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Parshat Behar

In Parshat Behar, the Ma’or Va-Shemesh reframes shemittah (the sabbatical year) as something much deeper than an agricultural mitzvah. He begins with a striking idea. The land itself committed a chet ha’aretz (a “sin of the land”) at creation, changing its role, but did so leshem shamayim (for the sake of Heaven), so that when adam (man) would later fall, he would not stand alone. From that moment on, adam and adamah (man and land) are bound together. But the תיקון (tikkun=repair) does not start with the land. The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is clear: the hizdakchut (refinement) of the land is teluyah b’hizdakchut ha’adam (dependent on the refinement of the person). The land responds, it does not initiate. That is what shemittah reveals. If the six years are lived properly, if a person works leshem shamayim, not for accumulation but for avodat Hashem, then something shifts. The land itself becomes refined and returns to its original state, giving without effort in the seventh year. Not as a supernatural override, but as a restoration of what the world was meant to be. And if not? Then the shefa (divine abundance) still comes, but through a different system, not as the natural result of alignment, but as an act of chesed (divine kindness). Shemittah, then, is not just rest. It is a window into how the world is meant to function, a world in which adam and adamah rise together. The only question is whether we live in a way that allows that to happen.

Parshat Bechukotai

In Parshat Bechukotai, the Ma’or Va-Shemesh takes the idea that what we receive is shaped not just by what we do, but by the orientation behind it, and grounds it in Rashi’s explanation of “אם בחוקותי תלכו” (im bechukotai telechu — “if you walk in My statutes”). Rashi explains this as שתהיו עמלים בתורה (she’tihyu ameilim baTorah — that you should toil in Torah). But the Ma’or Va-Shemesh notices something simple and precise. The pasuk says “תלכו” (telechu — “you will walk”), not “you will learn.” It’s describing how a person walks through life. A person inevitably engages in melachah (work). The question is not whether we work, but what that work is for. If one’s amal (effort), even in melachah, is directed leshem shamayim (for the sake of Heaven), to support a life of Torah and avodah (service of Hashem), then that work is not separate. It becomes part of ameilut baTorah (toiling in Torah). The same actions, but now part of one integrated system. And in that kind of life, berachah (blessing) and shalom (peace) emerge, not only externally, but within the person, a life without kin’ah (jealousy) and without machloket (conflict). But if the work stands on its own, if it becomes about accumulation or desire, then even though nothing has changed on the surface, the direction is entirely different. That path leads toward kin’ah, and from there to machloket. Externally, it looks the same.  But internally, it’s not the same life at all. The Ma’or Va-Shemesh leaves us with a sharp question: Is what we’re doing just work, or is everything we’re doing part of ameilim baTorah?

Shabbat Shalom.

 

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Use this source sheet for Parshat Behar and this source sheet for Parshat Bechukotai, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners. Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.

In this week’s parsha, in the middle of the discussion of the mo’adim, the Torah introduces a seemingly unrelated mitzvah: when you harvest your field, do not take it all the way to the edge. Leave the corner, the pe’ah, for the poor and the stranger. It’s a striking placement. Why here?

The Ma’or VaShemesh suggests that this is not an interruption, but an explanation. The verse of pe’ah is teaching us something about the nature of the mo’adim, and in particular, about the days of Sefirat HaOmer that connect them.

We tend to experience growth as something that should be visible. We invest effort and expect to see change, to feel that something has taken hold. And when it doesn’t, when progress seems to fade almost as quickly as it appears, it’s natural to wonder whether anything is really happening at all.

But the avodah of these days moves differently.

The Ma’or VaShemesh describes the Omer as a process in which something unfolds, step by step, week by week. Each stage brings something real into the world. And yet, in the early stages, it does not seem to hold. It arrives, and then it feels as though it slips away. The effort is real, but the result is hard to grasp.

This is not a failure of the process. It is the process.

What appears not to hold is not lost. It is accumulating, quietly, beneath the surface. And then, at a certain point, everything that has been drawn until now begins to come together. Not as separate efforts, but as a single, integrated whole.

Lag BaOmer is experienced as a day of light, a day of opening. But in this light, it is not the arrival of something new. It is a גילוי, a revealing, of what has already been building all along.

This is where pe’ah comes back into focus.

A person who harvests his entire field to the very edge leaves no room for what is not yet in hand. Everything must be immediate, complete, visible. But the Torah asks something different. לֹא תְכַלֶּה פְּאַת שָׂדְךָ. Leave the edge. Do not demand that the entire field yield itself at once.

The pe’ah is the part of the field that acknowledges that not everything reveals itself immediately. That something real may already be there, even if it cannot yet be gathered.

