Torah Portion: Kedoshim: Leviticus 19:1 - 20:27
Haftarah Reading: Amos 9:7-15 or Ezekiel 20:2-20
Chapter 19 of the book of Vayikra (aka Leviticus) has got to be one of the best chapters in the Torah. It reads like an all-time hit list, a “best of”, regarding the commandments. Some of the commandments of this Chapter include:
- Loving your neighbor and to love the stranger.
- Not stealing, lying, or deceiving others.
- Not standing idly by when someone else’s life is in danger.
- Not cursing the deaf or putting a stumbling block before the blind — which is broadly interpreted as not insulting or taking advantage of others even when they are completely unaware of it – because God is not unaware of it.
- Not planting your field with different kinds of seed, not crossbreeding your livestock or wearing clothes made of a forbidden mixture of wool and linen – or as we would put it nowadays, respecting the integrity of the environment.
- Not conforming with whatever happens to be the idolatry of the time – and every age has its idols.
- Being honest in business, doing justice, treating your employees well, and sharing your blessings (in those days, parts of the harvest) with others.
- Not hating people, not bearing a grudge or taking revenge. If someone has done you wrong, don’t hate them. Remonstrate with them. Let them know what they have done and how it has hurt you, give them a chance to apologize and make amends, and then forgive them.
That’s a lot to pack in a single chapter, don’t you think?
But there’s something a bit curious about this chapter. Before all of these commandments, at the beginning of the chapter, there is another one, from which this week’s parsha gets its name: “Kedoshim tihiyu”, “you shall be holy.”
The classical commentators, mindful of the assumption that the Torah never wastes words, ask a simple question here: what does “you shall be holy” add to the text? We already have all these commandments (here, and in the rest of the Torah), why do we need a separate injunction that we should be holy, too? In fact, wouldn’t the definition of being holy be precisely those other commandments?
The Ramban (aka Nachmanides) says no. He points out that, without this extra commandment, one could follow all the other commandments and still be a self-indulgent glutton, or a jerk.
A number of commentators zoom out and says that “to be holy” is, in part, an exhortation to exercise self-control. Just because something is permitted doesn’t mean we have to indulge to the max. To cite the most obvious example, Judaism posits that material possessions are not a bad thing, per se. The fact is, we do need money to eat, and to put a roof over our head, and to provide for our children. And some level of physical comfort is needed in order to have the time to develop our potential. Judaism doesn’t believe that money is the root of all evil — but it is quite seductive, and an over-attraction to it unquestionably leads to problems. One can think of all sorts of permitted things that, when we overdo it, can cause trouble.
There are actually two messages here. One is that a failure to “be holy” inevitably leads to other problems. Rabbi Yehoshua Berman notes:
"Do whatever you like as long as you do not hurt anyone else" is a dangerously misleading doctrine of modern-day western society. The Torah is teaching us that this is a complete oxymoron, a total fallacy. One who does whatever he likes and gives in to his whims and desires, one who does not conduct his life with holiness - with self-control towards purpose and direction - someone like that is inevitably going to hurt other people in one way or another. If a person is so accustomed to indulging his animalistic desires in pursuit of empty hedonism, it is quite hard to believe, indeed, that when other people inevitably sometimes get in the way of his lusts that he will not somehow come to hurt them. If such a person stands to make a lot of money will he not "cut a corner" here and there? Will he not lie and cheat to get what he wants? Such a person will give generously to the poor of his "hard earned" wealth? He will never wrongly hurt another's feelings if they somehow become an obstruction to his animalism?
There is no question that one who lives life without self-control and discipline, without purpose and direction - without holiness - will very likely, perhaps inevitably, hurt other people.
But there is something else going on here. Being holy, as Rabbi Berman notes, not only leads us to a discipline where we don’t hurt others, but, is also an end itself. Above all, “Be holy” means, “Have the courage to be different.” That is the root meaning of kadosh in Hebrew. It means something distinctive and set apart. You see, the Torah doesn’t just say “you shall be holy”, but finishes the verse with “because I the Lord your God am holy.”
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out:
“Be holy for I the Lord your God am holy” is one of the most counter-intuitive sentences in the whole of religious literature. How can we be like God? He is infinite, we are finite. He is eternal, we are mortal. He is vaster than the universe, we are a mere speck on its surface. Yet, says the Torah, in one respect we can be.
God is in but not of the world. So we are called on to be in but not of the world. We don’t worship nature. We don’t follow fashion. We don’t behave like everyone else just because everyone else does. We don’t conform. We dance to a different music.
We must have the courage of our convictions. We must have the courage to be different when we need to. We must have the courage to do what’s right, even if if means going beyond the law, customs, and etiquette — and to avoid doing what’s wrong, even if there are no laws or rules against it. Deep down in our heart, we often know what the right thing to do is, it’s just that doing it is difficult.
Following the rules is not enough. We each have a Divine spark of life inside of us that is, perhaps, obscured by the fact that we have a body and physical needs. Let that Divine spark of life shine, stand tall, be holy! Each one of us has the capability of doing so.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are a study community, naming our DK series for the Dvar Torah tradition. No great level of scholarship is required, but respect, friendliness, and a willingness to learn from Judaic viewpoint are. The Dvar Torah series is not the place to argue over who (or Who) wrote the Torah, but, rather, an examination of what the actual text is trying to say.
Newcomers and guests can get their bearings from our host-group's profile & our recent posts. To add our series to your stream, hover on DvarTorah in the tag-list down the left side of this post & click on the follow-heart ♥ there