Aspirations to Holiness and Divinity
As this week is a little bit off in terms of the alignment between the Reform and broader Diaspora calendar post-Pesach, we embrace for 2 weeks (totally worth it!) one of the most significant portions in the Torah: K’doshim. It contains what is known as the “Holiness Code,” a list of key mitzvot that essentially amount to the minimum requirements for menschlikeit. And though that list is a central focus, it is the few words that brace these ethical mandates that make them even more meaningful.
The chapter begins with God asking the Israelites to 1) “be holy”—and who knows what that really means; and to 2) be like God—a tall and inscrutable order even without the ambiguity of what “holiness” means. And so, the list that follows is a realization of what being holy and being like God entails: Thoughtful tzedakah, fairness in business and the courts, even down to the psycho-social aspirations of not holding a grudge nor seeking vengeance.
But the bottom line of all—a concept that is universal amongst faith traditions and considered the distillation of the entire Torah: Love your neighbor as yourself—perhaps one of the earliest and most notable iterations of what came to be known as the Golden Rule. And so, as is often the case, Judaism roots the seemingly unattainable in the eminently accessible, providing us with true agency to bring God’s vision for the world to fruition.
Rabbi Daniel Weiner