Emor: Concepts: 6_7 Introduction
613 Concepts
6-7
Mitzvah/Concept 6: One Must Sanctify the Name of God:
Winning Admiration for God: We must act in a manner that will lead others who see us to say, “These people are special. We admire them for their beliefs.” We have to pay our bills on time. We must always act in an exemplary way. Our actions as Jews who believe in God, reflect on Him. God’s presence in this world is associated with our existence. We must always be aware that God is very much associated with how we act and how we function.
Life Is Precious: Only one positive commandment demands that you give up your life, and that is to sanctify God’s name. Although we must die rather than murder, worship idols or commit adultery, the mitzvah that demands the ultimate sacrifice is this concept: One must sanctify the Name of God. The same mitzvah also obligates us to break any of the other laws of the Torah in order to preserve our lives. The mitzvoth are a source of life. They nourish us. They nurture our souls. The mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem, the Sanctification of God’s Name, is to understand that we have to live a life of meaning.
Mitzvah/Concept 7: One Must Not Disgrace God’s Name:
God Abhors A Vacuum: We must not make a “Chilul Hashem”. The word chilul comes from “hallal”, or hole, meaning a vacuum. It does not only mean that we may not ever behave in a way that will disgrace God’s name. It means that we should not leave a vacuum in the world. We should not look at the world, or treat life, as if there is a vacuum, emptiness, no meaning, no direction, no cause, and no purpose being served by our existence.
The Dignity of a Human Being: This concept includes a practical lesson, that we should not behave like an animal, which lives only by instinct with no self-control.
Someone who is a Torah scholar, may not ever waste time, because that is considered a hillul Hashem, or, living in a vacuum.. We may not live without the awareness that absolutely everything we do, not just in the context of our spiritual lives, must have meaning and does have meaning. How we eat matters. How we love is important.
Sensitivity: One of the major problems with sin is that it desensitizes us to reality. That is Chilul Hashem. Being desensitized to life, not just to the mitzvoth that we do and to the Torah that we learn or to the prayers we recite. Being desensitized to life is what we call Chilul Hashem.