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By: Jordan Pollack
קדשים תהיו כי קדוש אני ה' אלקיכםYou shall be holy because I, G-d, your G-d am holy.
It is difficult to understand how mere mortals can be requested to become holy because G-d is holy. This problem was stated simply by Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg in his sefer Iyun Tefila:{1}
כי איך ישוער לגוש עפר להתדמות ולהשתוות אל עצם קדושתו שהוא נעלה לאין חקר ומרומם לבלי שיעור.How can a clod of earth (Man) compare to the Essence of Holiness which can not be understood nor can be measured?
Rabbi David Tzvi Hoffman, the Rector of the Rabbiner-Seminar in Berlin until his death in 1921, in his commentary to ספר ויקרא explains further:
בכל ספר ויקרא מלת קדוש כשהוא מוסבה אל ה', כתובה מלאה, כלומר בוא"ו, ואילו כשם תואר לבן אדם כתובה תמיד חסר וא"ו...כדי ללמדינו, שבעצם רק ה' הוא הקדוש המוחלט...ואילו בן- אדם יכול להשיג את הקדושה רק באופן יחסיIn the entire Sefer VaYikra the word Kadosh, when referring to G-d is written Maleh, meaning with the letter Vav, however when it is used as an adjective for man it is written Chasser, without the Vav…to teach us that only G-d is the absolute Holy One…whereas man is only able to attain holiness in a relative manner. {2}
It is extremely difficult to dismiss the significance of this mitzvah, especially since it is repeated four additional times in Vayikra in basically the same form (11:44, 11:45, 20:7, 20:26),
והתקדשתם והייתם קדשים כי קדוש אניוהייתם קדשים כי קדוש אניוהתקדשתם והייתם קדשים כי אני ה' אלקיכםוהייתם לי קדשים כי קדוש אני ה'
One can easily conclude that we are commanded to strive to reach the highest level of personal perfection. In fact this is how Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal) in his famous Musar work, Mesilat Yesharim seems to have understood this mitzvah. Basing himself on the famous Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair (Avoda Zara, 20b) he describes in detail nine steps to reach the ultimate level of Kedusha. The steps are listed in the very much over-simplified table below.
With all due respect to Ramchal, my difficulty with his approach is that it seems that it is intended for only those unique individuals with the temperament to control all their desires. Most people would have a difficult time following his program for character perfection. On the other hand, we should expect that the Mitzvot are commandments which an average person can perform, not just highly motivated individuals. Another difficulty with Ramchal is that his step-by step program is predicated on the view that Kedusha is the highest rung of the ladder. However, his version of the Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair is the only one which lists kedusha as the highest rung. In the following table other versions of the same Baraita show that Kedusha may be only a middle rung in the ladder – not that attaining that level is easy – but certainly more within average human reach.
In contrast to Ramchal’s approach that Kedusha is the pinnacle of character perfection, Chazal seem to define קדשים תהיו as פרושים תהיו - Be separate {3}! Rashi seems to understand this command in the context of the adjacent commandments. “Separate from sexual immorality”{4} or “This means a separation from idolatry.”{5} Rashi appears to limit being holy to not violating major negative commandments. Ramban prefers defining holiness as refraining from overindulging in permissible actions. Both explain holiness in a negative sense of not doing certain actions. While there is much positive to say about someone who can control his negative impulses, do we today necessarily consider that person holy? We can also ask, how does separating ourselves from actions which G-d is not associated with, like idolatry or sex or eating, fulfill the second part of the sentence “because I am holy?”
To explain this further, consider the Rabbi of Nemirov, in the fictional tale by Y.L. Peretz, “If Not Higher.” The rabbi, who is patterned after the hassidic rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov, disappears every Friday morning of Selichot and an untrusting Litvak follows him only to discover that the rabbi, dressed as a Russian peasant goes into the woods and cuts wood for a sick, Jewish woman and lights a stove fire in her broken down shack as he recites selichot. It would seem that the rabbi would not qualify according to Chazal’s definition of פרושים היו, as being holy. Yet the Litvak in the story adds when people say that the rabbi ascends to heaven for selichot, “If not higher.” He implicitly understands that the rabbi is very holy. Is this common understanding of holiness a mistake?
