Parshiyos Acharei Mos - Kedoshim
This is the second of four weeks where 7 Parshiyos are condensed together. This week and next I believe in these three Parshiyos we suppass100 Mitzvos that makes a Rabbi decide which ones he covers and which ones not. That goes directly against what we relearned in Chapter 2 of Perkei Avos that one should be careful with ‘simple Mitzvos’ vs. major Mitzvos as one does not know the reward of the simple ones vs. the major ones like forbidden relationships, Shabbos, Kashrus, etc.
Coming up this week is the Mitzvah of honoring parents, fear the L-RD and loving one’s neighbor but also minor Mitzvos of not making Tattoos and medium ones such as Shatnez in garments and animals so there will be a lot of skipping of Mitzvos and being a bit superficial in certain commentaries.
16:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD, and died; 2 and the LORD said unto Moses: 'Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the ark-cover which is upon the ark; that he die not; for I appear in the cloud upon the ark-cover.
Aaron is to appear only on Yom Kippur in the Holy of Holies and not enter the Kodesh Kedoshim on ordinary days but on Yom Kippur with the following atonement sacrifices and special garments.
3 Herewith shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with the linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired; they are the holy garments; and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and put them on. 5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two he-goats for a sin-offering, and one ram for a burnt-offering. 6 And Aaron shall present the bullock of the sin-offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself, and for his house. 7 And he shall take the two goats, and set them before the LORD at the door of the tent of meeting. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for Azazel. 9 And Aaron shall present the goat upon which the lot fell for the LORD, and offer him for a sin-offering. 10 But the goat, on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set alive before the LORD, to make atonement over him, to send him away for Azazel into the wilderness. 11 And Aaron shall present the bullock of the sin-offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin-offering which is for himself. 12 And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil. 13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the ark-cover that is upon the testimony, that he die not.
The incense shall enter the curtains first and before the Cohain Gadol starts rounding the corner to appear before the Teva.
14 And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the ark-cover on the east; and before the ark-cover shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. 15 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin-offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the ark-cover, and before the ark-cover. 16 And he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins; and so shall he do for the tent of meeting, that dwelleth with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 And there shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.
The Cohain Gadol had a replacement wife ready as he had to make atonement for himself and his household. A wife is a Bas or Beis and therefore he had a spare wife but the replacement Cohain did not have a spare wife. In the times of the end period of the second Mikdash, the Cohain Gadol was bought by bribery most died and had a rope attached to be pulled out. Rabbi Yishmael who was the assistant Cohain would take over. But once a Gezaira came from Rome that both he and Rabbanan Gamliel had to be killed and the Gezaira was confirmed in heaven and they like Rabbi Akiva and others died on Kiddush HASHEM.
18 And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. 19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel. 20 And when he hath made an end of atoning for the holy place, and the tent of meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of an appointed man into the wilderness. 22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land which is cut off; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. 23 And Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there. 24 And he shall bathe his flesh in water in a holy place and put on his other vestments, and come forth, and offer his burnt-offering and the burnt-offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. 25 And the fat of the sin-offering shall he make smoke upon the altar. 26 And he that letteth go the goat for Azazel shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 27 And the bullock of the sin-offering, and the goat of the sin-offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be carried forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung. 28 And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 29 And it shall be a statute for ever unto you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the home-born, or the stranger that sojourneth among you. 30 For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the LORD. 31 It is a sabbath of solemn rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls; it is a statute for ever. 32 And the priest, who shall be anointed and who shall be consecrated to be priest in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, even the holy garments. 33 And he shall make atonement for the most holy place, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar; and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make atonement for the children of Israel because of all their sins once in the year.' And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.
17:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them: This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, saying: 3 What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it without the camp, 4 and hath not brought it unto the door of the tent of meeting, to present it as an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD, blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people. 5 To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tent of meeting, unto the priest, and sacrifice them for sacrifices of peace-offerings unto the LORD. 6 And the priest shall dash the blood against the altar of the LORD at the door of the tent of meeting, and make the fat smoke for a sweet savour unto the LORD. 7 And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices unto the satyrs, after whom they go astray. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations. 8 And thou shalt say unto them: Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that offereth a burnt-offering or sacrifice, 9 and bringeth it not unto the door of the tent of meeting, to sacrifice it unto the LORD, even that man shall be cut off from his people. 10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that eateth any manner of blood, I will set My face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life. 12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel: No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. 13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that taketh in hunting any beast or fowl that may be eaten, he shall pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. 14 For as to the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is all one with the life thereof; therefore I said unto the children of Israel: Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be cut off. 15 And every soul that eateth that which dieth of itself, or that which is torn of beasts, whether he be home-born or a stranger, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even; then shall he be clean. 16 But if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh, then he shall bear his iniquity.
18:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: I am the LORD your God. 3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their statutes. 4 Mine ordinances shall ye do, and My statutes shall ye keep, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. 5 Ye shall therefore keep My statutes, and Mine ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live by them: I am the LORD. 6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness. I am the LORD. 7 The nakedness of thy father, and the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 8 The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness. 9 The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or the daughter of thy mother, whether born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. 10 The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover; for theirs is thine own nakedness. 11 The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 12 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman. 13 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister; for she is thy mother's near kinswoman. {S} 14 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt. 15 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter-in-law: she is thy son' wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 16 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife: it is thy brother's nakedness. 17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; thou shalt not take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness: they are near kinswomen; it is lewdness. 18 And thou shalt not take a woman to her sister, to be a rival to her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her lifetime. 19 And thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is impure by her uncleanness. 20 And thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife, to defile thyself with her.
All this incest is forbidden but not called an abomination or a perversion as it is d
one the natural way men and women interact no matter how disgusting and distasteful.
21 And thou shalt not give any of thy seed to set them apart to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
This is idolatry and forbidden.
22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination.
Man upon man as if the other was a woman is an abomination before G-D and the use of abomination is not simple. For brother and sister, daughter and father are gross and disgusting but within the natural order of creation and it happens among dogs and cats at times but people are above this.
23 And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion.
As file and disgusting as this act is, it is still using a female organ with a male organ but it is perverse and as with the homosexual relationship the interspecies relationships involve the death penalty if caught and if not from heaven.
24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out from before you. 25 And the land was defiled, therefore I did visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomited out her inhabitants.
Doing one or more of these things will cause the land to vomit you out.
26 Ye therefore shall keep My statutes and Mine ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the home-born, nor the stranger that sojourns among you-- 27 for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land is defiled-- 28 that the land vomit not you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29 For whosoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 Therefore shall ye keep My charge, that ye do not any of these abominable customs, which were done before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
All the forbidden acts are abominable but homosexuality is a particular abomination in itself.
19:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them: Ye shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.
It is not as easy as one might think. Rabbi Pauli goes swimming he wants to take a drink or maybe buy an ice cream. The Rabbi can’t be without his head covered and if he wants to eat needs to cover his heart with a T or V shirt some sort of minimum holiness. It is a minor skirmish about raising a teen forester child who normally runs around publicly with his Tzitzis down to the floor but wants to run around and eat without shoes, a shirt and Tzitzis. I might not wear a suit all the time in this hot climate but like the Mizrachi Roshei Yeshivas I wear a dress shirt with long sleeves and black pants. The Charedi standard is to make a blessing before and after with a hat. I wear a size 8 or above Yarmulke all the time for blessings. If one is working with paint or cement, he has a different dress code but one should not see ‘plumber’s crack’.
3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and ye shall keep My Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
One should not only honor his parents but fear them. For when a Gezaira comes into the world they are his last line of defense in the next world to avoid the worst part of the Gezaira. Disrespect for parents and tradition brings upon eventually disrespect from one’s children.
As with the honor of one’s parents in the Asera Dibros being tied to Remember the Shabbos the fear of the parents is tied with keeping the Shabbos. The following is a true story that happened at least 25 to 30 years ago.
A righteous man died and he had a few children. One son or daughter was traditional or religious and observed the Kaddish and honored the Shabbos. The other or the third neither said Kaddish nor honored the Shabbos.
One day the father appeared in a dream to his son close to Shabbos. He said, “During the week, I am honored as a Tzaddik in the next world. Every Erev Shabbos at candle lighting, tar is put on my face and blackened for you are not observing Shabbos. This situation can no longer go on. Either you shall start observing Shabbos or HASHEM will take you to the next world where I no long will be embarrassed and my merits cannot keep you alive. It went one Shabbos. The next Thursday night, the man had the same dream. The third week, the daughter (if my memory serves me) had the same dream. This time the story went to the siblings who were more particular in their observance of Shabbos and Kashrus. The daughter said to her father what do you have to lose if you observe Shabbos. [My memory is weak and I will try to contact a friend regarding the ending of the story. I know that either the man repented and observed Shabbos or he joined the souls who only get to rest on Shabbos in the next world.] The true story and dreams indicate the connect between parental respect – fear or honor and the observance of Shabbos.
4 Turn ye not unto the idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.
We have a problem today in not accepting a multi-dimensional G-D living and observing us and being invisible to us in three or four dimensions. So today the carved, molten and molded gods don’t mean much to us. In fact, except for primitive tribes, some statues of Catholic Saints, Hindu gods, etc. the majority of the population of the world has neglegated these idols.
5 And when ye offer a sacrifice of peace-offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it that ye may be accepted. 6 It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow; and if aught remain until the third day, it shall be burnt with fire. 7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is a vile thing; it shall not be accepted. 8 But every one that eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the holy thing of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from his people.
