Emor 5760 – The Call to be Greater

Parshas Emor. The Parsha starts with אמור אל הכהנים בני אהרן ואמרת אליהם לנפש לא יטמא בעמיו.

The mitzvah is given as a double-lashon, Emor v’Amarta. Rashi says on Emor v’amarta: להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים. The Gedolim need to look out for the ketanim. Seemingly the p’shat is that there’s an amira to the gedolim, and then another amira from the gedolim to the katanim. Which makes sense, but L’chora this is a din in chinuch, which applies to all of klal Yisroel, not just the kohanim. What’s it doing by kohanim?

The Tanchuma hones in on the double lashon, and says: Emor el hakohanim, זה שאמר הכתוב אמרות ה' אמרות טהורות. Again, a double-lashon of Amira. And the Tanchuma continues: על כל מה שהקדוש ברוך הוא מזהיר את ישראל בשביל קדושתם וטהרתם. Every time Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mazhir Klal Yisrael it’s for their kedusha and tahara. The Torah uses a double-lashon when it wants to emphasize something, and over here where there's a zehiros on kedusha and tahara, it says a double lashon of amira. Fine. But why davka Amira? Is there a relationship between Amira & Tahara?

The Etz Yosef, one of the classic meforshim of the Tanchuma, says the emphasis is on amira vs dibbur. Still unclear what the hesber is.

The Zohar gives a clue. It says amira is b'chashai, quietly, a whisper. As opposed to dibbur, dibbur is out loud, amira is b'chashai. And, the Zohar continues, just as avodas kohanim is b'chashai, so too the amira to them is b'chashai. What exactly is the Zohar referring to when he says that the avoda of kohanim is b'chashai. I can sorta hear the avoda of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, because there's no one with him in the Kodesh HaKadashim. But that doesn’t seem to be the intent here: It seems that the klalliyus of avodas Kohanim is bechashai, and mimaila the tzura of the amira to kohanim matches the tzura of avodas kohanim – The Kohanim are bechashai and the amira to them is bechashai. I want to understand the nekuda of chashai.

Rav Tzadok draws a parallel between a few inyanim. Between dibur vs amira, between torah she’biksav vs Torah she’bal peh. and also between tal vs geshem.

Tal and Geshem are two very different ways which Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mashpia onto the world. Geshem comes bekol, it comes bera’ash, there’s a strength and force as it falls, and we see it coming from top down, mil’mala l’mata.

But tal is the opposite. It’s almost unnoticeable. A person wakes up in the morning and the ground is wet. No kol, no ra’ash, and seems to well up mil’mata.

This difference between Geshem & Tal parallels torah she’biksav vs Torah she’bal peh. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave Torah, He was mechallek Torah into two chalakim. There's a chelek of Torah that comes mimalo limata, very much like the Nesinas HaTorah at Har Sinai: Hakadosh Baruch Hu came with kolos uvrakim and His tzivu’yim are top down, mimalo limata.

Torah she-ba'al peh is different. Torah she-ba'al peh comes keilu from what we're mechadesh. When a person opens up a Gemara, he reads this Amora darshen the pasuk like this, and that Amora darshen the pasuk like that. It appears as if it is our diburim. The whole Shas is a bechina of Tal, where it seems to have seeped up from the ground itself.

Rav Tzadok adds another kneitch. He says dibur is bekol and amira is bechashai.

Meaning, when a person speaks to someone else, the effectiveness of the speech sometimes depends on the speaker, and sometimes depends on the listener. When the effectiveness comes from the speaker, it’s because of the quality of their speech – they say it as clearly, as forcefully, as passionately as possible. They want their speech to be as effective as possible, to influence and impose their perspective into the mind of the shomeya.

But there’s a different mehalech – when a person whispers something, when something is given be-lachisha, be-chashay, the speech doesn’t carry a force. It’s almost inaudible. The effectiveness depends mainly on the shmiya of the shomeia. Inasmuch as the shomeya pays attention, focuses, tries to hear what's being said, that's how much he's going to be koneh.

These two modes of speaking, b’kol and b’chashai, are called dibur and amira, respectively.

We can even make this distinction within Mitzvos. There are mitzvos that are clearly things we should do or avoid. Gneiva and retzicha and znus, are clearly wrong, and Chessed and Emes are clearly right. We seem to clearly recognize them as having a meztius and being the dvar Hashem.¹

But then there are other mitzvos which don’t seem so obvious. For example, inyanim of tahara and kdusha yeseira. What’s wrong with marrying a gerusha? What’s wrong with being metamei l'meisim? There's nothing ostensibly wrong with them. So, why asser them? These inyanim are the Amiras of Torah. It’s the chelek of Torah that doesn’t force itself onto the person, but rather is a subtle call to the person be greater, nobler, more refined, more elevated than they currently are. That chelek of Torah cannot be given be-dibur. That cheilek is up to the person to hear it.

And if he doesn't hear it, he doesn't hear it! You can't give it bidibbur because that's not the emes of it. It's not bigoli. It’s b’chashai. It’s with Amira.

