ACHAREI MOT_LEVITICUS XVI:1-XVIII:30 – KEDOSHIM LEVITICUS XIX:1-XX:27

One of the main functions of Yom Kippur is to serve as a means for attaining Tahara, spiritual purity. The forgiveness of sins that Yom Kippur allows the person to acquire purity from a religious prism. Toward the end of these chapters, the Tora exhorts Kema’ase Erets Mitsrayim asher yeshavtem ba, lo ta’asu, “do not repeat the actions that are proper to Egypt,” thereby warning that the Hebrews should not behave in accordance with Egyptian conduct, especially about sexual relations. 

The text continues with a series of prohibitions on incest, which is defined as consanguineous sexual relations between a man and his mother, sister, granddaughter, or aunt. Also included as incestuous is the relationship between the man and his father’s wife, his son’s wife, sister-in-law. In addition, sexual relations with a woman and her daughter, a woman and her granddaughter, a woman and her sister are prohibited. All these relationships are called Gilui arayot, “to show or uncover nudity.” Apparently, these practices were common in Egypt and even more so in Canaan, while a central idea in the Tora is the denial of the moral validity of the habits of these peoples. 

This behavior has antecedents since the time of Noa, when his son Cham observes the nakedness of his father and, according to some exegetes, has homosexual relations with the drunken father. According to the biblical text, both Mistrayim and Canaan were descendants of Cham. 

Centuries later, the Tora testifies that Sarai, wife of Avraham is kidnapped in the court of Phara’o. The episode of the seduction of Yosef by Potiphar’s wife stands out, a narrative that underline the prominence of sexual acts in the lives of the monarchs and potentates of these civilizations. 

Similar behavior is observed in the cities of Sedom and Amora, where Lot had resided. This fact comes to light after the cities were destroyed and the daughters of Lot had sexual relations with their father, although some exegetes reason that the daughters believed that the whole world had been destroyed and only through a sexual union with the father could humanity be given continuity.

In the early days of the exodus from Egypt, the Hebrews turn to the place called Ba’al Pe’or after the deity of that city and whose cult revolved around sexual acts and “sacred” prostitutes. According to some interpreters of the biblical text, when the Hebrews “remember” the fish they ate in Mitsrayim, the reference has to do with the prolific procreation of fish and sexual debauchery in Egypt, as opposed to the Ten Commandments, which place limits on sexual appetite.

Therefore, the patriarchs insisted that their sons seek wives among their relatives, who, although not monotheistic, were not immersed in the sexual aspect of idolatry.

Instruction about the practice of Brit Mila is intimately linked with a message about sexual activity. Even the Korban on Passover is related to this Mitsva, because the uncircumcised could not participate in the offering and celebration of the Passover Seder. 

The freedom gained through the exodus was conditioned, or rather intended to enable behavior governed by the Tora, as opposed to sexual habits related to idolatry. Therefore, on the evening of the holiest day of the Hebrew calendar, the evening of Yom Kippur, the Tora reading is about forbidden incestuous relationships.

While idolatry made an equation between the sexual act and the fertility of the land (at least that was the practice of the cult of Ba’al Pe’or), Judaism proposes that the abundance of rainfall and agricultural production are a consequence of the moral behavior of the individual. 

Indeed, that is the message we read in the Shema when God warns Vehaya im tishme’u el Mitsvotai, “and it will be, if you observe my instructions,” then the rains will fall in due time, and you will have a bountiful harvest. Although the prohibition on forbidden sexual relations is the responsibility of everyone, according to Ramban the Promised Land does not tolerate them. Ramban suggests that Rachel died on route when Jacob returned to the Land of Israel so that the patriarch would not simultaneously have two wives while residing in the holy land, even though the Tora had not been fully revealed then.

MITZVA: ORDINANCE OF THE TORA IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS 2 POSITIVE MITZVOT AND 26 PROHIBITIONS