One has to make haste in observance of the Mitzvah. Dawdling is an affront to G-D. Similar to that one has to make Matzos in 18minutes and no long so it does not rise.
9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corner of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest. 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather the fallen fruit of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.
Strangers could be Giyorim like Ruth or out of towners that have no food on the way.
11 Ye shall not steal; neither shall ye deal falsely, nor lie one to another. 12 And ye shall not swear by My name falsely, so that thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
Lying is easy and to obtain money or property that does not belong to you. One might succeed in this world and lose out badly to the neighbor in the next.
13 Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbor, nor rob him; the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
There is a difference with a worker than with a contractor as he has a contract to finish.
14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but thou shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.
My wife and I are up in years and even though in our youth we heard and saw well, these words more and more apply to us. It is a foolish thing to do but nevertheless there are boorish people who think things funny. In the next incarnation or world, the joke is on them.
15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor favor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
I have a granddaughter in the USA who was BLM. I told her that they were antisemitic. She is a victim of the WOKE culture and we are not in contact.
16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor: I am the LORD.
From here we learn that Lashon HaRa kills three. The person whom the tale is about, the person who tells it and the one who listens to it. I will let you think about this one is getting his/her share in this world and two might get theirs only in the next.
17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.
Example if you see somebody doing something wrong one should explain to him his error rather than speak Lashon HaRa.
18 Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the LORD.
One should not hate somebody who wronged you that one takes vengeance upon him or bearing a grudge only poison’s one’s soul. Hillel was once asked by a potential convert if he could learn the whole Torah standing on one leg. Hillel answered what is repugnant to you don’t do to your neighbor and the rest is commentary. Go and learn the commentary. Rabbi Akiva said, “A great generalization in Torah is ‘love your neighbor as thyself’. What is mine is thine and what is thine is thine.”
19 Ye shall keep My statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind; thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seed; neither shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together.
As mentioned in the introduction this is Shatnez in clothing, plants and animals.
20 And whosoever lies carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, designated for a man, and not at all redeemed, nor was freedom given her; there shall be inquisition; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.
She is betrothed to either a Hebrew bondman or one has spoken to the master and contracted to purchase her (with her consent) as his wife. For if she were not betrothed, it would be his priority to purchase her freedom and no death penalty involved but perhaps Makkos for impropriety.
21 And he shall bring his forfeit unto the LORD, unto the door of the tent of meeting, even a ram for a guilt-offering. 22 And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt-offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned; and he shall be forgiven for his sin which he hath sinned.
The main reason for the Korbanos is atonement.
23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as forbidden; three years shall it be as forbidden unto you; it shall not be eaten. 24 And in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, for giving praise unto the LORD. 25 But in the fifth year may ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you more richly the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God.
Like the 8 days before the Bris the foreskin is Orlah so here with the first 4 years of the fruit until the 5th year it is Orlah.
26 Ye shall not eat with the blood; neither shall ye practice divination nor soothsaying. 27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. 28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor imprint any marks upon you: I am the LORD. 29 Profane not thy daughter, to make her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full of lewdness.
Each Mitzvah here is important but as I wrote I do not get into all of them.
30 Ye shall keep My Sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.
This chapter started with honoring parents and observing Shabbos and close to the end we are re-reminded about Shabbos. Shabbos is a treasure and honored by G-D but too easy to violate by simple human mistakes and errors.
31 Turn ye not unto the ghosts, nor unto familiar spirits; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
This is near the Divining mention previously.
32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and thou shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.
Who is considered a hoary head? A person who is a Talmud Chacham or over 70. Just by being granted life past 70 you have been honored by HASHEM.
33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. 34 The stranger that sojourns with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Be hospitable and nice to strangers and not become a bigot.
35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 And ye shall observe all My statutes, and all Mine ordinances, and do them: I am the LORD.
It is a Mitzvah to have standard weights and measures.
20:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 Moreover, thou shalt say to the children of Israel: Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3 I also will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile My sanctuary, and to profane My holy name. 4 And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and put him not to death; 5 then I will set My face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go astray after him, to go astray after Molech, from among their people.
After birth the infant was placed in hands over an open flame. This is not the same as a temperature control in the winter and heating a room but idolatry.
6 And the soul that turns unto the ghosts, and unto the familiar spirits, to go astray after them, I will even set My face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. 7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am the LORD your God. 8 And keep ye My statutes, and do them: I am the LORD who sanctify you.
Everybody refused to advise Melech Shaul before the final battle, so he ended up contacting the ghost of Shmuel within 12 months. The Malbim commentary explains that up to 12 months the soul is not fully resting in heaven.
