KEDOSHIM_LEVITICUS  XIX – XX

The Torah commands that we be “holy” because God is Holy. What does it mean that God is Holy? And how can human beings, flesh and blood, with limited abilities imitate God?

The commentator Rashi states that to be holy means to be set apart. In the case of God it would then be that He is not part of the created universe. He is entirely different, totally dissimilar from everything that exists. Can we deduce then that, in the human case, saint means to be a hermit, to live apart, in a kind of monastery?

Jewish tradition teaches otherwise. In fact, God Himself ruled: Lo tov heyot haadam levado: “It is not good for man to be alone” and therefore created woman, man’s partner, so that they are not alone.

We find that many precepts demand the presence of a Minyan, an aggregate of human beings. To recite Kadish and Kedushah requires the presence of at least 10 men. Loneliness should apparently not be the desideratum for the individual.

When we read our biblical text, we see that the following verses refer to the relationship with parents, to certain sacrifices, to leaving some portions of the harvest for the poor: Leket, Shikcha, Pe’ah. Do not steal, do not lie and do not swear falsely, the text continues. You have to pay the same day the work of the one who works for days. Continuing with the reading of the text is the instruction not to curse the deaf and not to place a stumbling block in front of the blind, and perhaps above all to judge with the truth, with what is really fair without taking into account the personal situation of the litigants. Do not hate your brother in your heart, advise him well when he is about to make a mistake.

Apparently, being holy has to do with your behavior with the other, with your brother, with your friend, with your neighbor. It is a transitive quality that requires the presence of another human being. It is a relationship and not a project of self-improvement.

One could speculate that holiness is obtained through perhaps the denial of personal pleasures, or perhaps from study to deepen the understanding of the Mitsvot. But from the above, holiness is not obtained by aiming one’s efforts at oneself, intensifying and perfecting one’s knowledge. It is not a question of personal spiritual exercises.

Holiness is obtained when one relates in a fair and positive manner with other human beings. By giving the right weight we are on the path of holiness.

By complying with the laws regulating sexual activity, holiness is obtained. Our text contains a list of such relationships that are prohibited, as are sexual relationships with siblings and other close relatives. 

It is interesting to note that apart from Noah, the hero of the flood who is qualified by the Torah as Tsadik, a saint, the only member of the Hebrew people who receives this appeal is Yosef, perhaps because he did not succumb to the advances of his master Potiphar’s wife.

It is likely that holiness is a characteristic that the person receives, the transformation of the individual because he practices and fulfills a healthy and just relationship with the neighbor.

Our text proclaims that one should not hold a grudge against another, but rather practice Veahavtá lereajá kamoja: “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and Rabbi Akiva considered this to be the “great motto” of the Torah.

Rather, if you love your neighbor as yourself, your whole self will enter a process of growth and transformation to become a saint, or at least an aspirant to holiness.

What does it mean then, according to this reflection, that God is Holy? We can speculate that the fact that God created a human being with whom he shares the awareness of the existence of the universe and what it contains, is a manifestation of the Holiness of God. God shares the universe with us and even asks us to perfect it. Because only the human being possesses the “Divine breath” that God infused into the first man that gives him the characteristic of appreciating what exists and that includes a moral compass to guide his life. “The human being is the only creature with whom God can play chess.”

And that compass of morality probably precedes the giving of the Torah which in turn regulates and legislates how that morality should be expressed in different situations. 

From this perspective, ethics and morality have been part of the DNA of the human being since creation.

MITSVAH: TORAH ORDINANCE IN THIS PARASHAH

CONTAINS 13 POSITIVE MITSVOT AND 38 BANS

1. Leviticus 19:3 Fearing father and mother
2. Leviticus 19:4 Do not turn to idolatry in thought, or verbalize, 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 meat remaining as an offering after the prescribed time for it
5. Leviticus 19:10 Leave part of the sown field for the poor
6. Leviticus 19:9 – Do not reap to the limit of the field
7. Leviticus 19:10 Leave spikes for the poor
8. Leviticus 19:9 Do not pick fallen spikes during the harvest
9. Leviticus 19:10 Leaving a vineyard boundary for the poor
10. Leviticus 19:10 Not to 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 pick the fallen grapes 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 the property of others
18. Leviticus 19:13 Do not commit theft
19. Leviticus 19:13 Do not postpone the payment of a salaried worker
20. Leviticus 19:14 Do not curse a Jew, neither man nor woman
21. Leviticus 19:14 Do not mislead an individual by giving equivocal advice
22. Leviticus 19:15 Not to pervert justice in a civil trial
23. Leviticus 19:15 Do not give special honors in judgment to 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 Reproaching the Jew for Not Conducting Himself Properly
29. Leviticus 19:17 You will not place another Jew in an uncomfortable situation
30. Leviticus 19:18 You will not take revenge
31. Leviticus 19:18 You shall not hold a grudge
32. Leviticus 19:18 Loving another Jew
33. Leviticus 19:19 Do not mate animals of different species
34. Leviticus 19:19 Do not sow seeds of different species together in the Land of Israel, equally with trees of different species
35. Leviticus 19:23 Do not eat the fruit of the tree for the first 3 years
36. Leviticus 19:23, 24 Laws about 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 Not practicing divination
39. Leviticus 19:26 You shall not conjure (magic)
40. Leviticus 19:27 – You shall not remove the hair from the sideburns of the face
41. Leviticus 19:27 – You shall not destroy the ends of your beard
42. Leviticus 19:28 You will not make a tattoo on your flesh (skin)
43. Leviticus 19:30 Respect the Temple
44. Leviticus 19:31 Do not act as a spiritualist (kind of magic)
45. Leviticus 19:31 Do not practice Yidon (kind of magic)
46. Leviticus 19:32 Honor Torah Scholars
47. Leviticus 19:35 Do not deceive with measures
48. Leviticus 19:36 Create exact balances, weights, and measurements
49. Leviticus 20:9 – Do not curse one’s father or mother
50. Leviticus 20:14 Incinerate the person who has been sentenced to die by fire
51. Leviticus 20:23 Not following the behavior of idolaters