Summary of the Parasha

In Emor (“Speak”), God asks Moses to teach the Kohanim the rules tied to their status: keeping away from the dead (except for their close relatives, while the High Priest may not do so even for them), restrictions in marriage, and the prohibition of serving in a state of impurity. Then come the blemishes that make an animal unfit to be offered.

The parasha then describes the calendar of festivals: Shabbat, Pesach, the counting of the Omer (49 days), Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Then the daily service: lighting the Menorah with pure olive oil and the showbread on the table. It ends with the episode of a blasphemer and his judgment, along with laws on damages.

Summary of the Haftara

“V’HaKohanim HaLeviim” (“And the Kohanim, the Levites”)
Text in Ezekiel 44:15–31

Ezekiel describes the Kohanim descended from Tzadok, who remained faithful, and their duties in the Third Temple: their linen garments, the prohibition of entering the inner court after drinking wine, of shaving their heads or letting their hair grow more than thirty days, of marrying a divorced woman, and the duty to teach the people to distinguish the holy from the ordinary, the pure from the impure. The first fruits and challah belong to them.

Parasha-Haftara Connection

The parasha gives the Kohanim their laws of holiness in Aaron’s time; the haftara shows that these same laws will apply to the Kohanim of the Third Temple. The holiness of the Kohanim is not a chapter of history: it is also Israel’s future.

The Omer

The counting of the Omer links Pesach, the Exodus, to Shavuot, the giving of the Torah. It was a time of joy that became more somber after the death of Rabbi Akiva’s students; the epidemic stopped on the 33rd day, Lag BaOmer. It is a time of remembrance, but it is not a period of mourning.