9 For whatsoever man there be that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him. 10 And the man that commits adultery with another man's wife, even he that commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. 11 And the man that lies with his father's wife--he hath uncovered his father's nakedness--both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. 12 And if a man lie with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have wrought corruption; their blood shall be upon them.
We had these sins mentioned in Chapter 18 Parsha Acharei Mos but they are so bad they are repeated. All this is disgusting behavior but not called an abomination.
13 And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
This is so bad it is repeated and the word abomination is repeated and nowadays the wicked are prospering but they will be swallowed up after the day(s) of the Satan is/are over.
14 And if a man take with his wife also her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.
This is so bad that all must suffer a most horrible death by fire.
15 And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death; and ye shall slay the beast. 16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
In chapter 18 it is called perverse here the death penalty is iterated.
17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness: it is a shameful thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity. 18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness--he hath made naked her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood--both of them shall be cut off from among their people. 19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister; for he hath made naked his near kin; they shall bear their iniquity. 20 And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife--he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness--they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. 21 And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is impurity: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.
Again probably a long Drasha from Moshe starting with either chapter 16 or 18 and then this part given as a conclusion that the people will fear and remember as infra-family incest or rape is easy access to the nakedness and nobody will talk if he visits his sister or sister-in-law as they would if he visited somebody outside his family.
22 Ye shall therefore keep all My statutes, and all Mine ordinances, and do them, that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, vomit you not out.
The land was given holiness and had the property of vomiting out the undeserving.
23 And ye shall not walk in the customs of the nation, which I am casting out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
I removed the peoples before you because they were sinners therefore follow the Mitzvos and you can possess and inherit the land.
24 But I have said unto you: 'Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.' I am the LORD your God, who have set you apart from the peoples. 25 Ye shall therefore separate between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean; and ye shall not make your souls detestable by beast, or by fowl, or by anything wherewith the ground teems, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean.
Keep the laws of Kashrus.
26 And ye shall be holy unto Me; for I the LORD am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that ye should be Mine.
I am holy so be a holy people unto ME.
27 A man also or a woman that divines by a ghost or a familiar spirit, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them.
The Referee fell and blanked out. It saved his life. https://www.aish.com/sp/pg/Bert-Smiths-Scary-Fall-Saved-His-Life.html
After 500 years, my family’s return to Judaism.
By Yvette Alt Miller
https://www.aish.com/sp/so/After-500-Years-A-Return-to-Judaism.html?s=hp1
Growing up in New York in the 1960s, Dr. Joseph Maldonado had a strong sense of community. Both his parents had immigrated from their native Puerto Rico to New York, where they met and started a family.
Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Puerto Ricans are Roman Catholic, Joe’s family had a very strong feeling of separateness from the Catholic Church. His family identified with a strongly Protestant denomination, which was similar to the Mennonite community. Joe recalls his warm childhood in his strongly conservative religious environment, where he learned to have a “tremendous respect for Israel and the Jewish people as God’s chosen people,” he explained in a recent Aish.com interview.
When he reached high school, Joe attended a large public school in New York City and discovered that “the only comparable people who lived a lifestyle similar to mine was Orthodox Jews.” He went on to attend the City University of New York where his best friend was an Orthodox Jew. He then went to Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a division of Yeshiva University in New York.
Joe did additional work at Harvard, Oxford, and Dalhousie University in Canada. He became a urologist, and even worked as an assistant dean and assistant clinical professor at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, another Orthodox Jewish institution in New York.
From time to time, Joe was even mistaken for a Jew. When he was in medical school – one of only two non-Jewish men in his class – Joe recalls hearing his classmates talking about their extra jobs leading High Holiday services at various synagogues. “I said I was a cantor at a local...shul,” he remembers with a chuckle. With so many of Jewish classmates, it was the only way to be “part of the discussion” during Jewish holidays.
Another time Joe remembers visiting the New York Public Library as a young man, and being approached by an emissary from the Lubavitch-Chabad movement, asking him if he’d put on tefillin. Joe declined the offer but the encounter always stayed with him.
While building his medical career, Joe was passionately researching his family’s history. He’d been interested in genealogy ever since he was in high school and had amassed an impressive amount of research. “I was able to trace back both sides to the 1700s,” he notes, “and I became more and more interested as years went by.”
He learned that both his mother’s and father’s families had roots in Europe, and over the years Joe visited Puerto Rico and Spain, pouring over documents in civil registries and in Catholic Church archives. A major turning point in Joe’s research came in in the late 2000s, when he met amateur genealogist Harry Stein. A Chicago native, Harry Stein ran an immensely popular website called Sephardim.com, which contained huge amounts of information about Sephardic Jewish history. (After Stein’s death in 2015, the website became defunct.)
