A BISSEL TORAH: KEDOSHIM
By: Suri Davis
This week’s Torah portion let’s us know that just as G-d is separate and holy, we should be separate and holy. Just as G-d’s existence is independent of the material world, we should strive to be independent of the material world that pulls us down, that is base and tends toward entropy.
Early on in the Torah we learn that Adam and Eve’s son, Kain, wanted to bring a sacrifice to G-d, and G-d rejected it. When his broher, Abel, brought a sacrifice, G-d accepted it. Kain was suffused with jealousy and immediately killed Abel.
Jacob had twelve sons. The eldest son of his beloved wife Rachel was Joseph, whom he loved. Jacob gave him a special coat that caused his brothers to be jealous, among his other acts, which caused jealousy. The brothers threw him in a pit, sold him into slavery, and lied to their father that he was dead.
G-d offered the Torah to other nations, and when they learned of the limitations written in the Torah as to behavior and morality, they rejected it. It was given to the Jews. It made the Jews into the chosen nation. We agreed to abide by the Torah, accept the constraints of morality and strive to be G-dlike by cultivating our behavior, activating within ourselves the image of G-d that was blown into us at creation, striving to actualize the potential within ourselves to be in G-d’s image.
Would there be satisfaction in a marathon runner, if you drove him from the beginning line to the finish line and gave him his medal. We believe that the efforts he puts in to prepare for the marathon, the time he puts in, the food he eats, the restraints he puts on himself so he can succeed, and of course the endurance while hitting physical and psychological barriers as he runs, gives him his satisfaction when crossing the finish line.
G-d put obstacles in our path in our marathon to get closer to Him. He put temptation, material and physical pleasures to tempt us off our path. And as Jacob bestowed his gift on Joseph and caused jealousy, G-d bestowed the Torah to the Jews which causes the other nations to envy us and hate us for our mere survival. The fact that we defy base immoral acts, that we dare defy the gravity of the material world, that we dare to be different, is enough of an incite to have the other nations desirous of squashing us, torturing us, be open in their hatred of us, and their open desire to pull us down to see if we will cave in and defy the heritage that was bestowed upon us, or whether we have the courage to stay true to that heritage and die as martyrs to sanctify G-d’s name. G-d has made Himself as an ideal of morality and challenged us to be like Him, with the obstacles placed in our way. Kedoshim tihiyu/you shall be separate, the moral imperative.
The portion then gives us a road map as to how to accomplish this Godliness. In last week’s torah portion, he gave us the medicine before the illness. The parshah, Acharei Mot, started with the holiday of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. It let us know that in our attempts to live our life on earth, we shall surely stumble and sin, but there is a day of atonement to repair our souls and to meditate as to how we return to our spiritual path. Once we know that there is a provision to repair our sins, bandages for our blisters as we run our marathon, it reduces our fear of moving forward in life, knowing we can repair our spirituality of necessary, a sin isn’t fatal.
This week’s torah portion goes right into how we attain our Godliness. Every day, G-d gives us what we need even though we don’t deserve it. He created the world with the attribute of judgment, Elokim, that our sinning would cause us to die, but realized quickly that we could not survive without compassion. The torah goes into fearing our parents, observing Sabbath, because I am your G-d. G-d is our third parent, which is why obeying our parents, all three of them is important. Just as our physical parents provided for our sustenance when we were born and helpless, G-d as our third parent, contributed to that sustenance and continues to sustain us. Refraining from work on the Sabbath, reveals that faith in G-d that He continues to sustain us. We take our hands off the driving wheel, and He takes over on Sabbath.
Then the Torah portion continues with laws pertaining to charity. That is truly Godliness, just as G-d sustains us, He gives us food, income and wealth to sustain others. As I bentsch, say Grace After Meals, where it states that G-d provides food for all, I wonder how we say that when we know there are those who are starving or who need help for their food, is G-d really providing for them? A few months ago, when I went to the Ohel, the hospitality room at the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s cemetery, in one of his speeches, he discussed this concept. We know that money does not fall from the sky. G-d gives income to us and we are supposed to give some of our excess, at least a tenth, to those who are less fortunate. The fact that there are some who are needy it is because there are those with excess who are meant to sustain them. This is revealed in the Book of Ruth, which we read on Shavuoth, where Elimelech, a wealthy man, is punished for leaving his home so as to avoid providing for those in need during a famine.
The torah portion continues to discuss good deeds between man and his fellow man. This reveals the importance of these commandments in our striving to be Godlike.
Today, which is Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day in Israel, where they remember those who have fallen in their defense of our Jewish home land, and those who died just because they were Jews. The jealousy of the other nations. There are 14 Arab nations who comprise most of the square footage of the middle east, they do not fargin, bestow graciously, on the Jewish people their tiny square footage and existence.
And even though the nations continue to challenge our existence, tonight and tomorrow we celebrate the miracle in 1947 when G-d gave a moment of insight (and a little guilt) to the nations of the world, to provide a state the Jews could call their own. The miracles of a tiny nation defying their great enemies, war after war. Yom Haatzmaut commemorates miracles, ongoing miracles which permit the State of Israel to survive and thrive and be a light upon the nations. When disasters hit worldwide, Israel is there first to help in disaster relief. We care, that is our mission in our goal to be Godlike.
We honor those who died to sanctify G-d’s name, we thank G-d for the miracles He bestows so we can endure in our struggle to defy material gravity in our struggle to perfect our spirituality.
Shabbat shalom.
Suri