Entering Into Our Perfectability

This week we read two Torah portions: Acharei Mot, which means After the deaths, referring to the deaths of Aaron’s two sons, and Kedoshim, meaning holiness. Acharei Mont contains the atonement rituals for Yom Kippur, performed by the High Priest, laws that request that all meat to be eaten first be presented as an offering to God, and a list of forbidden marriages. Kedoshim, also known as the Holiness Code, is one of the most important sections to know about in the Torah. It begins, “You shall be holy, for I, the Eternal Your God am Holy.”

What follows is a guide for living a life of holiness, including a repetition of most of the Ten Commandments, but also laws that are impossible or nearly impossible to fulfill, such as: You shall not lie to one another. Don’t Gossip; do not seek revenge and do not bear a grudge; you shall not hate anyone in your heart; and the most impossible commandment in the Torah, Love your neighbor as yourself. Given that these laws are nearly impossible to live up to, how shall we regard them and the process of becoming holy? Clearly these laws are goals and not strict commandments like do not kill and do not steal. However they are also not merely an ideal or utopian vision.

Rabbi Tarfon taught in Pirkei Avot (2:21), It is not up to you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it.” In his book Paradigm Shift, Rabbi Zalman Schacter Shalomi spoke about God as a process, and the book God is a Verb by Rabbi David Cooper uses this understanding as a theme. We can regard holiness in this same light, not as a state of being, but as process. The willingness to enter into our own perfectability, then, is where holiness resides. And notice that most of the impossible or at least very difficult commandments have a large inner component: don’t lie, don’t run to gossip, don’t seek revenge or bear a grudge, don’t hate, love your neighbor as yourself.

We are being asked to turn the negative thoughts and impulses that we all have into positives: to always strive to speak the truth, to not talk about others, to love, to extend compassion and understanding concerning the mistakes of others; to regard others as extensions of ourselves and not separate from ourselves, to be generous and giving, to accept rather that reject and to extend ourselves rather than only protect ourselves.

Hearing these laws is especially meaningful in the period between Passover and Shavuot when we count the Omer and attempt to purify ourselves so that we can metaphorically be worthy to stand at Sinai once more and receive the Ten Commandments. Abraham Joshua Heschl wrote: “We have learned from Jewish History that if a person is not more than human, then he is less than human. Judaism is an attempt to prove that in order to be a person , you have to be more than a person; that in order to be a people we have to be more than a people. Israel was made to be a holy people “ (God in Search of Man).

This holiness code is spoken of in the Torah is in the plural: addressed to the entire Israelite community. We can look at Israel at 65 and see that attitudes are slowly evolving there, as this still very young country is finding its way toward balancing protection of its citizens and openness, taking care of its people and managing a strong economy, being respectful to each group and religious entity.

The commandment to be holy is unequivocal. God expects us not only to understand the laws but to sincerely try to fulfill them. An additional way to understand this commandment is as prophecy: I, God, am leading you to holiness, slowly, perhaps over a very long time, evolutionary time, but surely. And you shall become holy. The Kotzker Rebbe said, “You shall be holy,” means that we should always be ready to accept holiness, “for I am Holy,” means, for I am always ready to help you attain it. May we know that the Eternal is there, rooting for us to take upon ourselves the holiness that we can realize, and may we, with God’s help, make beautiful, loving, holy choices.