Kol Ramah

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Acharei Mot [Leviticus 16-18] consists of 3 chapters, each with its own theme: chapter 16 is devoted to Yom Kippur, with its emphasis on the purification of the sanctuary; chapter 17 treats proper forms of worship, to borrow a phrase from Baruch Levine’s JPS Commentary on Leviticus; and, chapter 18 deals primarily with the biblical incest taboo, which at its heart speaks to the definition of the family. With the end of Passover 5784 taking place yesterday, as I write, we enter a period of the Jewish calendar sometimes called the “yoms” [Hebrew for day], with the upcoming observances of Yom HaShoah [Commemoration of the Holocaust, Sunday night-Monday, May 5-6], Yom HaZikaron [Israel’s Memorial Day, Sunday night-Monday, May 12-13], Yom Ha-Atzma’ut [Israel’s Independence Day, Monday night-Tuesday, May 13-14], and Yom Y’rushalayim [marking the reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty in the 6-Dat War [Tuesday night-