Portion of the Week; Ahare-ked 17, 18-4, Rabbi Freed

it's been the old age is all too although millennium days hot shot it in the essays all it's all all week the bible is the synagogue with running commentary this evening we hear rabbi herbert has freed spiritual leader of the conservative congregation of temple beth shalom opec new york we read this week from the book of leviticus chapter nine became known as the portion which is called couldn't shame you shall be wholly this is a remarkable chapter indeed and it occupies a central position in leviticus and therefore in the prototype the rat was

rightly regarded it as the colonel of the law and declare that the essentials of literal rove will fail to rock or summarized therein the chapter deals with homeowners and the invitation of god as the command you shall be home before our the lord your goddamn holy dominates not only this chapter but the whole ethical legislation in leviticus and it is therefore necessary they have a clear understanding of the weird cornish holy and its ethical as distinct from its ritual significance you shall be holy though she moved to you you shall be only for our lord your god m holy man is not only to worship god not to imitate him his deeds must reveal that divine that has implanted in him that spark and make manifest by the purity and righteousness of his actions that he is of god

this imitation of god is in the time tuesday is held forth by the rabbis is the highest human i do be like god as he is merciful and gracious so we've all merciful and gracious scripture commands looking after the lord your god with the lord is a consuming fire how can then walk after him but the meaning is by being as he is merciful love the long suffering mark on the first page of the tower guard clothe the naked adam and on the last he buried the dead moses he heals the sick freeze the captain does good even to his enemies and is merciful both to the living and the dead these merciful qualities therefore a real links between god and man is never hear of the divine then in his compassionate moments that the shutters pointed out that the imitation of god is confined by the rabbit rabbis to his

attributes of mercy and graciousness well and this is that's not so much of abstract or mystical idea as a regular the principle in the everyday lives of men and women the words are you shall be wholly of the keynote of the whole chapter and must be read in connection with his various priest reverence for parents consideration for the needy prompt wages for reasonable hours honorable dealing no telltale there mr malice love of one's neighbor and core geometry to the indian equal justice to the rich and the poor just measures and balances together with the importance of everything and clean irrational or human holiness is thus obtained not by a flight from the world by a renunciation of human relationships of family or station but by the spirit in which we fulfill the obligations of life in its simplest and commerce details in this way

by doing just really love and mercy and walking humbly with our god is everyday life transfigured the rabbis say that man is created in the image of god and they use a parable they say that we are indeed like a diamond but we are heavily encrusted with a black carbon a coke so that upon looking at us you could see only the foulest nature of man you see how greedy is you see how small the patty hewes but we're told that if we publish this diamond with were able to wipe away the mire the coke the crustaceans that formed and then we can truly see that defined reflection the diamond which is every man's soul man is created in the image of god and was therefore be viewed by his fellow man as an object of holiness that amen is that defined reflection which walks near

and if we are reverent in our attitude toward none them in a very real sense we are reverent in our attitude toward violent weekend the godlike if we will adopt these principles of mercy of love and kindness you know we speak of holiness we should be holy because god is holy i read from the first verse of chapter nineteen i'm alone spoken to muzzle saints begun to jordan israel and center then you shall be wholly for i the lord your god and hold it wasn't mean reducing that god is holy what is god that we can save him that is holding well according to jewish tradition there is a fair fine distinction made between the essence and the attributes of god what god is the essence of got we don't know we cannot speak of god because the air speaking of him would limit him to human terms and we

say that god is more than a human but we can speak of the attributes of god of his relations with a man and we say not that a person should try to become himself a god that he should become again in essence of god he should become a deity an object of worship quite the contrary says we don't know what the essence of god is how could a man can to become that kind of god himself but on the other hand we do see how god works with him and we do say his relation with us throughout history that god is a compassionate being that has a love for the stranger that his love for the widow on the orphan he deals just we were all people rich or poor these are the attributes of god and these are those attributes which man can and must indeed adopt and develop and make of his own being so he becomes a holy god like being i read now from chapter four but cerberus for chapter nineteen

