Drash Cards for Adherei Mot (5762)

by Marc Mangel

• Ch 16 is about the ritual for Yom Kippur and Ch 17 about that for slaughter.  We may ask, why are these together.

• One answer is that they guide us in how to lead a holy life. And in Ch 19, v1 the plural is used — holiness is a communal process

• What does a holy life mean?  Appropriate social and sexual behavior: having appropriate dressing and eating.

• And in ch 19, v18 we read “Love your neighbor as yourself”, one of the great rules of Judaism.

• Reuven Bulka asks, what is the message from the emphasis on blood? Blood is not inherently repulsive, so the message is that blood is prohibited not because of repulsiveness but because the Torah says so.  He writes “Ultimate religious expression is manifested not by one who cannot eat pork or blood or shrimp but by one who can but won’t”