Emor
Summary
The Torah section of Emor (“Speak”) begins with the special laws about kohanim (“priests”), the kohen gadol (“high priest”), and the Temple service. A newborn calf, lamb or kid must be left with its mother for seven days before being available for an offering; one may not slaughter an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The second part of Emor lists the the festivals of the Jewish calendar: the weekly Shabbat; the bringing of the Passover offering on 14 Nissan; the seven-day Passover festival beginning on 15 Nissan; the bringing of the Omer offering from the first barley harvest on the second day of Passover, and the start of the 49-day Counting of the Omer, ending in the festival of Shavuot on the fiftieth day; a “remembrance of shofar blowing” on 1 Tishrei; a serious fast day on 10 Tishrei; the Sukkot festival when we are to dwell in huts for seven days and take the “Four Kinds beginning on 15 Tishrei; and following holiday of the “eighth day” of Sukkot (Shemini Atzeret).
Vocabulary
- Temple service
- Sukkot
- Passover
- Shabbat
- Shemini atzeret