Parashat Kedoshim

The Challenge of Holiness
This week’s parashah, קדושים (Kedoshim – A sacred people) opens with a kind of mission statement: All of B’nei Yisrael should or must strive for kedushah, holiness.

“Be holy” – “קדושים תהיו,” the opening verse commands, “כי קדוש אני” – “because I Hashem, your God, am holy”.

But what does it mean for a person to be kadosh (sacred), specifically, like God? If you’re wondering, you’re in good company.

The ancient rabbis, as encapsulated in the Talmud (Sota 14a), ask a similar question:

 

?וכי אפשר לו לאדם להלך אחרי שכינה
.אלא הלך אחרי מידותיו של הקב”ה
.מה הוא מלביש ערומים, אף אתה תלביש ערומים
.הקב”ה ביקר חולים. אף אתה בקר חולים

“Is it possible for a human to be like God?” The Talmud answers:
“Rather one should act as God does:
God clothes the naked [in the case of Adam and Eve] – so too shall you
clothe the naked. God visited the sick [in the case of Avraham], so too shall
you visit the sick…”

Judaism is an aspirational religion. We are charged to rise above – to elevate our day-to-day behavior to the heights that God has modeled, and in doing so we become partner with God in creating a more just world.

The very next pasuk shares:

 

לא תקלל חרש, ולפני עור לא תתן מכשול

Do not curse the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind.

We are instructed to not follow our basest impulse, but rather to appreciate the challenges that others face, and to respond with direct action. Is it enough to not be evil? Not according to the commentators. The Turkish rabbi, Moshe Alshich, relayed that “The easiest thing is to hide from the world and its follies, seclude oneself in a room and be a holy hermit. What the Torah desires, however, is that a person should be part and parcel of all the congregation of the children of Israel AND be holy.”

Being in relationship with a community demands of us to stretch, to find common ground, and to deal with the challenges that living and working with other humans provide. The Torah provides us with that challenge.