you shall fear every man new the hebrew for fear here means you shall stand in all every man his mother and his father and you shall keep my suburbs i am the lord your god you shall not turn into our idols nor to make yourself more than god's i am the lord your god you shall respect to the father and the mother and the same there's the show keep my subjects and once again the tension between the ethical and the ritual we don't distinguish between the two and in order to live a full life learned must be both ethical and have a sense of saying today four of the festive occasions for the religious and the ritual dies and in religion we do not distinguish between the two many of the beautiful settings and rabbinic literature regard to this commandment honor man's father his mother but none more beautiful perhaps the story of dumb donna is a heathen dealer in no jules an escalade

and he had a stone such as loser was required to replace one of the precious stones in the high priests the split a deputation from major islam came to him to negotiate for its britches and he agreed to sell it for one hundred dinners but when he went into it in a room to fetch the stone he found that his father was a sleep in the real drama came back and said he could not after all so last time the dedication offered two hundred dinars three hundred thousand dinars but and then soon after his father having like the arm around after the temple on the series with a jew but he refused to take more of the original one hundred dinars the first offer i will not make any profit from the water which i paid to my father he said filial reverence rabbis though was a decade of natural religion and therefore of universal application and his characteristic of a broad humanity they selected the action of the contemporary either as a perfect example of

filial piety you shall keep myself with the connection of these two precepts is significant even as on earning of pounds and stands foremost among human duties the sanctification of the sabbath is the first step towards holiness in and spiritual life for the suburbs is not only a day it's a station from work but the weekly opportunity for communal worship and spiritual growth these two commandments of place side by side in order to teach that the fear of parents will love honor of parents must not exceed the fear of god should they demand anything the country these guards more than the child must places duty to god before that of his parents and other words we're commanded to obey to honor too low our parents but suppose for example the apparent command the child to steal what's the child supposed to do it he steals

that is violating ethical more deserving of the time i'm violating religious law as well and if he doesn't then you disobey his father which will also stone simply be a breach a violation of religious law so rob was formerly the principal dave ray out all need to be read out of the show mean when one is told by a student to do something and one is told by the teacher which surely do and clearly the earl powell is between the words of the tower on the words of the fall if a father is supposed to teach as child but he does sense is only a student himself and the real teacher is a tone row or the divine the review of law says the law is the ultimate source of child must listen to the father in all things with the exception of the places of conflict where the words of the farther contradict the words of the divine law ethical precepts

and ritual are not only the province the functionaries of the tumble i read once again from chapter nineteen first two speaking to the congregation of the children of israel and saying to them you shall be called an ominous must become the attribute of all of the children of israel not any one person or not anyone class and there can be no such thing as a real intermediary who was somewhere above the people i just a little bit below got all people themselves according to jewish tradition made a worship god may commune with god each person himself as other visible on reflection and no one person is anything like a semi guard and no one person is to insult become an object of worship but rather each person killed himself communing with god and in his own way perhaps there's a hasidic story which is absolutely in many different contexts where a person was once came into a synagogue

and he wished to pry accepting didn't know how didn't know the words he had never studied he had never learned he couldn't read could read the prayer book and when people began to laugh at him and seal or gervase was a presence of the can do any kind of praying at all at all about you in russia over the priest rabbi worship in your place you yourself are an interest in you don't know how to pray don't worship what do you do you can even commune with god and the man remember that he learned once the two first letters of the alphabet all of that and he began to recite these words just these letters all of that all of that a beat of that it began to feel a sense of real communication and all the people who are standing around him also a sense that this man was truly communing with god the point of the story is that another person be learned or not each person with himself a divine reflection each person himself capable of communing with his god you have been listening to a portion of the week the bible is running a synagogue with rabbinic commentary this

evening you had rabbi herbert has freed spiritual leader of the conservative congregation of temple beth shalom mail back the week as early homo kings bay will raid the old line at a lot about it at a lot of yawn their last college as long will moy ian all my atm them my loyalties my alma well arnie and eh rocky are this the more you are they a lot of the data ma ia hoo ma lawyer by oz well olen even as auntie off lotto

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