Parashat Kedoshim, near the Torah’s center in fact constitutes a central pillar in the Torah’s spiritual message: being kedoshim, being holy.

In the portion’s opening words, Gd instructs Moses to speak to kol adat b’nei Yisrael – the entire assembly of Israelites, which is an unusual wording. Our sages state that these words were spoken in the presence of a gathering of the whole assembly because they contain in addition to ritual elements, most of the essential ethical principles of the Torah, including, according to some, a restatement of the Ten Commandments.

We can see from this opening that spirituality in the Torah, being holy, is not an amorphous quest of the individual soul, but a calling to the entire community. Additionally, it has been pointed out that no one individual can fulfill all these commandments, but “all Israel are dependent on one another”, and there can and must be a communal fulfillment of Gd’s will.

Ramban, and other commentators, see “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your Gd am holy” to be a commandment in itself, but surely it is in fact the goal of all the commandments. Ramban cites the phenomenon of the naval b’rshut haTorah, a person who punctiliously performs all the specific commandments, but, nevertheless, acts in a base fashion. The command to be holy, he argues, is to prevent such a contradiction between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. It provides the general matrix of the Mitzvot – an ongoing, sustained striving to be a people of unique exemplary behavior, a holy people reflecting Gd’s holiness.

Striving to achieve holiness, even if as finite beings, we cannot reach it, is noted, it has been suggested, in the text itself. The word Kadosh is written fully, with a letter vav, when referring to Gd, but when referring to people it is written incompletely, without the vav. Nevertheless, the pursuit of holiness, the ongoing attempt to elevate one’s actions through religious study and imitatio dei, is the mark of a Jewishly led life.

How does the potion encompass kol adat benei Yisrael – the entire community of Israelites, today? Being holy because Gd is holy provides spiritual energy for the religious population; but, besides this, a historical motivation is given – being brought out of Egypt. The words “ I am the Lord your Gd who freed you from Egypt” are repeated here, (as in so many other parts of the Torah) like a heartbeat. Thus the purpose of Jewish history and Jewish action - to not become another Egypt, or another Uganda or America or Fiji – commits those among us who usually don’t think of ourselves in religious categories. Distinctiveness is one of the meanings of holiness.

After a long list of moral imperatives, including to judge righteously, to refrain from vengeance, not to bear a grudge, the entire community is invited to unite around the central charge of this central portion; “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This, states Rabbi Akiva in the Talmud, is the Klal gadol, the fundamental ethical principle of the Torah. He then goes on to suggest that loving your neighbor as yourself – empathy and consideration toward the other - needs to inform all our acts of social intercourse. Indeed this empathy is spelled out a few verses later when we are enjoined to love also the ger - the stranger or alien – as oneself. Just in case the possibility of empathy in this case is not as easily grasped, the Torah underscores it by suggesting we remember how we were once strangers in Egypt.

But while Rabbi Akiva claims that this Golden Rule is the fundamental principle, his colleague in the Talmud, Ben Azzai, disagrees, arguing that there is an even more fundamental principle: the verse in Genesis which states: This is the account of the descendents of Adam: In the day the Gd created humans, He created them in His image.

Ben Azzai seems to be arguing that to forge a positive relationship with fellow human beings is not always a matter of love. More fundamental than loving one’s neighbor is recognizing that whether one loves one’s neighbor or whether one dislikes one’s neighbor, one is connected to that neighbor by the fact that we all share a common Father, and a divine image. For Ben Azzai, then, such things as mutual understanding, tolerance, pluralism and peaceful coexistence are not a matter of good will – or liberal thinking – but part and parcel of the human condition – not a matter of love but a matter of life. Gd created us equal, and in our striving for Gd-like holiness, we cannot do less than recognize each other’s humanity.

It is not recorded in the Talmud, but perhaps, after listening to Ben Azzai, Rabbi Akiva might have added the hope that, from the recognition of the mutual interdependence of Adam’s descendents, will emerge ve’ahavta lereacha kamocha – a relationship of neighborly love.

Recent Articles by Rabbi Ben Hollander

• Vaera: Peace on Earth Good Will to Men - January 3rd, 2008
• Qedoshim: Striving to be holy - May 5th, 2006

Categories: Qedoshim, Vayyiqra-Leviticus
Tags: Bo, human rights, ISM, judge, neighborly, palestinians, peace, peaceful, rest, settlers