. If the female slave died, he was to pay one-third of a mina of silver.The Code of Hammurabi, sections 194–214, in, e.g., James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1969), page 175.
In inner-Biblical interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:For more on inner-Biblical interpretation, see, e.g., Benjamin D. Sommer, "Inner-biblical Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pages 1835–41.
Leviticus chapter 21 Corpse contamination In Leviticus 21:1–5, God instructed Moses to direct the priests not to allow themselves to become defiled by contact with the dead, except for a mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or unmarried sister. And the priests were not to engage in mourning rituals of making baldness upon their heads, shaving off the corners of their beards, or cutting their flesh. This prohibition of corpse contamination is one of a series of passages in the Hebrew Bible setting out the teaching that contact with the dead is antithetical to purity.
In Numbers 5:1–4, God instructed Moses to command the Israelites to put out of the camp every person defiled by contact with the dead, so that they would not defile their camps, in the midst of which God dwelt.
Numbers 19 sets out a procedure for a red cow mixture for decontamination from corpse contamination.
Deuteronomy 26:13–14 instructed Israelites to announce before God that they had not eaten from the tithe in mourning, nor put away any of it while unclean, nor given any of it to the dead.
In Ezekiel 43:6–9, the prophet Ezekiel cites the burial of kings within the Temple as one of the practices that defiled the Temple and cause God to abandon it.
In the Hebrew Bible, uncleanness has a variety of associations. Leviticus 11:8, 11; 21:1–4, 11; and Numbers 6:6–7 and 19:11–16; associate it with death. And perhaps similarly, Leviticus 13–14 associates it with skin disease. Leviticus 12 associates it with childbirth. Leviticus 15 associates it with various sexuality-related events. And Jeremiah 2:7, 23; 3:2; and 7:30; and Hosea 6:10 associate it with contact with the worship of alien gods.
Leviticus chapter 22 In Malachi 1:6–10, the prophet berated priests who despised God's name by offering blind, lame, and sick animals for sacrifice in violation of Leviticus 22:22. The prophet asked whether such presents would please an earthly governor.
Exodus 22:29 and Leviticus 22:27 both require a newborn animal to stay seven days with its mother before being sacrificed. Jay Sklar suggested that Leviticus 22:27—which required a sacrificial animal to stay with its mother seven days before it could be acceptable as an offering—to fit with Exodus 23:5, 10–12; Deuteronomy 22:6–7; and Proverbs 12:10 as showing concern for animal well-being.Jay Sklar, Leviticus (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 2014), page 275.
Leviticus chapter 23
The Sabbath Leviticus 23:1–3 refers to the Sabbath. Commentators note that the Hebrew Bible repeats the commandment to observe the Sabbath 12 times.Abraham E. Millgram, editor, The Sabbath Anthology (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1944; reprinted 2018), page 203.
Genesis 2:1–3 reports that on the seventh day of Creation, God finished God's work, rested, and blessed and hallowed the seventh day.
The Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:8–11 commands that one remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy, and not do any manner of work or cause anyone under one's control to work, for in six days God made heaven and earth and rested on the seventh day, blessed the Sabbath, and hallowed it. Deuteronomy 5:12–15 commands that one observe the Sabbath day, keep it holy, and not do any manner of work or cause anyone under one's control to work—so that one's subordinates might also rest—and remember that the Israelites were servants in the land of Egypt, and God brought them out with a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm.
In the incident of the manna (, man) in Exodus 16:22–30, Moses told the Israelites that the Sabbath is a solemn rest day; prior to the Sabbath one should cook what one would cook and lay up food for the Sabbath. And God told Moses to let no one go out of one's place on the seventh day.
In Exodus 31:12–17, just before giving Moses the second Tablets of Stone, God commanded that the Israelites keep and observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a sign between God and the children of Israel forever, for in six days God made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day God rested.
In Exodus 35:1–3, just before issuing the instructions for the Tabernacle, Moses again told the Israelites that no one should work on the Sabbath, specifying that one must not kindle fire on the Sabbath.
In Leviticus 23:1–3, God told Moses to repeat the Sabbath commandment to the people, calling the Sabbath a holy convocation.
The prophet Isaiah taught in Isaiah 1:12–13 that iniquity is inconsistent with the Sabbath. In Isaiah 58:13–14, the prophet taught that if people turn away from pursuing or speaking of business on the Sabbath and call the Sabbath a delight, then God will make them ride upon the high places of the earth and will feed them with the heritage of Jacob. And in Isaiah 66:23, the prophet taught that in times to come, from one Sabbath to another, all people will come to worship God.