Six years ago we started a different project: writing a weekly newsletter, whose objective was to share thoughts on the weekly Torah section and/or on current events.
This is relevant now because, in practice, the newsletter began in this very section, the parashah Emor. Beyond the circumstances that led to the newsletter's beginning at that specific time, as we have mentioned many times, all things in Judaism are interconnected, and we must draw a lesson in the service of God from what we hear and see.
In this case, what is the relationship of the newsletter to the Emor section?
The translation of emor is "to say." In Hebrew, there are several verbs that express the same idea of saying (such as leemor, ledaber, lehaguid), the difference lies in the manner of saying. Emor indicates a gentle and calm way of saying things.
Some time ago, I heard a story told to me by a rabbi from another city: a person came to the synagogue asking to speak with the rabbi. Upon meeting, the rabbi politely asked for some information, as he didn't know him. The stranger replied, adding that the rabbi had been to his house many times. The rabbi, surprised, said he didn't remember ever being there, to which the person responded, "You came into my house under the door." It turned out that the rabbi periodically sent this person informational pamphlets, which were slipped under the door.
The same applies to the weekly newsletter. It's a way to "enter" unexpected places, hundreds of homes (the newsletter is received by almost 700 people...) and share Torah. But not just enter, but do so in the form of "Emor" (love), gently, slowly, step by step, week by week, each time with a different idea, a different concept, an attempt to express the eternity of the Torah and how its teachings apply in all times and places.
Moreover, the father of the Torah commentators, Rashi, explains in his first commentary on this parashah the reason for a repeated expression, saying that the Torah indicates "Make the adults diligent (lehazír in Hebrew) over the children," that is, the Torah commands adults to take care of the education of children.
The concept of adults and children (great and small, in Rashi's literal words) applies both to age and to knowledge. In connection with speaking, and speaking gently, the goal of the newsletter is to be mazhir—to illuminate (from the same root as lehazir), a concept from the Torah according to Hasidic teachings—and for this, in turn, to illuminate hearts and minds so that we may grow personally, in our relationships with others, and with God.
May it be God's will that this little newsletter continue trying to illuminate even a little more this dark exile and, as our sages say, a little light dispels much darkness, so that we may finally reach the coming of our Righteous Messiah, speedily in our days.