Stein identified dozens of Jewish surnames, and he told Joe that his mother’s distinctive maiden name was associated with Jewish families. At first, Joe wasn’t interested in hearing that his family tree might contain some Jewish associations – but he did remember Stein’s comment that perhaps somewhere in the past Spanish Jews might have been a part of his family.
In the Middle Ages, the Jewish community of Spain was one of the largest and most vibrant in the world. It was also one of the most threatened and complex. As long ago as the 6th century, some Jews living in what today is Spain found themselves targeted for forced conversion. According to historian Max I. Dimont in his book Jews, God and History (1994 edition), King Reccared forced as many as 90,000 Jews to convert to Christianity.
This experience of forced conversions was repeated at different times, particularly after 1391 when Jews were massacred by Christian mobs first in Seville, and then in other towns and cities across the Iberian Peninsula. Whipped up to an anti-Jewish frenzy by Catholic leaders, Spanish mobs looted Jewish property, murdered thousands of Jews, and forced many Jews to convert to Christianity under pain of death.
Throughout subsequent waves of attacks, so many Jews converted to Christianity that their numbers began to pose a problem for “regular” Christians, who suspected that Jewish converts were still maintaining their Jewish religion in secret. These Jews who ostensibly converted to Christianity – and who were seen to be maintaining their Jewish lifestyle in secret – were variously known as “New Christians” or as Marranos, which was a term of abuse. Fellow Jews sometimes called their co-religionists “Crypto-Jews” meaning Jews who maintained their religion in secret, or Anusim, a Hebrew term meaning “forced”.
Historian and former Hebrew University Professor Chaim Hillel Ben-Sasson observed that these secret Jews flourished in Spanish society, causing resentment among the “old” Christians with no Jewish blood. “Gradually Christian antagonism towards the conversos assumed an ethnic and racial character. The concept of the limpieza de sangre (purity of blood) barred the New Christians’ integration within Christian society. More and more violence was perpetrated against the conversos.”
In 1478, an Inquisition was established to root out heretics within the Catholic Church; it took over from an earlier Papal Inquisition. The Inquisition in Spain was only one such body; Rome and Portugal maintained their own Inquisitions too, for instance. The Spanish Inquisition operated not only in Spain itself, but also in its territories overseas. From 1481, the Inquisition targeted secret Jews, torturing those who were accused of maintaining Jewish practice, and burning at the stake anyone who was convicted of the “crime” of keeping their Jewish traditions in secret.
Thomas Torquemada, a sadistic and fanatically anti-Semitic Dominican Friar, led Spain’s Inquisition. Torquemada wanted not only to root out secret Jews, but to expel all Jews from the country. After his appeal to the Pope to issue such an edict was turned down, Torquemada pressured Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to exile Spain's Jews.
It was an incredible proposition: Spanish Jews were integrated and influential throughout the kingdom of Spain. (In fact, Ferdinand and Isabella’s marriage had been arranged by a Spanish Jew named Abraham Senior.) The royal couple agreed to expel Spain’s Jews, but seemed to waver when the prominent Spanish Rabbi Don Isaac Abravanel came to meet the royal couple in person, pleading for his co-religionists to stay and offering an enormous bribe to the king and queen. It’s said that the royal couple almost wavered, when Torquemada burst into the room, spouting anti-Jewish venom, and succeeded in scuppering Abravanel’s offer.
In 1492, on the Jewish day of Tisha B’Av, which marks the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, Spain’s Jews left the country. Estimates of how many Jews fled on that day range from 40,000 to 100,000. Many went to Portugal. Some fled to Amsterdam, Belgium, Italy, or to Spanish territories overseas such as the Canary Islands and Azores.
Tens of thousands of Jews remained in Spain. They formally agreed to become Christian, but many kept their Jewish practice in secret. These secret Jews were the target of the feared Inquisition. Any secret Jew living in Spanish territories overseas also continued to be hunted by the Inquisition, which operated in Spanish jurisdictions all over the world. Incredibly, the Spanish Inquisition only ended in 1834, after having tortured and burnt to death untold thousands of Jews and others.
In 2013, Spain announced that it would grant citizenship to descendants of Jews who were forced out of the country in 1492. The new policy garnered plenty of headlines around the world, and prompted Joe Maldonado to think once again about possible Jewish connections in his family’s history. “I went back to work on my mother’s family tree,” he recalls. He soon made contact with another doctor who was related to Joe through his maternal great-great grandmother.
This new family history went back much further than Joe had ever been able to penetrate; suddenly he could trace parts of his family back to the 1500s. He noticed an unusual feature. “There were all these things called dispensations for consanguinity,” he explains. These were permits that had to be sought from the Catholic Church if anyone wanted permission to marry a first, second, third, or fourth cousin – something that was typically forbidden by the Church, but could be waived with a “dispensation”. Joe’s family history was filled with cases of cousins marrying one another. “I couldn’t figure that one out,” Joe notes. At first he thought that perhaps his ancestors were trying to protect whatever wealth the family had by only marrying within the clan, but there were still questions about this unusual pattern of choosing spouses.
