Erev Shabbat service 18h15 - 19h45
Parashat Emor: Leviticus 21:1-24:23
The highlight of Parshat Emor is arguably the "Parshat HaMoadim” (Lev 23), a discussion of all of the holidays that occur throughout the Jewish year. Notice that the sacred calendar commences with the instruction to keep and honour the Shabbat.
After a brief mention of Shabbat, we read about Pesach (Passover) and the mitzvah of eating matzah, about the omer barley offering that is brought on the second day of Pesach, about the waiting of fifty days until the festival of Shavuot and its accompanying offerings, about not harvesting the corners of your field and leaving them for the poor (a law repeated from the prior parsha, Parshat Kedoshim), about blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, about afflicting yourself and attaining atonement on Yom Kippur, and about rejoicing before God on the festival of Sukkot, shaking the lulav plant and dwelling in booths.
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Shabbat morning 10h00 - 12h00
This week’s parasha, Parashat Emor, continues the theme of holiness from last week’s parasha, parashat Kedoshim, as it applies specifically to the כֹּהֲנִים –Kohanim, the priests, the sons of Aaron.
In Leviticus 21:1, G-d speaks to Moses and tells him to inform the priests, the sons of Aaron, לְנֶפֶשׁ לֹא יִטַּמָּא בְּעַמָּיו, no priest shall contaminate himself to a dead person among the Jewish people. In the verses that follow, the Torah notes that there are exceptions for members of the priest’s immediate family who pass away, in which instance the priest may contaminate himself and attend their funerals and even their burial. The priest’s seven closest relatives are: mother, father, son, daughter, brother, virgin sister, and of course, wife.