Emor: “The very ‘I’ is called into question“

In this week’s parshah, Emor, the Torah interrupts its enumeration of the Jewish holidays with a strange interlude. Just before instructing the Israelites to observe Rosh HaShanah, God commands, “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field [pe’at sadcha] . . . you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.” The Rabbis, always sensitive to surprising textual juxtaposition, ask about the relationship between this agricultural law of pe’ah and the penitential holiday of Rosh HaShanah. In response, they cite a divine prophecy from the Book of Jeremiah: “I will make an end of all the nations among which I have dispersed you; but I will not make an end of you. [However] I will not leave you unpunished, but will chastise you in measure.” The Rabbis note that the phrases “you shall not reap all the way” (“lo tekhaleh”) and “make an end of” (“e’aseh khalah”) share the root “kh-l-h” (“destroy” or “finish”), and argue that this similarity indicates a causal relationship: It is because the other nations harvest the corners of their fields that God will destroy them, whereas the Israelites will be spared the full force of God’s punishment—determined on Rosh HaShanah—in recognition of their observance of pe’ah and other agricultural laws… read the rest at Jewish Currents!