Another unusual feature of Joe’s family tree was the huge range of places where his ancestors came. “I discovered we weren’t just from Spain,” he notes. In many cases, his ancestors had moved from Spain to Portugal, and from there on to Antwerp, Amsterdam, elsewhere in Flanders, the Azores, and the Canary Islands.
“I started doing a little bit of reading and discovered that these were places where the conversos went to. I realized that the pattern of migration I was seeing was the pattern that fit into these crypto-Jews.” As he researched, Joe discovered the terms anusim and b’nai anusim (descendants of anusim). He was amazed to discover that even in the New World there were people who maintained Jewish customs and traditions stemming from their experiences as anusim hundreds of years ago.
Joe started asking his parents more about their family’s unique customs. He’d heard that some descendants of anusim continued family customs of lighting candles on Friday night – did his family do that back in Puerto Rico, he asked? Not at all, his mother replied, but the more he asked, the more he uncovered some intriguing customs that smacked of Jewish practice.
Some secret Jews had the custom of sweeping towards the center of the room when they cleaned the floor. Dr. David M. Gitlitz, formerly a professor of Hispanic studies at the University of Rhode Island, studied testimony from the inquisition, and noted that some Spanish Jews had a superstition that dirt shouldn’t be swept past the mezuzah on a doorpost, so they swept towards the middle of rooms instead.
“Then I saw my mother would sweep into the center of the room,” Joe recalls. After learning that this custom was associated with secret Jews, he asked her why she did that. “That’s just the way I learned to sweep,” his mom replied. Then Joe realized that his mother never ate eggs outside the home. She didn’t ever want to consume an egg that contained blood spots, so she’d only eat eggs that she herself had prepared so she could look for blood. By now, Joe knew that this too was a Jewish custom (indeed, checking for blood spots before cooking with eggs is a key component of keeping kosher) and he asked his mother about this curious custom too. “That’s because we don’t eat the egg like that,” his mom answered simply. “That’s what my grandmother taught me.”
Another family custom leapt out at him: “My mother wouldn’t mix dairy and meat in the same meal."
Another curious family custom Joe learned was burying people who’d died within 24 hours of their passing. His relatives then used to drape all the mirrors in the house and stay inside for seven nights, praying the rosary and receiving visitors. “Chairs were put out and people would come and visit,” Joe describes. By now he realized this closely echoed the Jewish practice of sitting Shiva for a close relative who’s died. His great grandparents’ lack of affinity with the Catholic Church tipped him off that saying the rosary after a family death might be a sign they were hiding something. Why would these ancestors – who claimed to be staunch Protestants – suddenly pray the Catholic way for seven nights after a funeral? “I thought they were sitting Shiva and hiding the fact by saying the rosary,” he recalls.
Another family custom leapt out at him: “My mother wouldn’t mix dairy and meat in the same meal," Joe recalls. When he asked his parents about this unusual tradition, they explained that’s just what their families did.
Back in Puerto Rico, he learned that his relatives had an unusual way of slaughtering animals that closely recalled shechita, or Jewish ritual slaughter. “I have videos of my mother and her sister explaining how they killed chicken and calves at the farm they grew up on," Joe recalls. They described using a special knife that had to be very sharp, and killing the animals with one stroke across the neck. Then they used to put rock salt on meat and boil it to make sure no blood remained. Although this method of killing animals differed from the way their neighbors slaughtered livestock, Joe’s relatives simply did it out of long-standing custom.
Joe also noted that many of his family’s names were biblical: “My mother’s brothers’ names are Carmel, Naftali, and Ephraim.” His mother’s family also seemed to follow a family tradition of naming children after relatives who had passed away.
One final family custom also leaped out at Joe as something that might have stemmed from a desire to hang onto Jewish practice in secret. Jewish women traditionally immerse in a ritual bath once a month. In Joe’s family, his mother recalled that all the women used to visit a local river once a month. He asked his mother if this unusual family custom had any particular meaning. “No,” his mother replied, “it was just to have a nice time.” The more he researched Jewish history and customs, however, the more Joe believed he was hearing about long-held Jewish rituals.
“I realized that, my God, these were traditions people were still carrying on but had no understanding as to why they did things,” he says. “They were still carrying on these practices, having forgotten and lost the original meaning of why they did these things.”
Officially, Spain did not allow Jews to live in Puerto Rico – though it seems that as elsewhere a community of secret Jews did manage to settle. As Joe researched, he learned about Alonso Manso, a Catholic official who wrote to Church Officials in the early 1500s complaining that the island was “infested” with Jews and received inquisitorial privileges from the Church in 1519. “He was so vicious that other Catholic priests requested that his privileges be taken away,” Joe notes.
