Shabbos Parashas Shemini - 5777
Shabbos Parashas Shemini - 5777
Rabbi Hal Miller
Everything that creeps on its belly, and everything that walks on four legs, up to those
with numerous legs, among all the creeping creatures that creep upon the earth, you
may not eat them, for they are an abomination. [Vayikra 11:42]
We are halfway through another cycle of reading the Torah. In Gemora Kiddushin [30a]
we read, "
The
y
counted all the letters of the Torah. They used to say, the vav of gachon
[Vayikra 11:42] is half of the letters of a Torah scroll." A little more investigation shows
that an earlier verse, Vayikra 10:16, is halfway through the total number of words with
"darosh darash". Next week in Tazria, the verse Vayikra 13:33, "vehisgalach", is halfway
through the count of verses. Other than celebrating the halfway point, are there other
lessons we can learn from these bits of information?
The first half of the Torah includes Creation, the stories of the beginnings of society in all
its infancy, the foundations and history of mankind and the world in general. The second
half of the Torah deals with the maturation of humanity, especially in the leadership of the
nation of Israel, and the growth of the bond Israel has with G-d. In other words, we are at
a point of change in the Chumash.
We see some more concrete examples in our portion this week. Just before this midpoint,
Moshe was angry at Aharon and his sons, but just at this point, Moshe acknowledges that
in fact they were correct, and he was the one who was wrong. That may be the biggest sign
of maturation that any human can attain, admitting oneself to be wrong. Up to our verse,
the Torah discusses laws of animals and creeping things, but from this point, the discussion
turns to purification of people. Even within our verse itself is an indication of this change, in
that it begins speaking about creeping things, then moves to four-legged animals.
The Gemora in Yevamos [114a] writes about our verse that it teaches the law that one is
prohibited from feeding non-kosher food to a child. This is an expansion outside of oneself
to think of others, another sign of maturation.
Pesach has passed. We have reached a point where we need to begin applying our
freedom to bigger and better things. It is time to reflect on our personal histories, and apply
those lessons to the things that Hashem asked us, as Jews, to do. In a little over a month,
we renew our receipt of the Torah. Let us begin preparing now.