Acharei

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Acharei, Achrei Mos, Aharei Mot, or Ahare Moth (אחרי or אחרי מות – Hebrew for "after” or "after the death,” the fifth word or fifth and sixth words, and the first distinctive word or words, in the parshah) is the 29th weekly parshah or portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the sixth in the book of Leviticus. It constitutes Leviticus 16:1–18:30. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in April or early May.

The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains up to 54 weeks, the exact number varying between leap years and regular years. In years with 54 weeks (for example, 2008), parshah Acharei is read separately on the 29th Sabbath after Simchat Torah. In years with fewer than 54 weeks (for example, 2006, 2007, and 2009), parshah Acharei is combined with the subsequent parshah, Kedoshim, to help achieve the needed number of weekly readings.

one imagining of Azazel (from Colin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal)

1 Summary
2 Commandments
3 Haftarah
4 The Weekly Maqam
5 Further reading
6 External links

[edit] Summary

[edit] Yom Kippur

The text tells the ritual of Yom Kippur. After the death of Aaron’s sons, God told Moses to tell Aaron not to come at will into the Most Holy Place, lest he die, for God appeared in the cloud there. (Lev. 16:1–2.) Aaron was to enter only after bathing in water, dressing in his sacral linen tunic, breeches, sash, and turban, and bringing a bull for a sin offering, two rams for burnt offerings, and two he-goats for sin offerings. (Lev. 16:3–5.) Aaron was to take the two goats to the entrance of the Tabernacle and place lots upon them, one marked for the Lord and the other for Azazel. (Lev. 16:7–8.) Aaron was to offer the goat designated for the Lord as a sin offering, and to send off to the wilderness the goat designated for Azazel. (Lev. 16:9–10.) Aaron was then to offer the bull of sin offering. (Lev. 16:11.) Aaron was then to take a pan of glowing coals from the altar and two handfuls of incense and put the incense on the fire before the Most Holy Place, so that the cloud from the incense would screen the Ark of the Covenant. (Lev. 16:12–13.) He was to sprinkle some of the bull’s blood and then some of the goat’s blood over and in front of the Ark, to purge the Shrine of the uncleanness and transgression of the Israelites. (Lev. 16:14–16.) He was then to apply some of the bull’s blood and goat’s blood to the altar, to cleanse and consecrate it. (Lev. 16:17–19.)

Aaron was then to lay his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it the Israelites’ sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and then through a designated man send it off to the wilderness to carry their sins to an inaccessible region. (Lev. 16:21–22.) Then Aaron was to go into the Tabernacle, take off his linen vestments, bathe in water, put on his vestments, and then offer the burnt offerings. (Lev. 16:23–25.) The one who set the Azazel-goat free was to wash his clothes and bathe in water. (Lev. 16:26.) The bull and goat of sin offering were to be taken outside the camp and burned, and he who burned them was to wash his clothes and bathe in water. (Lev. 16:27–28.)

The text then commands this law for all time: On the tenth day of the seventh month, Jews and aliens who reside with them were to practice self-denial and do no work. (Lev. 16:29.) On that day, the High Priest was to put on the linen vestments, purge the Tabernacle, and make atonement for the Israelites once a year. (Lev. 16:30–34.)

[edit] Centralized offerings and blood

The text next begins what scholars call the Holiness Code. God prohibited Israelites from slaughtering oxen, sheep, or goats without bringing them to the Tabernacle as an offering, on pain of exile. (Lev. 17:1–9.) God prohibited consuming blood. (Lev. 17:10–12.) If one hunted an animal for food, he was to pour out its blood and cover it with earth. (Lev. 17:13.) Anyone who ate what had died or had been torn by beasts was to wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening. (Lev. 17:15–16.)

[edit] Sexual practices

God prohibited any Israelite from uncovering the nakedness of his father, mother, father’s wife, sister, grandchild, half-sister, aunt, daughter-in-law, or sister-in-law. (Lev. 18:1–16.) A man could not marry a woman and her daughter, a woman and her granddaughter, or a woman and her sister during the other’s lifetime. (Lev. 18:17–18.) A man could not cohabit with a woman during her period or with his neighbor’s wife. (Lev. 18:19–20.) Israelites were not to allow their children to be offered up to Molech. (Lev. 18:21.) A man could not lie with a man as with a woman. (Lev. 18:22.) God prohibited bestiality. (Lev. 18:23.) God explained that the Canaanites defiled themselves by adopting these practices, and any who did any of these things would be cut off from their people. (Lev. 18:24–30.)

[edit] Commandments

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 2 positive and 26 negative commandments in the parshah:

A Kohen must not enter the Temple in Jerusalem indiscriminately (Lev. 16:2)
To follow the procedure of Yom Kippur (Lev. 16:3)
Not to slaughter sacrifices outside the courtyard (Lev. 17:4)
To cover the blood of a slaughtered beast or fowl with earth (Lev. 17:13)
Not to make pleasurable sexual contact with any forbidden woman (Lev. 18:6)
Not to have homosexual sexual relations with one’s father (Lev. 18:7)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s mother (Lev. 18:7)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s father's wife (Lev. 18:8)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s sister (Lev. 18:9)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s son's daughter (Lev. 18:10)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s daughter's daughter (Lev. 18:10)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s daughter (Lev. 18:10)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s father's wife's daughter (Lev. 18:11)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s father's sister (Lev. 18:12)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s mother's sister (Lev. 18:13)
Not to have homosexual sexual relations with one’s father's brother (Lev. 18:14)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s father's brother's wife (Lev. 18:14)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s son's wife (Lev. 18:15)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s brother's wife (Lev. 18:16)
Not to have sexual relations with a woman and her daughter (Lev. 18:17)
Not to have sexual relations with a woman and her son's daughter (Lev. 18:17)
Not to have sexual relations with a woman and her daughter's daughter (Lev. 18:17)
Not to have sexual relations with one’s wife's sister while both are alive (Lev. 18:18)
Not to have sexual relations with a menstrually impure woman (Lev. 18:19)
Not to pass one’s children through the fire to Molech (Lev. 18:21)
Not to have homosexual sexual relations (Lev. 18:22)
A man must not have sexual relations with a beast (Lev. 18:23)
A woman must not have sexual relations with a beast (Lev. 18:23)

[edit] Haftarah

The haftarah for the parshah is:

for Ashkenazi Jews: Ezekiel 22:1–19
for Sephardi Jews: Ezekiel 22:1–16

When the parshah coincides with Shabbat HaGadol (as it does in 2008) the haftarah is Malachi 3:4–24.

[edit] The Weekly Maqam

In the Weekly Maqam, Sephardic Jews each week base the songs of the services on the content of that week's parshah. For Parshah Acharei, Sephardic Jews apply Maqam Hijaz, the maqam that expresses mourning and sadness. This maqam is appropriate in this parasha because it is the parasha that contains the deaths of Nadav and Abihu, the first two sons of Aaron.

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

2 Kings 23:10.
Jeremiah 7:31.
Sifra 174:1–194:3.
Leviticus Rabbah 20:1–23:13.
Zohar 3:56a–80a.
Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers. Translated by John E. Woods, 79, 82–83, 147–48, 152–53, 189, 201–02, 226–27. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1400040019. Originally published as Joseph und seine Brüder. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
James A. Michener. The Source, 106–20. New York: Random House, 1965.