Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site erc3ba.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!mhuxm!mhuxi!erc3ba!gth From: gth@erc3ba.UUCP (A.Y.Feldblum) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Dvar Torah : Achare-Kedoshim Message-ID: <136@erc3ba.UUCP> Date: Tue, 30-Apr-85 15:24:38 EDT Article-I.D.: erc3ba.136 Posted: Tue Apr 30 15:24:38 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 1-May-85 04:00:10 EDT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Short Hills, NJ Lines: 112 ------------------------------------------- note: I am finally posting from my machine, so replying through the news software should get back to me. Hopefully posting will stay on for me. Avi Feldblum {allegra, ihnp4}!pruxa!ayf or !erc3ba!gth -------------------------------------------- DVAR TORAH - PARSHAT KEDOSHIM The second parsha of this weeks double parsha is Kedoshim (Leviticus 19). The parsha begins with a pasuk (verse) that is difficult to understand at first reading. Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them: Ye shall be holy (kedoshim teheyu); for I the Lord your God am holy. [Trans. from Jewish Publication Society translation] What is the meaning of the term kedusha. It is usually translated, as is done above, as 'holy'. I do not think that is an adequate translation, and for the rest of this article I will not translate the word. To understand the term, we need to understand what is being asked of us in the command 'be kadosh'. A second point to notice is that the command is prefaced by 'speak unto "all" the congregation..'. This is one of only a very few times the word "all" is added to this phrase. The Sifrah ( Tanaitic Medrash - a commentary on the Torah written by the authors of the Mishnah - on Leviticus) takes note of the above point, saying: Speak unto all the congregation... this teaches us that this parsha was said in Hakhel - in the presence of all Israel gathered together. Why was it said in Hakhal? Because the majority of the body of the Torah is hanging from it. What is about to be told to Bnei Yisrael is of such importance, it must be told to the entire nation gathered together, and the nature of it is that on it depends the very essence of the Torah. There are some commentators ( led by the Targum Yonatan - Yonatan ben Uziel) who explain that what is referred to is that all the ten commandments can be found in the following chapter. There are other commentators, however, who understand it to refer to the statement of 'kedoshim teheyu - be kadosh'. The Sifrah gives us our first definition of kedusha. It says: Be kadosh - be parush - separated. For I the Lord your God am kadosh - If you make yourselves kadosh, I will count it as though you have made me kadosh. Do not think however that you actually make me holy, says the Sifrah, for it says I "am" holy. Rashi expands on the Sifrah - separate yourselves from illicit relationships (arayot), because wherever one finds a fence removing one from an illicit relationship, one finds kedusha. Rashi understands the statement to refer back to the previous parsha where many of the forbidden relationships are enumerated and explicitly forbidden. According to this, we have to understand the Sifrah as saying something along the lines that if we do not take care in the matter of Arayot, we threaten the entire foundation of the Torah. This restricting of the scope of the command be kadosh is not accepted by many of the commentators. The Rambam, for example, understands this statement as being equal to 'observe all the laws of the Torah'. The Ramban also bases his interpretation on the Sifrah, but gives it a more universal and profound meaning. He builds instead on the statement of Chazal (Yevomot f20 side 1) - Make yourselves kadosh through that which is permitted to you. The Ramban explains that one can take the laws of the Torah and do nothing that explicitly violates any of them, and still behave in a disgusting manner. He calls this a 'naval ber'shut hatorah' - one who is disgusting within the confines of the Torah. It is this behaviour that the Torah comes now to warn against. Now that specific things have been forbidden, you should pattern your life to 'separate' yourselves and limit yourselves from overindulging in the permitted pleasures of this world to the extent that you might sink into disgusting behaviour. What is being commanded here is an attitude, and that is why all of the Torah depends on it. The attitude: I can do anything I want that is not explicitly forbidden by the Torah, is not a valid attitude. Rather the attitude must be, is this behaviour consistent with 'be kadosh'. Thus this is clearly deserving of the importance of being said to "all" of Israel, and indeed the body of the Torah depends on it, for it is the definition of an attitude that encompasses ones relationship to all activities. This concept is taken one step further by the Malbim. The command of 'be kadosh' means to separate oneself and elevate oneself from the material world. There are various levels one can achieve. The most basic level is simply to separate oneself from those things that are expressly forbidden by the Torah. One can then rise to higher levels of kedusha as one separates oneself from material pleasures and worldly matters. This, the Malbim explains, is the meaning of the last part of the Sifra. 'If you make yourself kadosh, I will count it as though you have made me kadosh.' Hashem (God) governs the world through the agency of the natural order, although Hashem himself is above any order. If Bnei Yisrael are able to reach a level of kedusha where they rise above the material, they will cause Hashem to deal with the world not through the natural order, but in a 'direct' supernatural way that is closer to Hashem's essence. Thus the way Hashem will act (but not the nature of Hashem) is dependent on the behaviour of Bnei Yisrael - I will count it as though 'you' made 'me' kadosh, but not, the Sifrah says, that you actually made me kadosh as the pasuk says - for I 'am' kadosh. This by no means exhaust the opinions on the interpretation of the command 'be kadosh', but I hope it gives a clearer picture of the magnitude and importance of the command than the simple translation - be holy - may have suggested. A good Shabbat to everyone. Avi Feldblum uucp: {allegra,ihnp4}!pruxa!ayf or !erc3ba!gth