Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld
April 28, 2023 • 8 Iyar 5783 • Parshas Acharei-Kedoshim (Lev 16-19) • The 23rd Day of the Omer
The purpose of this blog is a gilded Shabbat table. Please share.
But doesn't it rather beg the question - which is a good one for your table - what's holiness?
I assume that any card-carrying rabbi could answer this question by simply quoting the first verse in this week's portion. It's a good credentials-test of a rabbi - ask any rabbi you want this question - What's holiness?
I do hope that the answer you'll get will be at least a paraphrase of Leviticus 16:1.
But regardless of how the rabbi answers that question, the next question is the real clincher:
What's the most important mitzvah in the Torah?
Is it one of the 10 Commandments? Is it Torah study? Is it Shabbat?
Your rabbi had better give you a three-word answer (or possibly five):
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR (AS YOURSELF).
That's what any card-carrying rabbi should answer.
But I would not necessarily expect every rabbi to be able to explain that mitzvah.....
How can the Torah mandate love? And what does it even mean to love my neighbor as myself? What if I'm not sure if I love myself? And by the way, isn't this the same as the Golden Rule? Who is included in the concept of "neighbor"? What if my neighbor isn't lovable?
These are good questions that you can use at your table. They'll love you for it.
Shabbat Shalom
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