"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not remove completely the corners of your field as you reap and you shall not gather the gleanings of your harvest; for the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them; I am Hashem, your G-d"
This week's parasha starts out discussing halachot of Kohanim. It then quickly goes on to discuss sacrifices before eventually coming to talk about Three Festivals. Crammed in the midst of all of this is the above quoted commandment to leave the corners of your field for the poor to eat. At first glance, the juxtaposition of this commandment seems out of place. After all, what does harvesting your field have to do with Kohanim, sacrifices and Festivals?
The answer: EVERYTHING!
The three topics covered in Emor - Kohanim, sacrifice and Festivals all share a common denomenator: Holiness. In fact, if you look deeper into the parasha, you will notice that it discusses how to regain a level of holiness if lost due to certain circumstances (i.e. - the daughter of a Kohain divorces and returns home).
Finally, as the parasha culminates with the mentioning of Shavuot we are given an additional commandment - that of leaving our field for the poor. The Torah is giving us a profound message here - if you want to be holy, treat your brothers with love and compassion! The fact that this commandment is mentioned among Kohanim, sacrifices and Festivals is not a mistake. The contrary!! It is a clear statement that one who cares for his brother is just as holy as the Kohain, the one who brings a sacrifice or the one who observes the Festivals.
I had the unfortunate privilege this week of paying a shiva call to the Ben-Zvi family. While there, Dr. Ben-Zvi's daughter was describing a man of utmost love and compassion. A man who's life was dedicated to helping others in any and every way he possibly could. When I looked over this week's parasha, one particular story she told stood out:
She mentioned that while going through some of his things, the family found checks from patient's insurance companies for 11 cents and stated that, despite the obvious underpayment of these companies - Dr. Ben-Zvi still treated these patients because it wasn't about the money - it was about the person.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not remove completely the corners of your field.....for the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them.
Dr. Ben-Zvi seems to have emulated this pasuk completely! He understood that just as important as the Kohanim and the Festivals are the poor and underprivileged. Indeed, in understanding this, he attained a level of holiness.
Shabbat Shalom!
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