1. Leviticus 16:2 The Kohen must not enter the Temple at any time (only for the Temple Service) and must not enter who is not a Kohen.
2. Leviticus 16:3 The Temple Service on Yom Kippur.
3. Leviticus 17:3,4 Do not ritually slaughter the offering outside the Temple courtyard.
4. Leviticus 17:13 Mitsva of covering the blood (after the rite of Shechita).
5. Leviticus 18:6 Not to have pleasure with people forbidden to the individual.
6. Leviticus 18:7 Not to have relations with one’s father.
7. Leviticus 18:7 Not to have relations with one’s mother.
8. Leviticus 18:8 Not to have relations with the father’s wife, even if she is not his mother.
9. Leviticus 18:9 Do not have relations with a sister, be she sister in any way.
10. Leviticus 18:10 Not to have relations with a son’s daughter.
11. Leviticus 18:10 Not to have relations with a daughter’s daughter.
12. Leviticus 18:10 Not to have sex with a daughter.
13. Leviticus 18:11 Not to have relations with the sister of a son, daughter of the same mother and a different husband.
14. Leviticus 18:12 Not to have relations with one’s father’s sister.
15. Leviticus 18:13 Not to have intercourse with one’s mother’s sister.
16. Leviticus 18:14 Not to have relations with one’s father’s brother.
17. Leviticus 18:14 Not to have relations with the wife of one’s father’s brother.
18. Leviticus 18:15 Not to have relations with a son’s wife.
19. Leviticus 18:16 Not to have relations with a brother’s wife.
20. Leviticus 18:17 Not to have relations with both a woman and her daughter.
21. Leviticus 18:17 Not to have relations with both a woman and his son’s daughter.
22. Leviticus 18:17 Not to have relations with both a woman and her daughter’s daughter.
23. Leviticus 18:18 Not to have relations with 2 sisters, while both are alive.
24. Leviticus 18:19 Not to have sex with a woman during menstruation.
25. Leviticus 18:21 Do not dedicate any son or daughter to the idolatry of Molech.
26. Leviticus 18:22 A man should not have intercourse with another man.
27. Leviticus 18:23 A man should not have sexual relations with animals.
28. Leviticus 18:23 A woman should not have sexual relations with animals.

THE KEDUSHA OF THE HEBREW PEOPLE

God demands that the Hebrew people be Kadosh, consecrated and sanctified, just as He is. Being like God is impossible because He is unique. So, what does Kadosh mean? According to Rashi, it implies keeping apart, since the Hebrew people should not be infected by the evils of the surrounding society. Just as the first patriarch positioned himself on the opposite side of the “shore,” a fact alluded to by the appellation Ivri (because Ever means “a slope of the river”), so the Hebrew people must stand firm in their moral stance, even in defiance of the majority opinion.

The first verses of the biblical text indicate what Kadosh condition consists of: fear for parents, care for Shabbat, turning away from idolatry, keeping the rules of sacrifice, attending to the needs of the poor by setting aside the corners of the fields for them, not stealing, not lying, not calling on the name of God in vain. Pay wages on time, not curse the deaf and place an obstacle before a blind man, be correct in judgment with both the poor and the rich, not to remain indifferent at the bloodshed of one’s neighbor, not to hate a brother, admonish him when he is wrong, do not take revenge, and love one’s neighbor as oneself. 

It is obvious that the person who conducts his life according to the demands listed above will be an exceptional individual. He will be Kadosh, because he will have overcome any inclination for evil, he will be in solidarity with his fellow human beings. From a theological perspective, the question arises whether Kadosh is a condition that God imposed on the Hebrew people. That means that God chose the Hebrew people above the other nations and, therefore, it is a permanent condition, independent of the behavior of this people. However, they can receive punishment for a mistake and a reward for a good deed. Yet, the condition of Kadosh always remains, consecrated by God.

A second option would be that the Kadosh condition is the result of the exemplary conduct of the Hebrew people. The people are Kadosh, or perhaps acquire Kedusha, when they fulfill the imperatives enumerated above and lose that status when they depart from the required norms. So that the Kadosh condition is temporary, a function of human behavior. An adjective and not a noun. 

Seen in another way, the appellation of Kadosh is given by God, or it is a condition that the people obtained by their ethical behavior. If God gives this qualification, it means that the Hebrew people belong to Him and, therefore, He entrusted them to observe the Mitsvot. According to the Meshech Chochma (Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk), the Hebrew people received the Kedusha on Mount Sinai.

The Midrash, on the other hand, suggests that God’s Kedusha is totally independent of the Kedusha of the Hebrew people. God is always Kadosh, while the Kedusha of the Hebrew people is a function of their attachment to the Mitsvot. Shabbat is a Kadosh day and when the Hebrew observes the laws of this day, he acquires more Kedusha. In other words, Kedusha is not the result of a transcendental encounter between the people and God at Sinai but is a process that constantly evolves according to the practice of the law enunciated at Sinai.

My teacher Joseph B. Soloveitchik leans towards this second position and affirms that the Hebrew people produce, engender the Kedusha through their behavior. Raphael Yarhi quotes Malbim, who differentiated between Am Segula, a chosen people, and Goi Kadosh, the consecrated nation. According to Malbim, God chose the Hebrew people and made them Am Segula, but the people rose to be Goi Kadosh. And through this Kedusha, the people sanctify God, so that the Kedusha of God is a function of the Kedusha of the people. 

That means Kiddush HaShem, the sanctification of God’s Name. An act of Kedusha of the individual produces Kiddush HaShem, the sanctification of God. In this way the relationship between the individual and God is accentuated. God exerts influence over the individual, but the person also leaves an imprint on God, “intensifies” God’s Kedusha through his earthly acts.

MITZVA: ORDINANCE OF THE TORA IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS 13 POSITIVE MITSVOT AND 38 PROHIBITIONS

1. Leviticus 19:3 Fear father and mother.
2. Leviticus 19:4 Do not turn to idolatry in thought, nor verbalizing, even witnessing.
3. Leviticus 19:4 Do not make an idol for personal use or for others.
4. Leviticus 19:6,8 Do not eat remaining meat as an offering after the time prescribed for it.
5. Leviticus 19:10 Leave part of the field sown for the poor.
6. Leviticus 19:9 Do not reap to the limit of the field.
7. Leviticus 19:10 Leave ears for the poor
8. Leviticus 19:9 Do not gather fallen ears during harvest.
9. Leviticus 19:10 Leave a part of the vineyard for the poor.
10. Leviticus 19:10 Do not reap the boundaries of the vineyard.
11. Leviticus 19:10 Leave on the ground the grapes fallen in the vineyard for the poor.
12. Leviticus 19:10 Do not gather the grapes fallen from the vineyard.
13. Leviticus 19:11 Do not steal.
14. Leviticus 19:11 Do not deny possession of an object belonging to another person.
15. Leviticus 19:11 Do not swear falsely about an object of value.
16. Leviticus 19:12 Do not swear falsely.
17. Leviticus 19:13 Do not retain other people’s property.
18. Leviticus 19:13 Do not commit theft.
19. Leviticus 19:13 Do not delay the payment of a wageworker.
20. Leviticus 19:14 Do not curse a Jew, neither male nor female.
21. Leviticus 19:14 Do not lead an individual into error by giving him equivocal advice.
22. Leviticus 19:15 Do not pervert justice, in a civil judgment.
23. Leviticus 19:15 Do not give special honors in the judgment of an eminent individual.
24. Leviticus 19:15 The judge must make a correct judgment.
25. Leviticus 19:16 Do not defame (gossip).
26. Leviticus 19:16 Do not remain indifferent to the blood of another.
27. Leviticus 19:17 Do not hate another Jew.
28. Leviticus 19:17 Reproach the Jew for not behaving properly.
29. Leviticus 19:17 Thou shalt not place another Jew in an awkward situation.
30. Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not take revenge.
31. Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not hold a grudge.
32. Leviticus 19:18 Love another Jew.
33. Leviticus 19:19 Do not mate animals of different species.
34. Leviticus 19:19 Do not sow together seeds of different species in the Land of Israel, likewise with trees of different species.
35. Leviticus 19:23 Do not eat the fruit of the tree the first 3 years.
36. Leviticus 19:23, 24 Laws concerning the fruit of the tree in the fourth year.
37. Leviticus 19:26 Do not eat or drink like a glutton.
38. Leviticus 19:26 Do not practice divination.
39. Leviticus 19:26 Thou shalt not conjure (magic).
40. Leviticus 19:27 Thou shalt not remove the hair from the sideburns of the face.
41. Leviticus 19:27 Thou shalt not destroy the ends of thy beard.
42. Leviticus 19:28 Thou shalt not make a tattoo on your flesh (skin).
43. Leviticus 19:30 Respect the Temple.
44. Leviticus 19:31 Not acting like a spiritualist (kind of magic).
45. Leviticus 19:31 Do not practice Yidon (kind of magic).
46. Leviticus 19:32 Honoring Tora Scholars.
47. Leviticus 19:35 Do not deceive with measures.
48. Leviticus 19:36 Create exact scales, weights, and measures.
49. Leviticus 20:9 Do not curse one’s father or mother.
50. Leviticus 20:14 Cremate the person who has been sentenced to die by fire.
51. Leviticus 20:23 Do not follow the behavior of idolaters.