Shabbat Parshat Acharei Mot – Kedoshim 10 Iyar, 5770, April 24, 2010

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Acharei Mot – Kedoshim

Leviticus: 16:1-20:27

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel: We are now in the midst of the cycle of depressing, dismaying and dizzying days which carry us from depths of despair to heights of rapture as we journey from Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Day) through Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) to Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day). The leitmotif which informs these special days of mourning and celebrations is Kiddush Hashem: the martyrdom of Jews in the crematoria and on the battlefields of Israel reborn.

The word Kadosh expresses the overarching goal and defining characteristic of our nation and the central commandment of this week's Biblical portion to reflect a "definition" (as it were) of G-d Himself: "Speak to the entire witness-congregation of the children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, because I, the Lord your G-d, am holy" (Lev.19:2).

Rudolf Otto, in his groundbreaking work "The Idea of the Holy," sees G-d’s holiness as expressing the "mystical numinous" - a wholly otherness and awesome uniqueness. G-d is above and beyond the material or physical. He is totally free of the fetters and limitations of nature and instinctual human nature.

From this perspective, human beings achieve holiness when they too are free of the blandishments and seductions of immoral sexual drives, greed-induced bribes of money and power, and petty concerns of fame, envy and jealousy. When a Jew sacrifices his life for the eternal and spiritual values of his faith, he indeed becomes a Kadosh, a holy individual, having surrendered this physical world and his physical life for the eternity of bearing testimony to his faith and connecting with the Divine.

For Judaism, however, true holiness is to be achieved by living one's life in dedication to G-d's laws rather than by giving up one's life for the sake of those laws. The primary example of this is Isaac the son of Abraham, who is referred to by the Midrash as a "whole burnt offering" even after he descends from the binding on Mount Moriah when G-d commanded Abraham not to sacrifice his son, or even to cast his hand against the lad, but rather to dedicate Isaac to G-d in life!

What is the path to achieve holiness in daily living? It is by serving G-d through fulfillment of His commandments, and especially by loving our fellow human being. This is the fulfillment of the commandment that Rabbi Akiva called "the greatest rule of the Torah," the command which follows the charge to be holy: "You must love your neighbor as you love yourself, I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:18).

Instinctively, every human being sees himself as the center of the universe, and always looks out for "number one." A newborn baby starts out totally self-absorbed, seeing the entire world as an extension of him or herself. To love another means to leave room for another, to give of oneself to the other, to take from one's material possessions in order to make certain that the other is provided for. Indeed, the Hebrew word for love, ahavah, comes from the root verb "hav" which means "give."

When we make the blessing of sanctification (Kiddush, from Kadosh) over wine at the advent of every Sabbath and Festival, we take the wine goblet in the palm of our open hand, enclosing it with cupped fingers, but keeping our hand open to give to others. All of the assembled drink from that goblet of wine; there can be no sanctification without giving and loving.

The very commandment of Kiddushin, sanctified engagement between a bride and groom, emanates from the charge to "love your neighbor as you love yourself," (B.T. Kiddushin 41a). This is confirmed in one of the blessings under the nuptial canopy: "Rejoice, beloved and loving neighbors…" Marriage is the most intensive expression of loving one's neighbor as one loves oneself, as each spouse constantly gives to one another and actually merges as one in sexual union, producing a child who combines parts of each of them!

G-d is the source of sanctity; the ultimate Lover and the ultimate Giver. The Kabbalah teaches that G-d constricted and constrained Himself (as it were) to leave room for the other (tzimtzum); and He did this (as it were) because as Rav Haim Vital explains, the G-d of consummate love must have people other than Himself to love. These must be people with the capacity to choose against His will in order to truly be other, to be His partners and not His pawns. And it is His love for and belief in us which will eventually empower us to choose in accordance with His will and partner with Him in perfecting the world in the Kingship of the Divine…

To be like G-d and to walk in His ways means for us to love and to give to others just as He loves and gives to us. The following two Talmudic passages define G-d and sanctity in terms of His love and gifting to us:

"Rabbi Hama the son of Rabbi Hanina said: What is the meaning of the verse, ‘Follow the Lord your G-d’ (Deut 13:5)? If the Divine Presence is a devouring fire, how is that possible? He answered that just as G-d clothes the naked [as He clothed Adam and Eve after they sinned], so must you clothe the naked; just as He visited the sick [Abraham, after his circumcision] so must you visit the sick, just as He comforts the mourner [as He comforted Isaac after Abraham's death], so you must comfort the mourner and just as He buried the dead [G-d buried Moses], so must you bury the dead" (B.T. Sotah 14a).

And in the context of proper respect due to a President of the Sanhedrin, we are taught that when the rabbis were feasting at Rabban Gamliel's son's wedding, Rabban Gamliel, the President of the Sanhedrin, stood up and served them wine. He poured Rabbi Eliezer a glass of wine, but he would not accept it; he served Rabbi Yehoshua, who did accept. Rabbi Eliezer chided Rabbi Yehoshua, “How can you remain seated and permit the great Rabban Gamliel to stand and serve you wine?” Rabbi Yehoshua countered that Abraham our Father was greater than Rabban Gamliel, and he stood and served three Arab wanderers [so the angels appeared to be], “so why is it not fitting for the great Rabban Gamliel to serve us?” Rabbi Zadok had the last word: “…Does not the Holy One Blessed be He cause the winds to blow, raise up the clouds, bring down the rain, cause the earth to sprout vegetation, and set a table with food before every human being? If so, why not permit Rabban Gamliel to stand and serve us as well?” (B.T. Kiddushin 32b).

It now should be clear why every Sefardi Prayer Book opens with a prayer of Rav Haim Vital, in preparation for prayer and closeness to G-d on the basis of the verse "You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself." To be holy is to learn from G-d to love and serve your fellow human beings.

Shabbat Shalom

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