One Puerto Rican governing official who was accused to being a secret Jew chose to flee to Spain and face the Inquisition there, rather than face Manso’s sadistic Inquisition in Puerto Rico. Despite Manso’s apparent glee at watching other people suffer as they were burnt at the stake, he maintained his fearsome inquisitorial powers.
In this atmosphere of intense anti-Jewish hostility, secret Jews in Puerto Rico chose to flee to the mountainous interior of the island to hide. The town of Utuado, along with Lares, Adjuntas and Jayuya have families with crypto-Jewish background. In Utuado, some sources indicate that the town even had a region known as “Sector Judeo,” or the Jewish Sector. “The people of the region are referred to as Jibaros, pronounced as Hibaros. Many believe it comes from Hebreos. It is said that many of the residents of Lares spoke Ladino.”
As he dug further into his family’s history, Joe found two relatives who were tried by the Spanish Inquisition. Tragically, one ancestor was burnt at the stake in the Canary Islands and one is recorded as having died in jail awaiting trial in Toledo.
By now, it seemed clear to Joe that his family were secret Jews. “I realized I couldn’t overlook this,” he explains. Joe was still a religious Christian. Learning that he was a Jew felt like an “existential crisis”.
Some of his friends advised Joe to not let this momentous discovery bother him, but he couldn’t share that view. Finding out he was Jewish wasn’t the same as discovering some minor pieces of family history: it altered his very identity and sense of who he was. “I just discovered that my ancestors lost their Jewish identity because of this horrendous historical event,” Joe realized as he learned more about the Inquisition. “If not for this, my ancestors would have had children who followed these traditions. Four or five generations back, someone knew that they were practicing something in secret.” Joe didn’t want to turn his back on that tradition.
He began reaching out to people involved in research on secret Jewish communities, and soon connected with a board member at The Institute for Sefardi and Anousim Studies in Netanya, Israel. They invited Joe to a conference in Israel in 2015 that was devoted to mapping the Diaspora of Spanish Jews. “Where did all these Jews go when they were expelled from Spain?” Joe asks. He was determined to be part of the group of researchers answering this crucial question.
While he was at the conference, Joe met two other Puerto Ricans. One was a woman who’d discovered she was descended from secret Jews and had formally converted to Judaism. The other was a lawyer who was also uncovering his secret Jewish heritage. “We were the three most unlikely Puerto Ricans,” Joe notes with a laugh. They each had found their way the conference after years of painstaking research into their family histories. To this day, Joe believes their meeting was “set up by Hashem,” using the Hebrew name for God.
“I felt like Richard Dreyfus in Close Encounters,” Joe explains about that conference. In the movie, Dreyfus’ characters and others all search for the same truth, using whatever limited equipment they can access. Dreyfus’ character feels compelled to create a model of a mountain whose meaning only becomes clear later on in the movie. “I felt like I was carving that mountain,” Joe laughs, “until I met other people who were similarly obsessed with their search, much like in the movie. I felt that 'Oh my God, I’m not the only one.'” A rabbi who was attending the conference told Joe that his and others’ searches for their Jewish history reminded him of Biblical prophecies of the lost tribes of Israel returning from long exile.
“I came back to New York knowing that I needed to make a return to my Jewish roots."
During that trip to Netanya, Joe attended his first synagogue service, visiting a local Sephardi synagogue. “It was a very powerful moment,” he recalls; “I didn’t understand a thing that anyone was saying but my soul understood.”
“I came back to New York knowing that I needed to make a return to my Jewish roots," Joe explains. He reached out to a number of rabbis and began working with Rabbi Peretz Steinberg, who was then working as the rabbi of Young Israel of Queens Valley in Queens, New York.
After hearing Joe’s remarkable story about his family history, Rabbi Steinberg suggested taking him up to New Square, a town north of New York City, which is the home of Rabbi David Twersky, known as the Skverer Rebbe, and his followers. A direct descendent of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement within Judaism, Rabbi Twersky is one of the most renowned and revered Jewish leaders alive today. That visit led to one of the most powerful moments in Joe’s Jewish journey.
At first, the Chassidic garb of Rabbi Twersky and some other Jews in New Square surprised Joe. It felt very foreign. Yet when Rabbi Twersky started speaking with Joe, he too was amazed by Joe’s family research. “I want to make this as a return,” Joe recalls explaining to Rabbi Twersky. He explained that he wasn’t an outsider who wanted to convert to a brand new religion. Rather, he saw himself as a long-lost Jew who was “coming home”. “My family are Jews who got lost along the way,” Joe explained.
