Richard Tupper’s Yom Kippur D’var Torah

I. Intro

A. When we return this afternoon, I predict two questions will be burning in almost everyone’s minds:

New members and visitors and will no doubt wonder why we are reading Lev. 19 instead of the traditional passage, Lev. 18.
Long-time members will no doubt be asking themselves, "why did we ever read Lev. 18 instead of Lev. 19?"
But have no fear, I propose to offer answers to both these questions.
As for the new members’ and visitors’ question, the reason we read Lev. 19 instead of Lev. 18 is because the membership of the minyan in its wisdom voted a couple of years ago to read the alternative Torah portion in the Machzor, Lev. 19 rather than 18 and ours is the only machzor that I know of that has this alternative reading. Why the membership voted the way they did that, I do not know. You’ll have to ask the people who voted for it because I was against the change.

The more interesting question to me and hence more burning question ;o) is why is it traditional to read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur the repeated warnings in Lev. 18, indeed repeated seven times (3 (bis), 24, 26, 17, 29, 30), against following the practices of the Canaanites or what HaShem describes as "copy[ing] the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you" (18:3)

Now interestingly, Egyptians and Canaanites are joined by more than the mere fact that Egypt is where Israel is coming from and Canaan is where Israel is going. The Table of Nations in Genesis 10 traces back both Egyptians and Canaanites to a common ancestor - CHam, (Gen. 10:6) who, when looking upon the nakedness of his father Noah (Gen. 9:22), arguably may himself have violated one of the prohibitions in this chapter. Indeed, the fact that Egyptians and Canaanites descend from CHam may partially explain why they are both guilty of these forbidden practices.
The rabbis point to a connection between our haftarah Jonah and chapter 18 of Leviticus. Jonah is vomited out of the great fish (Jonah 2:10) and HaShem warns Israel that if they do not obey, they will be vomited from Eretz Canaan (18:28) just as the Canaanites were. (18:25, 28)
However, that is sort of putting the cart before the horse because generally we think of the haftarah, in this case Jonah, as relating back to the Torah portion, and not vice versa.
The rabbis relate another reason for reading Lev. 18 on the afternoon of Yom Kippur:

In the Mishnah Ta’anit 4:8, we are told:

Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel said: There were no happier times for Israel than the 15^th of Ab and the Day of Atonement, for on them the daughters of Jerusalem used to go forth in white raiments; and these were borrowed, that none be embarrassed which had them not; [hence] all the raiments required immersion. And the daughters of Jerusalem went forth to dance in the vineyards. And what did they say? "Young man, lift up your eyes and see what you would choose for yourself: set not your eyes upon beauty, but set your eyes on family; for Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears the Lord she shall be praised [Prov. 31:30]; moreover it says, Give her the fruit of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates [Prov. 31:31]. Likewise it says, Go forth you daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart [Song of Songs 3:11]: In the day of his espousals – this is the giving of the Law; and in the day of the gladness of his heart – this is the building of the Temple. May it be built speedily, in our days! Amen.

It was because of these activities that the rabbis prescribed the reading of Lev. 18 in order to counsel the young men and women against entering into marriages that were forbidden.

Of course, I’ve always wondered about how efficacious this instruction was.
If the young men and women are out dancing in the vineyards on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, how will they hear the instruction?
Maybe we’re supposed to tell them about what was read in shul when they come home raving about their half-sister that they saw dancing or one of the sheep grazing on the nearby hillside.

For better or for worse however, today, on the afternoon of Yom Kippur we are not graced with nubile maidens dancing in vineyards observed by eligible young men, although I think many members of the minyan would also have voted in favor of restoring this practice had it been on the agenda. Myself, I would certainly have preferred a vote in favor of restoring this practice than in favor of not reading Lev. 18.
But aside from tradition and the historical interest, is there any reason that we ought to read Lev. 18 this afternoon? Or, as Sam Fox so often insists on asking, "what’s the relevance of Lev.18 to us today, man?!"

III. Before trying to answer that question however, it might benefit us to pay attention to what Lev. 18 is actually talking about.

On first reading we see that Lev. 18 bans certain types of sex.
On closer reading, many people find certain things troubling, e.g.:

Some people are troubled by its labeling of male homosexual sex as toevah/abomination but I say:

What we are troubled by is the interpretation of the verse and I sincerely believe that over time our interpretation will evolve but it won’t evolve if we stop reading the verses that upset.
Similarly, to the extent that we find Lev. 18 boring or irrelevant, that is all the more reason to study it since it’s all the more of a challenge; our understanding will never grow nor our interpretation evolve unless we continue to challenge ourselves by reading the passages we find the most troubling or incomprehensible.

Some are troubled by the fact that missing from the list are the full sister and the daughter though the half-sister (v. 9) and granddaughter (v. 10) are listed.

Some modern scholars have proposed that they are missing from the list because such incestuous unions were not prohibited. To me this seems like a reading whose intention is to portray Israel in the worse possible light, a type of reading that is sadly common among modern scholars.
The rabbis use a kal v’chomer argument - if your half-sister and granddaughter are prohibited, kal v’chomer your full sister and granddaughter are prohibited.
But I think a modern scholar by the name of Susan Rattray has offered a fascinating solution to this problem by focusing on v. 6

V. 6 says no one shall approach "anyone of his own flesh" el kol sh'er bsaro what does this phrase mean?
Rattray notes that a similar phrase appears in ch. 21 where it says:

"None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin, 2 except for the relatives that are closest to him(ki im lesh'ero haqarov elav): his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; 3 also for a virgin sister, close to him because she has not married, for her he may defile himself."

