What's Holy of Holies?

 Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 21, 2023 • 1 Iyar 5783 • Parshas Tazria-Metzora (Lev 12-15) • The 16th Day of the Omer
The purpose of this email is a holier Shabbat table. Please share.

What's Holy of Holies?

I hope last week's message about food resonated at your table. Because I'd like to expand it.

The broader ethic I was trying to get across is that we have to get out of the mental model that "spirituality" or even "religion" is confined to specific places (like a synagogue) or times (like Passover or Yom Kippur or Shabbat). It could/should be part of every bite of food!

Here's an angle on this topic that I never saw written anywhere, but I believe it is correct. Feel free to push back if you disagree.

Ask this at your table: In what way is lashon hara worse than murder?

I suppose for some people you may need to define lashon hara. It means speaking badly about someone - even if it's true. Even behind their back. 

So what do you think? In what way is lashon hara worse than murder?

Murder is killing someone once. Lashon hara is like killing them over and over, each time that story is repeated.

The point is that it's bad. And someone who is a habitual lashon hara speaker is creating great evil in society. 

That's the bad news.

The good news is that redemption is possible. If a person cleans up their act and truly repents of that wicked habit, they get to re-enter the "good guys" list. 

And here's the punchline - the Torah calls that individual's act of turning over a new leaf "holy of holies." The Torah doesn't call the holy Paschal lamb "holy of holies." It doesn't call the daily Cohanic sacrifices in the Temple "holy of holies." It doesn't even call the High Priest's Yom Kippur service in the Holy of Holies "holy of holies." Only an individual's act of turning over a new leaf is called "holy of holies."

(Not just a lashon-hara speaker - whenever someone decides to get back on the straight path, that's "holy of holies.")

For your table: Why?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - this week's image links to a nifty handbook to the detailes ethics of lashon hara.


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