In a nutshell

The name of the Parshah, “Emor,” means “speak” and it is found in Leviticus 21:1.

The Torah section of Emor (“Speak”) begins with the special laws pertaining to the kohanim (“priests”), the kohen gadol (“high priest”), and the Temple service:

• A kohen may not become ritually impure through contact with a dead body, save on the occasion of the death of a close relative.
• A kohen may not marry a divorcee, or a woman with a promiscuous past; a kohen gadol can marry only a virgin.
• A kohen with a physical deformity cannot serve in the Holy Temple.

NoteThis is the rest of Chapter 22, discussing the qualities of the animals that are brought to the sacrifices, and thus for the priests themselves. As well as 23:18-20.

• a deformed animal cannot be brought as an offering.
• A newborn calf, lamb or kid must be left with its mother for seven days before being eligible for an offering; one may not slaughter an animal and its offspring on the same day.

The second part of Emor lists the annual Callings of Holiness—the festivals of the Jewish calendar:

• the weekly Shabbat;
• Passover
  • the bringing of the Passover offering on 14 Nissan;
  • the seven-day Passover festival beginning on 15 Nissan;
  • the bringing of the Omer offering from the first grain harvest on the second day of Passover, and
  • the commencement, on that day, of the 49-day Counting of the Omer, culminating
• in the festival of Shavuot on the fiftieth day;
• a “remembrance of shofar blowing” on 1 Tishrei;
• a solemn fast day on 10 Tishrei;
• the Sukkot festival—during which we are to dwell in huts for seven days and
  • take the “Four Kinds”—beginning on 15 Tishrei; and
• the immediately following holiday of the “eighth day” of Sukkot (Shemini Atzeret).

Next the Torah discusses

• the lighting of the menorah in the Temple, and
• the showbread; (lechem hapanim) placed weekly on the table there.

Emor concludes with

• the incident of a man executed for blasphemy, and
• the penalties
  • for murder (death) and
  • for injuring one’s fellow
  • or destroying his property (monetary compensation)

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Notes:

v24:11] וַ֠יִּקֹּ֠ב בֶּן־הָֽאִשָּׁ֨ה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִ֤ית אֶת־הַשֵּׁם֙ וַיְקַלֵּ֔ל—The son of the Israelite woman pronounced the Name in blasphemy.
More complete translation: “…he blasphemed the Name and made it despicable…”

Q What was this Name? And when can it be spoken? If it cannot be spoken, how is it that the average man knows it? Also 24:16. Some say it was the name he heard at Sinai.

v25:24-] Redemption
Must provide redemption for the land (v24).
If it can be redeemed, the purchaser has to sell it (v27. Else it is redeemed in the jubilee year (v28). Unless it is in a walled city (v29-39)! Then, one has one year to redeem it, but it is not returned at the jubilee if that year passes. A little like the warranties of today, where you have 10 days to return the article. However, in the rural areas, redemption holds. And the Levites have eternal redemption rights to their properties—whether walled or not, I believe.