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We have a double-header of a parsha this week: Acharei-Mot and Kedoshim. Kedoshim, as its name implies, is focused on kedusha, or holiness. This is not to be confused with purity: being pure does not mean one is holy, and one can act holy while being impure. So what exactly is holiness? Many of us, when asked, conjure up images of celestial beings, halos, bright white light. How can human beings be holy?
The Hebrew word Kadosh, holiness, literally means set apart. To say someone is holy to say that they are set apart from the rest. For example, we have found ancient jugs in the land of Israel inscribed with kdsh l’mlch, holy to the king, or rather, set apart for the king. Once you understand holiness as meaning set apart, what it means to be holy, and why God commands it, becomes more obvious. God says to Moshe קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי, you shall be holy, for I am holy. The Israelites are described as holy to God, that is, set apart for God, to worship God. And God describes, in detail throughout the Torah, what it means to be set apart for God, what it means to worship God.
It is noteworthy that, in the beginning of Kedoshim as God gives a basic overview of what it means to be holy, that God blends the obvious with the not-so obvious. Do not worship idols, how to offer sacrifices, setting aside first fruits for God: these are all obvious ways in which the Israelites must set aside for God. But mixed in with those laws are the ethical laws: you must leave the corners of your fields for the poor. Do not put a stumbling block in front of the blind. How do observing those laws set us apart for God?
We say in our daily liturgy and in the Psalms that God cares for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. That makes God holy—set apart from the rest of the world, because unfortunately, the world tends to not be good at caring for those in need. If we want to follow God’s example, and also live a moral life, that also makes us holy, set apart from the rest of the world by virtue of doing the right thing.
That might sound lonely. But one of the goals of Judaism is to increase holiness in the world, to make and more and more of the world set apart by doing mitzvot and doing the right thing. And we hope that we eventually come to a time where none of the world is holy, because the entire world is holy.
Shabbat Shalom!
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