The days of Sefirat HaOmer ask for the same posture. To continue the avodah even when it does not seem to hold. To trust that what is being built is not lost, even when it is not yet visible.

And then, when the light of Lag BaOmer arrives, it is not a new beginning.

We realize that what felt like it wasn’t working was actually building.

   

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Use this source sheet for Emor and this source sheet for Lag B'Omer, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners. Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.

In this week’s Torah portions, Acharei Mot and Kedoshim, the Ma’or VaShemesh reads the two parshiot as two stages in a single process in avodat Hashem. “Acharei Mot,” after the death of Nadav and Avihu, at the very center of the inauguration of the Mishkan, a moment that could have unraveled everything. One might expect that access to the Kodesh HaKodashim would now be restricted or closed.

Instead, the Torah teaches something more precise. Aharon is uniquely able to enter, even at any time, but only through the exact סדר (seder), with preparation and intention. Entry is not removed, but it is no longer casual. After rupture, access is not taken away, but it becomes defined. It demands structure and precision, and that shift is not only about the process, but about the person who can be entrusted with it.

And it is specifically Aharon, not Moshe, who stands at the center of this avodah. Moshe represents a level of clarity and perfection that stands apart. Aharon, by contrast, is the one who lives within the complexity of the people and is able to draw them close, to reconnect them. There are forms of perfection that elevate, and there are forms of imperfection that connect, and sometimes it is the ability to connect that allows something deeper to emerge.

The Ma’or VaShemesh develops this further: the one who is engaged in his own avodah, who is doing teshuvah, does not remain alone in that process. His teshuvah awakens others, his work lifts those connected to him. The capacity to elevate others emerges precisely from being within the process, not outside of it.

From there, the Torah turns to “Kedoshim Tihiyu,” you shall be holy. Here too, one might assume that kedushah comes through פרישות (perishut), through separation and even isolation. And indeed, there is a place for distance from what is harmful. But that is not where the Ma’or VaShemesh locates kedushah. “דבר אל כל עדת בני ישראל” (daber el kol adat Bnei Yisrael), the command is given בהקהל (behakhel), to the entire community together. True kedushah is not achieved in isolation, but through דבקות (devekut) with others who are engaged in avodat Hashem, through תפילה בציבור (tefillah be-tzibbur), through shared עבודה (avodah).

There are things a person can protect through separation, but kedushah is only achieved through connection. Taken together, the two parshiot describe a clear process. After rupture, avodah becomes more precise, more structured, but it is not meant to lead to withdrawal. It is meant to lead back into connection, into the collective work of those seeking Hashem.

And within that, the deeper insight: a person’s avodah is never only personal. The one who does teshuvah honestly, who works through his own complexity, becomes, almost without intending it, a source of elevation for others. We are shaped by what we go through, and we elevate others by how we go through it.

Shabbat Shalom.

 

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Use this source sheet for Acharei Mot and this source sheet for Kedoshim, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners. Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.

The Meor VaShemesh understands Tazria and Metzora as one continuous spiritual process.

In Tazria, he explains that holiness enters the world through Itaruta d’letata, an arousal or awakening from below. God structured creation so that blessing flows only when man first stirs himself toward Him. Spiritual growth begins when we initiate the movement.

But Metzora adds a warning: inspiration itself can become dangerous.

The Meor VaShemesh interprets se’eit, sapachat, and baheret as symbols of genuine spiritual elevation that becomes corrupted when a person begins delighting in his own spirituality rather than in God.

That is why the metzora’s healing is complete only when the Torah says “v’hinei nirpa”, “and behold, he has been healed.” The true sign of healing is not merely that the affliction is gone, but that the person has been inwardly transformed, that the brokenness of teshuvah has become the joy of return.

The message of Tazria–Metzora is that spiritual life begins when we move first. But authentic growth is measured not by inspiration alone, rather by whether that inspiration leads to humility and joy.

 

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Use this source sheet for Tazria and this source sheet for Metzora, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners. Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.

In this week’s parsha, the Ma’or VaShemesh teaches that the final stage of the Mishkan’s inauguration could not be completed by Moshe, but rather specifically by Aharon.

The Mishkan itself is a response to the Golden Calf, a process of repair that must pass through the failure, not bypass it. Moshe, who stood outside the sin, could build the structure, but he could not complete the required rectification. That required Aharon, who was part of the moment and could now transform it.

Teshuvah is not about erasing the past, but transforming it. The same act, the same material, now directed toward holiness.

Aharon takes on greater responsibility, holding himself to a higher standard, while the people are not defined by their failure and are able to step forward on their own, “vayikrevu kol ha’edah.”

The Shechinah descends not when the work is finished, but when accountability is shared.

Be strict with yourself, and generous with others. That is how something broken becomes whole.

 

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Use this source sheet, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners. Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.