Community Torah Corner, May 9, 2025

This week’s parsha is Acharei Mot-Kedoshim. The parsha begins with laws about Kodesh Hakodashim: holy of hollies. This is where the Kohen Hagadol went once a year on Yom Kippur, and we then learn about the Korbanot brought on behalf of Bna’i Yisrael. Kedoshim begins with a long list of laws. There are laws about idolatry, sexual morality, respect of parents, and sacredness of life. That's it; laws.

While I was think about what to say about this, I was stuck. What was I going to connect to Yom Kippur and laws? Then I thought about my Social Studies class. Mr. Ober once gave us a warmup that said, “You must write a five-page essay about something we have learned about this year. What are you going to do?”

Before writing anything, we all asked so many questions. Can it be about anything? When is it due? Is there a rubric? We were told just to read the board and answer the question. When we all shared our answers, the most common ones were talking to our learning specialist, doing our best, or not doing it due to the lack of detail in the assignment. When Mr. Ober told us the point of the assignment, it made more sense. But first think of a rule or two that the school has that you may disagree with.

For example, I am not allowed to have my phone in my bedroom. But as much as we all dislike rules, we depend on them. The lack of detail in Mr. Ober’s warmup was, essentially, a lack of rules. All of our questions were us asking for rules related to the assignment. Without rules about phones, we wouldn’t learn anything in class. Without laws, the country would be a mess. Without rules, there is no structure to anything. This might seem great, but after a day or two, we would be lost. As boring as it may seem to read a whole parsha of rules, It is important to have structure in society and our daily lives. Thank you and Shabbat Shalom.