Acharei Mot/Kedoshim
Leviticus 16:1-20:27
Amos 9:7-9:15
If I were to ask you “What is holy?” I would probably hear one of many different responses. Holiness is everywhere, yet it is hard to find. Holiness is ineffable and indescribable. Although holiness is difficult to define, Judaism provides a structured framework for how one might begin to encounter the holy. The Hebrew word for holiness is “kedushah” from the root “kadosh.” We find appearances of this word over 100 times in the Bible and over 9,000 times in the Talmud. This week’s Torah portion opens with the directive, “Kedoshim tih’yu ki kadosh ani Adonai Eloheichem — You shall be holy for I, Adonai your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).
A midrash interprets “kedoshim” in this verse to mean “set apart.” To be holy means to be different, special, unique, separate from others. The Chatam Sofer, on the other hand, sees Leviticus 19 as a warning against isolationism. “To be holy,” he writes, “means not merely in the privacy of your home, but out in the open, in society, among your own people or in the midst of strangers” (Divrei Sha’arei Chaim).
My colleague in Los Angeles, Rabbi Ed Feinstein, suggests that holiness is about connection. He writes, “Jews find holiness in God’s warm closeness, in the bonds that bring us together.” Holiness is drawing near to God. We find holiness in moments and places of connection.
What are ways that we find holiness in connection? If we trace the uses and derivations of the word “kadosh” throughout Jewish text and experience, we can begin to discover what holiness is all about.
A family, a community of friends, gathers around a Shabbat or holiday table. People join together to celebrate life, to share stories. We raise a cup of wine and recite a blessing of sanctification. But it is not the wine that is sacred. The blessing that we call Kiddush, affirms the holiness of the gathering, the time and special bond that brings people together.
Two individuals — from different families, different places — find wholeness and fulfillment in one another. They pledge to share a life together. A ring is placed on a finger, symbolizing the unbroken circle of their lives intertwined together. The couple recites, “Haray at mikudeshet li” — with this ring, you are mikudeshet, bonded in sanctity. This part of the Jewish wedding is called Kiddushin.
When a loved one dies, we refuse to let death be final. We do not sever our bonds of loyalty and love. Our memories are eternal. We rise in the synagogue — in the midst of our community — to recite Kaddish, a prayer that affirms life over death, hope over despair.
We step outside, go for a walk or a hike, and notice the beauties of Creation all around. We are reminded that the earth was given to us as a gift, to guard it and to keep it. We must not pollute it with our waste or deplete it of its valuable resources. God told Moses to remove his shoes for he stood upon “admat kodesh” — holy ground.
Shabbat comes each week, in Abraham Joshua Heshel’s words, a “palace in time.” For one day a week, we pause, breathe, and relax. We reconnect with our souls. For 24 hours time is sacred. At the end of Shabbat, we recite a blessing over the distinction between the holy and the ordinary — hamavdil ben kodesh l’chol.
Every time we perform a mitzvah, we are reminded that God’s commandments bind us together. Asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav — God sanctifies us through mitzvahs: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field.” “Do not insult the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind.” “You shall rise before the aged and how deference to the old.” “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19). Mitzvahs, daily opportunities for holy action, draw us closer to our fellow human being.
Unlock all these meanings of “kadosh” and you discover what is holy.
Rabbi Karen S. Citrin is the associate rabbi at Reform Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo.