TORAH TALK
Kedoshim - Leviticus 19:1-20:27
Love is a Many Splendored Thing
Kedoshim - Leviticus 19:1-20:27
Love is a Many Splendored Thing
Children are commonly taught the ways of the world by easy maxims to remember: “don’t talk with your mouth full,” “look both ways before crossing the street,” and one of my favorites, “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” These simple rules have deeper resonance when we consider that talking with food in your mouth could make you choke, not paying attention when crossing the street could kill you, and speaking ill of other people could damage your reputation and ostracize you from community.
We teach a kind of scrutiny of behavior because sometimes the simple everyday actions of an individual can be raised to sacred proportions while maintaining a profoundly human quality. Parashat Kedoshim highlights many of these laws in a collection known as the holiness code. Holiness is difficult to define except by comparison to what is profane or ordinary. The comparison is meaningful in that every week at the conclusion of Shabbat we acknowledge and bless the differentiation possible between Shabbat and the rest of the week, between the ordinary and the extraordinary. The root of the Hebrew word kadosh—k-d-s—is found even in the ancient Akkadian, meaning that which is set aside, separated for, or delineated; and can be found some 830 times in the Torah.
We might differentiate between two kinds of holiness articulated in the text. The first is a statement of being: “kedoshim t’hiyu ki kadosh ani Adonai,” “Be holy,” says God, “because I am holy” (Lev. 20:26). In other words, there is an innate, intrinsic quality to holiness—and we humans are “done”—there is no more to do because we are already holy. The second kind of holiness implies that there is a long list of actions humans might/should do in order to become holy. I believe both variations of holiness to be instructive, as one is an affirmation and the other an aspiration.
Honoring one’s parents, observing Shabbat, leaving the edges of the fields bare for the needy, not placing a stumbling block before the blind or cursing the deaf all contribute to the experience of the holy in life. The Torah imagines that God’s message to the people is that their actions and behavior should reach a level of holiness because God’s essence is holy. Holiness is achieved not by individuals alone, but by a collective consciousness to emulate what are understood to be divine attributes.
At the heart of the matter is a collection of verses that result in what is called by the great sage Hillel as the greatest teaching of Torah. Leviticus 19:17-18 teaches: Don’t hate your kinsman in your heart; reprove your kinsman but incur no guilt on his account; Don’t take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen; love your neighbor as yourself. The last part of the verses, love your neighbor as yourself, is the rule that people remember, and we often get caught up in the question of whether such love is truly possible.
But it seems to me that the last commandment to love one’s neighbor is really only possible once the three commandments that come before it are followed. In order to love at all there must be an absence of hate. Offering tochecha, a loving rebuke, to another must be done in a way so as not to lose perspective, thereby incurring guilt. When one has been wronged, seeking vengeance or bearing a grudge ultimately hurts the accuser as much as the accused. When one is able to live by the first three maxims, only then might it be possible to love another as oneself.
Love is an everyday action that de-trivializes the ordinary. Holiness can be experienced when we can say, “I am loved, and yet, there is still more love I can share in the universe.” All the rest is commentary, now go and learn, and do it.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yael Ridberg
We teach a kind of scrutiny of behavior because sometimes the simple everyday actions of an individual can be raised to sacred proportions while maintaining a profoundly human quality. Parashat Kedoshim highlights many of these laws in a collection known as the holiness code. Holiness is difficult to define except by comparison to what is profane or ordinary. The comparison is meaningful in that every week at the conclusion of Shabbat we acknowledge and bless the differentiation possible between Shabbat and the rest of the week, between the ordinary and the extraordinary. The root of the Hebrew word kadosh—k-d-s—is found even in the ancient Akkadian, meaning that which is set aside, separated for, or delineated; and can be found some 830 times in the Torah.
We might differentiate between two kinds of holiness articulated in the text. The first is a statement of being: “kedoshim t’hiyu ki kadosh ani Adonai,” “Be holy,” says God, “because I am holy” (Lev. 20:26). In other words, there is an innate, intrinsic quality to holiness—and we humans are “done”—there is no more to do because we are already holy. The second kind of holiness implies that there is a long list of actions humans might/should do in order to become holy. I believe both variations of holiness to be instructive, as one is an affirmation and the other an aspiration.
Honoring one’s parents, observing Shabbat, leaving the edges of the fields bare for the needy, not placing a stumbling block before the blind or cursing the deaf all contribute to the experience of the holy in life. The Torah imagines that God’s message to the people is that their actions and behavior should reach a level of holiness because God’s essence is holy. Holiness is achieved not by individuals alone, but by a collective consciousness to emulate what are understood to be divine attributes.
At the heart of the matter is a collection of verses that result in what is called by the great sage Hillel as the greatest teaching of Torah. Leviticus 19:17-18 teaches: Don’t hate your kinsman in your heart; reprove your kinsman but incur no guilt on his account; Don’t take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen; love your neighbor as yourself. The last part of the verses, love your neighbor as yourself, is the rule that people remember, and we often get caught up in the question of whether such love is truly possible.
But it seems to me that the last commandment to love one’s neighbor is really only possible once the three commandments that come before it are followed. In order to love at all there must be an absence of hate. Offering tochecha, a loving rebuke, to another must be done in a way so as not to lose perspective, thereby incurring guilt. When one has been wronged, seeking vengeance or bearing a grudge ultimately hurts the accuser as much as the accused. When one is able to live by the first three maxims, only then might it be possible to love another as oneself.
Love is an everyday action that de-trivializes the ordinary. Holiness can be experienced when we can say, “I am loved, and yet, there is still more love I can share in the universe.” All the rest is commentary, now go and learn, and do it.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yael Ridberg