Rabbi Twersky listened and then said, “This isn’t a conversion, this is a return.” Although Joe did eventually choose to go through with an Orthodox Jewish conversion so that no one would ever have any question about his Jewishness, he felt validated by Rabbi Twersky’s confidence. “Hearing Rabbi Twersky saying it was a return is sufficient,” notes Joe.
Joe started keeping Jewish holidays and other mitzvot. There was no synagogue in the small town where he lives in upstate New York, but he was lucky to find an Orthodox synagogue in Utica, New York, which was driving distance. He purchased a house nearby to that synagogue, which he maintains as a “Shabbat house” where he and guests can stay in order to be walking distance to the synagogue on Shabbat.
Embarking upon his new Orthodox Jewish lifestyle wasn’t always easy. At the time Joe was serving as the president of the State Medical Society of New York, and he often found himself at conferences on weekends. He managed to find hotels near to synagogues and to keep Shabbat as well as kashrut and other Jewish traditions. He also started learning Hebrew.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2016, Joe went through with his conversion. He already had a Jewish name, given to him by his parents: Joseph Raphael. He took Peretz as another middle name in a tribute to Rabbi Steinberg. Later on, Rabbi Steinberg realized that the day of the ceremony was the yahrzeit of his beloved grandmother Perel, after whom he was named. For a long time, Rabbi Steinberg’s parents weren’t blessed with children; shortly before her death, his grandmother Perel gave them a blessing, saying they would soon have a child. It seemed as if Perel was once more bestowing blessings, helping to infuse holiness into Joe’s life as he embarked on life as a Jew.
Joe Maldonado is unmarried and has no children. While his parents and relatives have so far not followed Joe’s path of rediscovering their Jewish heritage, they’ve come to accept this new facet of their family.
Joe’s brother is no longer living, but before he died, he started giving Joe Hanukkah presents instead of Christmas gifts. Joe’s mother is accepting and has even enjoyed lighting Hanukkah candles with him. Joe’s father was resistant at first, but Joe describes a phone call he overheard one day when he showed up unannounced at his parents’ home. His dad was listening on the phone as a cousin described how her son was doing his medical residency at Beth Israel Hospital. “Dad said, 'oh, that’s a very good Jewish institution – by the way, you know we’re Jewish... Joe did the research genetically and genealogically and we’re Jewish. You can’t argue with the facts.'” Though he didn’t say it
In the past five years, Joe continued to research his family tree and found to his amazement that both of the Puerto Ricans he met years ago in Netanya at the conference are his cousins. He’s also found some other Jewish relatives, including a rabbi living in Germany who’s a fifth cousin. He traced his mother’s family back some more and located a relative’s grave in a Jewish cemetery in Curacao. He’s also located the Ketuvah, or Jewish marriage contract, of his eighth great-grandfather's eldest son, who was married in the famous Sephardi synagogue in London, Bevis Marks.
Joe notes that the prophet Ezekiel is shown some old bones lying on the ground and is asked, “Can these bones come to life?” (Ezekiel 37:1) God shows Ezekiel a powerful image of long-dead bones coming back to life. “Then behold, there was a noise, and the bones drew near, each bone to its (matching) bone. Then I looked, and behold, upon them were sinews, and flesh had come up and skin had covered them over…” (Ezekiel 37: 7-8). Soon, to Ezekiel’s amazement, a huge crowd of people stands, made up of the bones that just moments before seemed to be utterly dead.
“This is my story,” explains Joe. “We are the descendants of the bones that were dust, that were long gone.” Each time he performs a Jewish mitzvah today, he is demonstrating that even a long dormant Jewish line has come back to life.
A few years ago, Joe was in Syracuse, New York, and was once again approached by a young Chabad-Lubavitch emissary who asked him if he wanted to put on tefillin, just as he’d been asked so many year ago outside the New York Public Library. This time, Joe replied yes.
“I thought this is probably the first time in 500 years that anyone in my family has put on tefillin.”
To date, Joe has found eight cousins – descended from his ninth maternal great-grandmother – who have also returned to traditional Judaism. “We’re coming home,” says Joe.
Hear Joe's story live along with three other remarkable "crypto-Jews" this Thursday, April 15, 8:00 pm EST at https://youtu.be/adGKx1ATKBY
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Toronto Market gets antisemitic graffiti. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304846
Covid falls to the lowest level in months. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304889
1500 Rabbis say J-Street has antisemitic Values. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304888
Orthodox Jew broke into ‘People’s House’. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304881
Missionaries try to convert Israelis. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304884
Yerushalayim of demonstrations/riots. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304865
Suicide note a forgery. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304844
CENTCOM Syrian missile incompetence. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304877
Israeli injured in NBA. https://www.aol.com/sports/wizards-rookie-deni-avdija-suffers-004240695.html
Have a healthy, blessed and peaceful Shabbos,
Rachamim Pauli
