D’var Torah October 8, 2024 by Brian Gluck

Each month a member of our board of trustees teaches a little bit about the Torah portion as part of our board meeting. Starting this month, we want to share that with you. We are beginning with Brian Gluck, who you can learn more about below.

Brian Gluck has been a member of CBE since 1998.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors as Chair of Liturgical Practices. He formerly served as Vice President and Chair of Finance.

D’var October 8, 2024

This week Yom Kippur coincides with Shabbat, so instead of our sequential progression through the ordered parashot, we instead read 2 special Yom Kippur Torah portions this week. On Yom Kippur morning, we read parts of Deuteronomy Chapters 29 and 30, from Nitzavim, and on Yom Kippur afternoon, we read selected verses from Leviticus Chapter 19, from K’doshim.

Each service is self-contained with its own Torah portion, but I believe that the morning portion sets up that of the afternoon.

In the morning Torah portion, we read “You stand this day, all of you, before your God… not … you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day before our God and with those who are not with us here this day.” … “Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. … No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.”

The instruction, in this case, on this holiday of Yom Kippur, is K’doshim, and it should be easy for us to understand and for us as a congregation to observe it.

K’doshim is generally referred to as the holiness code and contains mitzvot regarding how we can live a holy life. On Yom Kippur, we dispense with verses telling us how to breed cattle, how to sow a field, and to not mix materials in our clothing, as well as when we can eat the fruit from trees which we have planted, and how to shave our beards. Instead, we read most of the verses which describe how we treat each other, such as: not reaping the corners of the field, not stealing or lying, paying a worker promptly, not cursing the deaf or blocking the path of one who is blind, judging fairly regardless of standing, not holding grudges, and how to treat the stranger.

Why do we focus on these verses on the holiday rather than the entire portion? I like to think that it’s similar to what we know about repentance on the holiday. In the High Holiday Prayerbook we read: “For transgressions against God, the Day of Atonement atones; but for transgressions of one human being against another, the Day of Atonement does not atone until they have made peace with one another.” For this reason, on Yom Kippur, with a few hours remaining in the holy day, we are focusing not on how we treat God, but rather, how we treat each other.

These verses, which we focus on Yom Kippur afternoon, remind us how to treat each other with respect and how to be equitable. How can we as a board take meaning from this?