Shabbos Parashas Emor - 5778

Shabbos Parashas Emor - 5778

Rabbi Hal Miller

God said to Moshe, Say to the Kohanim, the sons of Aharon, and say to them.

[Vayikra 21:1]

The Torah relates God's speaking to Moshe, and we see the word 'emor' three times

in the introduction to our verse. It is easy to understand the first one, as we know

that God spoke to Moshe regularly, in order to relate the commandments of the

Torah. He often told Moshe to say something specific to someone, be it Aharon,

the Kohanim, the elders, or the nation as a whole. But here, God told Moshe to

'say' to the Kohanim, and to 'say' to them. Why the repetition?

Most commentators find the answer in the rest of this verse, about prohibiting a

Kohen from touching a dead body. Rashi, for example, says that it means the

adult Kohanim are being told not to do this, and also they are being told to teach

their own children not to do so either.

The Mizrachi, though, points out that this verse is addressed to Moshe, thus the

first 'say' is directing Moshe to speak to the Kohanim, and the second is what they

should say to their children. In this case, our verse is really only a command to

teach young Kohanim about not becoming tamei, rather than both adults and

children.

Ramban bypasses the problem by writing that the earlier 'say' really means that

Moshe is to 'speak' to the Kohanim, and the last 'say' is what he should tell

them, thus it does not involve teaching children at all. Rav Hirsch disagrees, since

the Torah uses the word 'to speak' when it means speak, and the word 'to say' for

situations where it is critical that someone understand what was said. Ramban

finds a second reason for the replication by telling us that the earlier 'say' is directed

to the Kohanim, and the later one is actually directed to Israel at large, thus

the whole nation is being directed not to allow Kohanim to become impure. He gives

a third reason, that the verse is a summons, that Moshe is to tell the Kohanim that

they must come to him and hear, akin to the summons he issued to Datan and

Aviram, that they refused to attend.

Rav Moshe Feinstein finds a proof for Rashi, and expands it to a lesson in

parenting. He looks at the replication "Kohanim, the sons of Aharon" and asks

what the need was to repeat who Moshe's audience was to be. If they are one

and the same, then who said anything about children? He answers that the

command is for the adult Kohanim directly, to make them role models for their

youngsters. Children learn from what they see rather than what they are told,

so our verse is God's command to Moshe to make sure the adults are actively

doing right, so their children will see the importance the parents place on

observing the Torah. In Rav Moshe's explanation, the earlier 'say' refers to what

Moshe will tell the adult Kohanim, and the later 'say' refers to those adult

Kohanim speaking via action for the benefit of their children.

The lesson is that Torah observance requires an active role, both for our own sake

and for that of our children.