In other words, in Lev. 18:6 a man is prohibited from having sex with his closest kin, and these are, Rattray suggests, those identified in 21:2-3 as the relatives closest to him: his mother, father, son, daughter, brother and virgin sister. The purpose of the rest of the chapter, Rattray suggests, is to explain who else, in addition to the nearest kin, are forbidden.

Extended family members are discussed until v. 19.
The married sister banned by the ban on adulterous sex in v. 20.

If Rattray is right, why then is mother still included since she is included in "nearest kin"? By listing mother with father establishes principle of affinity that, along with blood, accounts for everyone on list until v. 19.

Two persons that marry are "one flesh"
To the extent the one that is related to you by blood is banned, to the same extent that person’s spouse is banned.

Real problem in reading ch. 18 is that it reads like our family history.

Verse 20 bans intercourse with your neighbor’s wife, but David had intercourse with Batsheva.
Verse 12 bans intercourse between a man and his father’s sister, but of course, Amram married his father’s sister, Yocheved (Ex. 6:20), and she bore Moses and Aaron and from Aaron springs the entire priesthood.
Verse 15 bans intercourse between a man and his daughter-in-law but Judah had intercourse with his daughter-in-law Tamar (Gen. 38:18) from whom descended the tribe of Judah and the entire Davidic line.
Verse 18 bans marrying two sisters yet Jacob married Leah and Rachel (Gen. 29:28).
And finally verse 9 bans intercourse between a man and his father’s daughter but Abram married Sara, his father’s daughter and his half-sister, and from them all of us descend.
The rabbis define children of forbidden unions listed here as mamzers and Deut. [23:3] bans mamzers from ever entering the congregation of the L*RD.

Now of course, David was punished for his transgression but what of these other banned unions from which we spring?

Ibn Ezra argues that the prohibitions apply only within the land of Israel and Nachmanides supports his argument by noting that Rachel dies when she enters the land of Canaan.
Abravenel however argues that the prohibitions apply to Israel outside Canaan as well but argues that since the Torah had not yet been given the patriarchs did not violate the prohibitions because the laws do not apply ex post facto.
If that is true however, why are Canaanites vomited from the land and the Egyptians condemned for having violated these prohibitions? They had not received the Torah had they?

We seemed to be confronted with a quandary: we are called to be a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex. 19:6), yet we are a nations of mamzers. If it is our ancestors that sinned, can we repent for them and thus rid ourselves of this terrible label?

The answer to our difficulty lies not in repentance, a major theme of today, but in yet another major theme today -- holiness, and more specifically in this case, the transforming power of the mitzvot through which holiness is achieved.
What do the mitzvot do? They transform us from common to holy. With every bracha we say, "asher kiddeshanu b’mitzvotav" - who makes us holy through His mitzvot.
Becoming a kingdom of priests and a holy nation is not achieved simply by repentance. Through repentance we become pure but holiness is achieved through the mitzvot.
G*d is not satisfied with Jews who have purified themselves by repentance. G*d demands more, that we become holy and holiness is achieved only through obedience to G*d’s mitzvot. Indeed, the mitzvot are not only the source of holiness but as Lev. 18:5 teaches us, they are the source of life itself.

And so, what were those young men and maidens doing in the vineyards? They were looking for marriage partners so that they could fulfill the first mitzvah, pru urvu - to be fruitful and multiply and it is through fulfilling this mitzvah that we most easily perceive the connection between the mitzvot and life.

Instinctively the young men and women understood that G*d demands more than repentance, they understood that G*d demands that we fulfill the mitzvot and thereby become holy, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
And the prescription of the rabbis that we read Lev. 18?

Thousands of years ago, it had a very practical effect - to counsel the young people as to whom it is proper to marry.
But yes, Sam, even today it is relevant.
Traditionally we do not read Lev. 19 which contains perhaps the most difficult of all the mitzvot to fulfill, to love our neighbor (18) and even the stranger (34) as ourselves.
If traditionally on Yom Kippur we read Lev. 19 with these most difficult mitzvot, we could easily despair of our ability to obey and even to repent because true repentance requires prospective obedience.
Instead the rabbis prescribe that we read what for many of us our the most easily obeyed mitzvot - refraining from sex for example with animals and our in-laws!

V. Conclusion.

This morning we read the description of the sacrifices offered to atone for our sins and to purge the Temple of the impurities caused by our sins. However, the Temple has been destroyed and not rebuilt so we cannot offer these sacrifices.
We do not despair, however, because as the prophet reminds us that "to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams." I Sam. 15:22
G*d is not satisfied with repentance and neither should we be. G*d demands holiness and that is achieved through the mitzvot. So take the instruction of Lev. 18 to heart and do a mitzvah, even if it is only the easiest mitzvah that you can think of because fulfilling one mitzvah leads to another and so to holiness and to life.

Gemar tov!

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