Drash Cards for Emor (5772)

by Marc Mangel

• Today I want to talk about Ch 23, v 44, particularly the word “Mo-ed”

• Rav Solevetchik said that ‘mo-ed’ does not mean festival. Rather it means appointment.

• On a Yom-tov, the appointment is in God’s house and we are to travel there — to the Temple — and bring a gift — as every good guest should do

• But from Ch 23, v3, the Rav says that there is also an appointment with God.  But on Shabbat, God travels to us and we have to be good hosts while God is our guest

• The holiness of Shabbat brings us to Chassidut: Although Shabbat is our appointment with God, we can make a dwelling place for God here [dirat betachtonim] so that God can drop by any time

• We do this through the daily mitzvot and our behavior.

• Formal appointments are great but the relationship is best when one can drop in any time.

• Imagine the world we’d have if the Sechinah could drop in on us at any time.