The there's a Gemara in Taanis. It says Rabbi Yochanan and Ilfas were learning together, and they both had a very hard time with parnassa and they decided together to go work. A bas kol came out and said whoever goes back to yeshiva is going to be extremely matzliach. Rabbi Yochanan asked Ilfas, hey, did you hear something? Ilfas said, no, I didn't hear anything. Rabbi Yochanan said, if I heard it, then it's meant for me.

Ilfas wasn’t wrong. There’s a derech ha'olam for a person to be asuk in parnassa. and m'tzad inyanei ha'olam, that's the right mahalach. A person is not allowed to say you're not allowed to go work, you must sit and learn – that is wrong. It's מגלה פנים בתורה שלא כהלכה.

It can’t be said, it needs to be heard. This is the cheilek of Torah where if your ear is not tuned enough to hear that bas kol, then you're right, it’s not yet for you. It’s for the person that hears it. That cheilek of Torah is shayach to those that have the shmiya for the whispers in the briya.

That’s the pshat in the Tanchuma – emor v'amarta corresponding to אמרות ה' אמרות טהורות. – על כל מה שהקדוש ברוך הוא מזהיר את ישראל בשביל קדושתם וטהרתם

Meaning every other cheilek of the Torah is dabur-dik, it's a tzivuy. This is what a Yid has to do, it’s the baseline. But the inyanim of azharas kehuna, tahara and kedusha yeseira, those are a loftier calling, asking someone to elevate themselves, those don’t come thru dibur. You're not allowed to. You can't. It's davka thru amira.

When Rashi says that the Amira is להזהיר גדולים על קטנים, the pshat is: A katan is mufka from tzivuyim. You can't be m'tzaveh a katan. He's not a bar daas and b'meila he's an eino metzuve ve'oseh. This means a katan is not shayich to the olam of dibburim.

The only way a katan does something is because he wants to imitate the adult. A katan realizes that a gadol is a chashuve tzura than him, and in his desire to be a gadol, he emulates the gadol. So in a sense the whole parsha of kehuna is a gadol being metzaveh katan.

Kedusha yesaira is a b'china of a gadol being metzaveh al hakatan. The person starts off as not yet holding at that madreiga, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is asking them to rise to the occasion. That's also the p'shat that the maaseh kahuna is b'chashay. The metzius of kehuna is a type of lifnim mishuras hadin. It's past where dibbur takes place and it has to be b'chashay.²

Similarly, we have the Aseres Hadibros and the Asara Ma’amarim. Aseres Hadibros are dibburim, it’s the inyonim that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was metzaveh. .³

But there were ten mamoros with which the world was created. Where? Where are they? We can clearly see the dibburim – those are the tzivuyim, and the laws we can clearly recognize. But where are the ma’maros? The teretz is they are as present in the world as the Aseres Hadibros, but you have to bend an ear to hear them. They are the dibburim that are in the world but unless the person listens to it, he doesn't hear them.

Klal Yisrael is called mamleches kohanim, which means the elevated inyanim of Kehuna are shayich to all of us.

If a person wants to know what a person has to do, what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is metzaveh him, Baruch Hashem we are over-qualified in that category. It's the dinim, the halachos, which we know already. Those inyanim that are assur, blatantly assur, blatantly chayuv, we talk in terms of to'eiva, zimma – the Torah uses coarse, derogatory, sharp terms because that way you understand this is assur, this is bad, this is what you must do.

But that is the avoda of a person on a low level. There’s a higher calling. It’s hard to hear the higher calling because ma nafshach, if the Torah did not tell me that it's assur, if the Torah did not tell me that I'm chayav, so why should I do it? M’heicha Teisi this is something I should do?

The teretz is, ein Hacha nami! If a person doesn't want to hear, he can just talk loudly enough and you won't hear the whisper. But if you want an aliya from the hamon am, it starts with detecting the lechisha of the Asara Ma’amaros. A person all the sudden realizes in which inyanim he is a katon and that there's a da'as gadol omed al gabav, he gets a sense that he could be greater, he hears the call to become a gadol. If a person wants to שטעל זיך צו he has to strain to hear.

A person learns a parsha and Kedoshim Tihyu. So the first thing the eyes jump to is the l'ma'aseh – okay do this, don't do this. But a person who's out for the whisper hears in Kedoshim Tihyu the Ki Kadosh Ani. I'm kadosh so you can be like me.

The Zohar starts off the parsha here with אמור ופתח ההוא כהנא מה רב טובך אשר צפנת ליראיך החוסים בך.

The real tov in the world is hidden. When the person asks, "Where is the tov?" The tov is not what's in front of your eyes, the tov is always which is tzafun. And the chelek that's tzafun, no one's going to tell it to you, no one's going to ram it down your throat, and no one can force you to do it. You can't, because then it becomes diburim.

I have to listen with sensitivity. אמרות ה' אמרות טהורות. There’s gadlus calling, a bigger version of you waiting, but it doesn’t come from the obvious dibburim in the briya. The real tochen of the briya is hidden in the ma'amarim.

When the person is ready toשטעלט זיך צו and embrace the higher calling, that's when he’s zocha to the רב טוב אשר צפנת ליראיך.

Good Shabbos!