Seth's D'Var Torah

While reading my parsha, Kedoshim, I thought of several questions about the confusing words of the Torah. Thinking a little bit deeper, I realized just how much of the Torah is so cryptic that it could be interpreted many different ways. When I reflected further on each of my questions, I found that they all fell back into the topic of my portion – Kedoshim, or holiness. This couldn’t have been a coincidence, though – whoever wrote the Torah must’ve had a clear idea of what people would discover when they looked at the text more closely. Probably the most important idea I had from my questions was exactly what we can do to the words of the Torah to interpret them. By this I mean, how we can read its meaning in different ways so it can make sense and be applied to our daily lives.

I knew that many times in the Torah, Moses literally speaks with God, which, last time I checked, I thought was impossible, (I doubt God is a physical presence who beams down and talks to people). This brought me to come up with several interpretations: 1) When Moses “talks” to God, it really means Moses is doing what I did, reflecting on words of advice he’s been given; 2) When the Torah says God, it means something hard to put into words, or perhaps an elder or friend of Moses’; and 3) Maybe, the Torah uses Moses as a guide to tell people how to become a good person, because Moses has flaws like any other human. Well, these ideas were on the right track, but I couldn’t go anywhere with them individually, so I decided to combine them.

For me, when God and Moses are mentioned throughout this part of the Torah, Moses can be replaced with people, and God can be switched out for the laws. This makes sense, because at the beginning of my portion, you’ll find the words, “The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them…”, which are then proceeded by many different rules God has given to Moses. Translation: “If a person reflects upon the laws, and thinks about them for a while, they will find new meaning in them, to share with others. So think about these laws, and come up with your own understandings of them, and use them as your own moral guide.” But if all of this is true, and if when you think about something, you’re really “discussing it with God,” then was God the one who told me about this, when I reflected on the Torah? This was really interesting to me, and I decided to go back and chat with the Sovereign of the Universe a little more.

A lot of these laws are very specific, rather than modern day rules, which are very general. In fact, some of the instructions are so precise that they seem almost useless. Maybe that’s because they don’t pertain to us as much in this modern time period. Of course, we can’t just disregard the Torah – that would be a bit sacrilegious, wouldn’t it – so the only option left is to interpret these rules a bit.

Let’s start with this one: “When you sacrifice an offering of wellbeing to the Eternal, sacrifice it so that it may be accepted on your behalf. It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it, or on the day following; but what is left by the third day must be consumed in fire.” As you may have figured out, we don’t do a whole lot of sacrifices these days. While in the time of sacrifices, these specifics may have been important to the priests, we can still find meaning in them today. Maybe it means something about dinner and eating leftovers. Make the dinner so that everyone can enjoy it, not just you. Why? Because it’s being nice to your family. It’s fine to eat the dinner the night you’re supposed to, or for leftovers the next day, but if you eat it on the third day, you’re going to get sick. Although it doesn’t sound very important, it shows that most of these laws are rooted firmly in the idea of holiness – more specifically: respect, common sense, and geniality.

Let’s try something a little more serious: “You shall not falsify measures of length, weight, or capacity. You shall have an honest balance, honest weights, an honest measure, and an honest gallon.” Translation: “Don’t lie to your customers or cheat someone to make a quick buck. Be honest in your business. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do.”

You may have noticed that all of my interpretations end in me asking why we do these things. Well, that is because almost every law in my Torah portion is followed by, “I am the Eternal, your God and Ruler.” Well, if we are using God to represent laws, does that make sense? “I am the Eternal, your laws.” Nope. Maybe this phrase is used more for emphasis to remind us of why we are doing these things. It’s not because God told you to, it’s because it’s the right thing to do. Remember, about the time the Torah was written, Israelites were the only ones who thought there was just one God, a Sovereign of everything. That was also when they took the laws literally. The reason they followed the laws WAS because God said so. Now that we are bold enough to think of things from a different angle, we can understand that that phrase still means the same thing, but for a different reason. It tells us that all of these rules do not have to be followed, because there are no punishments, but they should be followed, because that is the right, just, and moral thing to do.

In conclusion, I would like to thank all of the people who supported me through this process and helped me write this speech. I’d like to thank my parents and siblings, for encouraging me over the past few months; Naomi Weiss and Cantor Luck for teaching me the prayers, blessings, and cantillations for my Torah and Haftarah portions; Marci Dickman and my mom for helping me write my D’var Torah; and Rabbi London for doing the service with me. Shabbat Shalom.