Shabbat Parashat Emor - 5786

Shabbat Parashat Emor - 5786

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Speak to Aharon and to his sons that they keep themselves apart from the holy

  things of the children of Israel and do not profane My holy name which these

  sanctify to Me, I am Hashem. [Vayikra 22:2]

The words "I am Hashem" or something very similar appear very regularly after various commandments in the last couple weekly portions and again this week. But they don't appear after every command. Why is there so much repetition, and why only on some commandments and not others? What is the relationship between these and Shemot [20:2], the first of the Aseret HaDibrot?

In looking for commonality across verses that have this phrase and differences from verses that do not, we find that many of the ones that do appear to be somewhat generic, and the ones that do not contain the phrase are more specific. But there are enough exceptions that this does not seem to be the rule. They do not seem to be grouped such that there would be only one "I am Hashem" for a set of similar commandments, nor for similar applicable times.

Most of the commentators appear to treat each instance separately, giving a reason for a few of them, but not directly addressing our questions. Rashi, for example, says that the instance in 22:3 means "I am everywhere", in 22:30 means "know Who issued the decree", and in 22:33 means "trustworthy to pay reward". Torah Temimah on 22:3 says it means that He is God in every place, and in 22:9 he says that it is an emphasis that when a human king issues a decree, he may or may not fulfill it, but when God issues a decree it will be fulfilled. Sforno in 24:22 explains that the meaning it that God is the God of the native born Israelite and also the convert. But other than to imply that our questions are without meaning, that in fact each use of our phrase is limited only to that instance, we do not find in the commentators a general reasoning, so we must look for similarities to other topic areas.

The Ten Commandments begin [Shemot 20:2] "anochi Hashem Elokeicha", I am Hashem your God. Rav Hirsch points out that all of our verses use the word "ani" rather than "anochi" even though both mean the word "I". He explains that "ani" means the speaker as differentiated from the listener, but that "anochi" means the speaker as closely related to the listener, that there is some special attachment. We might understand this as God saying, I am specifically your God because you are the most like me of all My creations. Since all humans are of a class, how would this apply only to Israel? Holyness, sanctification, setting aside, all based on the word "kodesh". God told us that we must be holy because He is holy and we are to be like Him.

Taking this a step further, all the commandments in Tazria-Metzorah, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim and Emor that have some form of our phrase seem to be dealing with rules for Israel to maintain that high level of holiness. All the mitzvot are valid commands, all are necessary for us to live in God's world, but those with "I am Hashem" in some form or other, have one extra result, that of being kodesh. An example would be verse 20:7, "you shall sanctify yourselves and you will be holy, for I am Hashem your God" to which Torat Kohanim says "if you sanctify yourselves I will consider it as if you have sanctified Me."

We sanctify God by performing any and all of His commandments. Some of them are more for our benefit, and some are specifically for that sanctification.