Parshas Emor 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
ויאמר ה' אל משה אמר אל הכהנים בני אהרן ואמרת אלהם לנפש לא יטמא בעמיו ... (כא-א)
The question is obvious: If it says "אמור אל הכהנים", to speak to the Kohanim, why must it further specify "בני אהרן"? Who else are the Kohanim if not the sons of Aharon? Chazal darshen that it is to teach us "בני אהרן - ולא בנות אהרן" - these special halachos pertaining to Kohanim apply only to the male descendants of Aharon but not the female. However, perhaps, על דרך דרוש, we may add the following. For in truth, there are Kohanim who are not of בני אהרן; we are told that the entire nation is a ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, a kingdom of Kohanim.
What is a Kohen? The Kohanim are the משרתי ה', the honored, privileged few who merit to serve Hashem in the Bais HaMikdash. It emerges that on some level, every yid is a Kohen, a servant of Hashem.
According to the Sefer Chareidim, there is a special mitzvah of Avodas Hashem, to serve Hashem. This is expressed, he says, in doing everything we do for Hashem’s sake. When we do mitzvos, when we eat, when we sleep, when we work, and so forth, everything we do should be done לשם שמים. In this way, as elaborated upon by the Rambam in Hilchos Deos (3:3), our lives will be one unbroken chain of avodas Hashem. To illustrate, I once heard someone who was מעורר, that according to this Rambam, the time during which one sleeps can be a veritable goldmine of zechusim! All one has to do is to think before he goes to sleep that he is doing so to have the כח to serve Hashem further. In this way, instead of his sleep being “dead time” between one day and the next, it becomes a huge stretch of avodas Hashem, in service of the Torah and mitzvos that are to follow.
But this does not apply only to our intentions. Our actions, dress and comportment as well - just as a Kohen must wear special, beautiful בגדי כהונה, as befitting the honor of his position as a servant of Hashem, so too must every yid present himself in a way that brings glory and kavod to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. May we all merit to contemplate our own chashivus as משרתי ה', and with that raise the level of our avodah בפרט and kvod Shamayim בכלל.