One example from the Navi Yeshayahu should demonstrate that kedusha cannot only be defined by the performance of negative precepts. In the Haftora for Yom Kippur (57:14 – 58:14) Yeshayahu introduces Hashem as “The high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place.” What follows seems to be a description of who is holy and who is not. In other words, the reason for introducing Hashem as holy is to compare Him to the Jews of Yeshayahu’s day.
They seek me daily and wish to know my ways…They did not forsake by righteous lawsThey delight to draw near unto G-d.
The people the prophet is addressing are shomrei mitzvot. However, they ask:
Why have we fasted if You do not answer us?Why have we afflicted ourselves if You ignore us?
G-d answers them:
On your fast day you pursued business and exact your payments…Is this the type of fast that I have chosen?...Is it just to spread sackcloth and ashes under oneself?Will you call this a fast, a day of acceptance to G-d?Is not this the fast I have chosen?To loosen the chains of wickedness…To let the oppressed go free?Is it not to share your bread with the hungryTo bring the homeless into your house?When you see the naked should you not clothe himAnd from your own flesh you should not hide yourself?Then your light shall break forth like the morning…And when you call G-d will answer.
Observing negative commandments, like not eating on a fast day, is meaningless if their observance doesn’t result in having feelings for the needy and acting on those feelings by helping. The navi, by introducing Hashem in this section as Kadosh, emphasizes that a person who does have feelings for the needy, and by inference performs other positive commandments, is considered to be Kadosh just like Hashem Himself. Such a person is emulating G-d Who “supports the fallen, heals the sick, and frees those who are bound.{6}”
A different approach is taken by Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Berlin, in his HaEmeik Davar at the end of our Parsha (20:26). He points out that there is a difference between kedusha and havdala. Both mean separation, but havdala is separation for personal or logical reasons. A person may be disgusted by eating insects so he abstains from them. Kedusha is separation for no other reason than G-d commanded us, there is no logical reason to avoid those actions. The goal is that all of one’s actions should be leShem shamayim, even when you naturally would avoid an action it must be done because G-d commanded it be done {7}. “Be holy” should then be understood as “Make sure all your actions should be leShem shamayim. Make sure your motives are pure.”
A similar approach, but from a different angle, is taken by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. At the end of Parashat Shimini he describes in great detail the laws of purity. He then comments:
…we can form some idea of the spiritual and ennobling influence (the laws of purity) could wield on the nation…and each individual member of it… The consecration of the morally free nature of human beings was spread over everything which the hand touches or does. All work and craftsmanship then stands in service of this calling of Man to be morally free and near to G-d. The chisel and the needle, the weaving-stool and the kitchen utensils all work with an eye to the laws of morality which from the Heights of Moriah send the spirit of holiness into the ordinary life of the people. The lowest workman or workwoman feel themselves spiritually elevated by the consciousness which brought into their work…all commonness and brutality, self-depreciation and degeneration vanish and everything stand erect to create a People of God {9}.
According to Hirsch, the laws of Tumea and Tahara have the ability to elevate each person, and indeed each object, into the service of G-d. This elevation of everyone and everything in the service of G-d is holiness. Our Chazal, even after the destruction of the temple, attempted to retain the laws of Tumea and Tahara by eating their חולין, non-consecrated, food על טהרת הקדש- by adhering to the laws of Tahara that would apply to eating the sacrifices. Today we retain one practice of our chachamin in this area and that is Netilat Yadaim. The Gemara states:
And you shall make yourselves holy – refers to washing hands before the meal; And you shall be holy – refers to washing after the meal {10}.
We attempt to remind ourselves that all our actions are to be leShem shamayim. We must elevate even common, mundane activities. Some people have the practice of raising their hands and saying {11} שאו ידיכם קדש - Raise your hands in holiness - when they wash their hands to remind themselves that they are dedicating their hands in the service of G-d for all their activities.
In conclusion, while the commandment of קדשים תהיו may at the surface appear to be an impossible goal to reach there are various approaches to making this commandment a very realistic goal and perhaps primary objective in our daily lives.
Footnotes
{1} Quoted in Peninei HaKetav VehaKabbala, Hillel Cooperman, p 368. Jerusalem, 1990
{2} 11:45
{3} ספרא קדושים פרשה א ד"ה וידבר יקוק
{4} 19:2
{5} 20:7
{6} Shemoneh Esrei
{7} See also Rashi
{8} The Pentateuch, Vol. III (part 1), translated by Isaac Levy. p. 318, London, 1962
{9} ברכות נג:
{10} Tehillim 134:2
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