Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s talks are known throughout the Jewish world. They combine chassidic teachings and philosophy, along with tips for a better life. We have collected pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. This week he comments on the Torah section of Emor.
"These are the Lord's appointed days, holy occasions, which you shall designate in their appointed time." (Lev. 23:4)
The coming Shabbat is one of the most special Shabbatot of the year.
A righteous sage said about the Torah section of Pinchas that it contains the power and spiritual emanations of all the festivals and holy days. He would say that everyone should visit him on this Shabbat when all these holidays, including the High Holidays, are mentioned, and their spiritual effects can be experienced.
Other righteous sages said the Torah section of Emor also mentions the holidays and therefore has the same spiritual effect. Moreover, it also has the spiritual effect of sustenance, because it mentions the Showbread, whose presence in the Tabernacle had a great spiritual impact to give sustenance. Therefore, the present Torah section contains emanations from all the holy days as well as being effective for sustenance.
We know that the holy Shabbat has an impact on the entire week and all the blessings for the weekdays are derived from it. This is why Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Riminov, during the twenty-two years before his death, would speak every Shabbat regarding the Torah section of the manna. His students and family members asked him why he spoke about it every Shabbat. He explained that the whole week is blessed through Shabbat, and the Torah section about the manna has the spiritual effect to give sustenance. If on Shabbat we discuss the section about the manna, our very words will cause a double-fold abundance for the entire week.
We know that when you think or speak about something, you are empowering that thing. As the Baal Shem Tov said, “A person is where his thoughts are.” If a person is in a study hall and is thinking foolish things, his body may be in a study hall, but it is also being dragged into foolishness.
We can explain the words of the Gemara in Tractate Yoma (39b) "In the year in which Shimon the Righteous died, he told them that he was going to die this year. They asked him, “How do you know?” He said to them on every Yom Kippur he sees an old man dressed in white and wrapped in white who enters with him and leaves with him, and today he saw an old man dressed in black and wrapped in black, who entered with him but did not leave with him.
We have a question here. Isn’t it written, "And no man shall be in the Tent of Meeting" (Leviticus 16:17) including angels, about whom it is written, "And the image of their faces is like the face of a man" (Ezekiel 1:10). The Gemara there offers the explanation that perhaps it was the Shechinah who entered with him. We have to understand who was this old man who entered with Shimon the Righteous when he was doing his service on Yom Kippur? Who was this old man who both entered with him and left with him?
The answer is: where a person’s thoughts are, that is where he is.
We find (Yoma 71b) that Shemaya and Avtalion left the study hall on the night after Yom Kippur. A high priest who was neither righteous nor a great scholar also left at the same time. Everyone accompanied the high priest as he was going home but when they saw Shemaya and Avtalion, they left the priest and began to escort Shemaya and Avtalion. The high priest became incensed, and he chided Shemaya and Avtalion “May the descendants of converts go in peace!” Shemaya and Avtalion replied, "The sons of gentiles who emulate Aharon, the first Kohen Gadol, shall go in peace. However, the sons of Aharon who do not follow in his ways shall not go in peace!"
The commentators explain that Shemaya and Avtalion said to the high priest that we may come from other nations and are sons of converts, but we are doing the priests’ work by thinking the special thoughts one should have on Yom Kippur. Since that priest was not a scholar and did not know how to direct his thoughts, their thoughts and his actions joined and connected together. This is what it means that God joins a good thought to the action. God takes the thought and attaches it to the deed that was done.
Therefore, everything that is read or studied, even if it wasn’t the correct time to read or study it, connects what was read and studied with the actual act being described, because of the rule: where the thought is, that’s where the person is.
According to this it is possible to understand why the week's Torah section mentions twice "These are the Lord’s appointed days." The first time the appointed days are mentioned refer to the actual effect on a person who is experiencing the festival. The second time they are mentioned refers not to the actual time of the festival but the time when the Torah section about them is being read. When you read on the Shabbat the Torah section about the festivals and the Torah section about the Showbread, it has an effect of bringing the festivals and the Showbread’s effect on one’s sustenance. Even if it is not the actual time of the festival or when the Showbread was prepared, their effect still exists today. This is why the festivals are mentioned twice - once to refer to their actual time and once to refer to when they are read in the Torah as in this week’s Torah section. Just reading about the festivals brings down their powerful effect on a person, even when it is not the time of the festival.
This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel