"Kedoshim Tihyu Ki Kadosh Ani" - The Holiness of a Jew - Rabbi Asher Perkash

00:02 A Jew’s life according to the Torah and its mitzvos also involves many prohibitions. People often ask: Why does Jewish life, a life of Torah and mitzvos, keep emphasizing, “You may not do this, you may not do that, and you may not do this either”? When you get to the safeguards, there are more and more things that are forbidden, seemingly without end. Especially with children, you can see that they often find this hard to accept. At every turn: you may not eat this, you may not wear that, you may not speak this way, you may not think that way, and you may not do this. The way these things are said also matters greatly, because they can give the impression that Jewish life is a life of restrictions. Not just restrictions, but even self-denial. It can seem that a person who wants to lead a Jewish life must constantly feel that he has to restrain himself and avoid things: this is forbidden, and that is forbidden. How long can a person live like that? It is very difficult. That is what we will discuss in connection with the name of the weekly parsha, Parshas Kedoshim: “Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to the entire congregation of the Children of Israel: You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu to gather all the Jewish people. And as Rashi says,

01:42 “‘Speak to the entire congregation of the Children of Israel’—this parsha was said before the assembled people.” For this parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu gathered all the Jewish people together—men, women, and children—and spoke to them all at once. Usually, as Rashi explains here at the outset, there was an order to the teaching: Moshe first spoke to Aharon, then came [unclear], the elders; there was an entire order. Who came in that sequence? Aharon’s sons, then the elders, until the words reached the congregation of the Children of Israel. But here, in Parshas Kedoshim, he was told to call all the Jewish people together. Rashi explains that because most of the fundamental teachings of the Torah depend on this parsha, it was said before the assembled people. And what did he tell them? He began immediately with the words, “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” So let us discuss this: What is the Torah commanding when it says, “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy”? What does it mean, and how does it illuminate our lives and help us understand how a Jew should consider, understand, see, and grasp the meaning of all the prohibitions and all the mitzvos the Torah has commanded us to observe, as well as the things the Torah has commanded us not to do? But as always, we will begin with a chassidic story

03:20 that the Frierdiker Rebbe relates, as he heard it from his father, the Rebbe Rashab, about a trip the Rebbe Rashab, whose soul is in Gan Eden, took with his father, the Rebbe Maharash. Around this time, on 2 Iyar, is the Rebbe Maharash’s birthday, and as is known, the theme of that day is “Tiferes Shebetiferes.” This day of the Omer count, 2 Iyar, is the Rebbe Maharash’s birthday. This is what he relates: In 5634—the year of the Rebbe Rashab’s bar mitzvah—in the month of Menachem Av, the Rebbe Maharash, the Rebbe Rashab’s father, underwent a dangerous medical treatment. The Rebbe Maharash had [unclear]; he regularly suffered from various health difficulties and pains. He needed to see doctors regularly, and there was a doctor who [unclear], and that doctor lived in Vitebsk. The Rebbe Maharash would travel to Vitebsk from time to time to see the doctor and receive various medical treatments. Sometimes the doctor would come to Lubavitch, and so on. That summer, in the month of Menachem Av, the Rebbe Maharash traveled to Vitebsk for a few days for medical care, taking his son, the bar mitzvah boy, the Rebbe Rashab, with him. He related that he was there for several days, and the chassidim who lived

05:04 in Vitebsk—and there were many chassidim there, Lubavitcher chassidim and chassidim in general—very much wanted the Rebbe Maharash to share words of Torah, to say Chassidus. It was a summer day. They brought a large platform into the courtyard where the Rebbe Maharash was staying. It was a large courtyard with open space and trees; the air was pleasant on that summer day, and the courtyard was surrounded by trees. They set up a large platform there, and a large crowd gathered. It was Wednesday, 15 Menachem Av. A very large crowd assembled. Several elder chassidim went in, knocked on the Rebbe Maharash’s door, and asked on behalf of the chassidim to hear a maamar of Chassidus. The Rebbe Maharash said that because of his health it was difficult for him to deliver Chassidus, but he would come out and say a few words in a holy sicha. This stirred great excitement and joy among the chassidim. Everyone stood outside—hundreds of Jews. The Rebbe Maharash came out, went up onto the platform, and delivered a sicha. Its content, or at least its central point in brief, was this: The Rebbe Maharash spoke about the phrase used by the Midrash, “It is the way of the world.” In other words, the Midrash teaches us that sometimes we need to look at the way of the world, at how things work in the world, and learn from it an approach and a lesson in serving Hashem. As we often find in Midrashim, this is done through parable and metaphor.

06:45 The way of the world, too—how people conduct themselves—can become a parable, an example, and a guide in serving Hashem. The Rebbe Maharash said that people use an expression in worldly matters: “It’s fitting” and “It’s not fitting.” People use it to say that a certain way of behaving suits one person, while another way does not; one sort of thing suits him, and another sort does not. That is how the world works, according to what is fitting and what is not fitting. The Rebbe Maharash explained that this expression also applies to serving Hashem. A Jew needs to know who he is and what a Jew is. When a Jew knows where he comes from and what he is—his Jewishness, a Jewish soul that is truly a part of G-d above—then there are naturally ways of behaving that are fitting for a Jew and ways that are not fitting for a Jew. The same is true of a chossid’s conduct. A chossid needs to know that he is a chossid, and his conduct should be fitting for a chossid. Some ways of behaving are fitting for a chossid, and others are not. And from there they learned [unclear].

08:16 [unclear] a number of matters in which he spoke about what is fitting and what is not fitting. He discussed several particulars: It is fitting for a chossid to get up early in the morning and learn Chassidus for a long time. It is fitting for a chossid to do a favor for rabbinic emissaries and to think about Chassidus. It is fitting for a chossid to have regular Torah study sessions. It is fitting for a chossid to take pleasure in Torah and in serving Hashem. It is fitting for a chossid to have vitality in his love for his fellow chassidim, and in [unclear] Torah and serving Hashem. He listed a number of things that are fitting. Conversely, he detailed things that are not fitting for a chossid. It is not fitting for a day to pass without his learning Chassidus. It is not fitting for a day to pass in which he davened hurriedly. It is not fitting for a day to pass without his setting aside regular times for Torah study. It is not fitting for a person to have no feeling or emotion in Torah and in serving Hashem. It is not fitting to be sad and broken; it is fitting to be joyful. In this way, he spoke about several things that are fitting and things that are not. The Rebbe Maharash concluded that sicha and said [unclear]. The Jews were gathered there, and he went back into his room. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates, as he heard from his father, the Rebbe Rashab, that many chassidim were there, and [unclear] of chassidim. He gives the names of several chassidim who were there and heard that sicha. As for the chassidim who were there at the time—the Frierdiker Rebbe relates that he later met one of the chassidim who had been there on 15 Menachem Av 563[unclear], and [unclear].

10:20 [unclear] the details of that sicha. [unclear] while the Rebbe was speaking, there was an awakening to teshuvah, and it affected the crowd. The awakening to teshuvah was so strong that I remember myself at Minchah on the eve of Yom Kippur, [unclear] with the awakening to teshuvah I felt when the Rebbe said those holy words in that sicha. And this idea of “fitting” and “not fitting,” when you think about it deeply, [unclear]. At first glance, it does not seem to fit; it seems entirely external. But when you think about it and reflect on it, you see that it connects to the way the Torah opens the parsha: “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” What does this mean? When you come to speak to Jews about how they should behave, about the mitzvos they must observe and the things they may not do—and that is the content of Parshas Kedoshim. As the Midrash says, Parshas Kedoshim is one of the parshiyos containing many mitzvos. There are several other such parshiyos—Parshas Bo, Parshas Mishpatim, Parshas Nezikin, [unclear]—and Parshas Kedoshim, too, is a parsha rich in mitzvos. It contains many dozens of mitzvos, both positive commandments and prohibitions. And when you gather everyone together, unite the entire community, and want to speak to them about how they should

12:15 To explain how one should conduct oneself, and how one should not, there are two ways to go about it. On the one hand, one can emphasize “turn away from evil”: this is bad, this is not good, this is bitter, and severe punishments come to someone who behaves in a certain way. One can speak in a language that emphasizes the negative, the opposite, the evil, the darkness, the bitterness, and all the negative things: that the world is dirty, and a person is dirty, and there is the yetzer hara and the animal soul, and so on, and that one must do this and not do that, and so on and so forth. That is the language of “turn away from evil.” On the other hand, there is another language, and that is what the parsha in the Torah teaches Jews about the right approach. When Moshe Rabbeinu gathers the entire community and wants to address them all together, he tells them: “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” He wants to speak to them about many matters, including many matters of “turn away from evil” and many matters of “do good.” But the approach is not to say how difficult it is, how much it involves words of rebuke, how bitter and how bad it is; how bitter and bad it is to be far from Hakadosh Boruch Hu and to commit sins. On the contrary: he reveals the greatness and holiness of the Jewish people and says, “Listen, you shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” A Jew must be holy not just because of a prohibition, not just because something is forbidden, and not just because it says, “You shall be holy,” but because a Jew must know that he is holy and that the Jewish people are a holy nation. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu said, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The Jewish people are a holy nation. And what does “a holy nation” mean? “For I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” The holiness comes from the fact that “I am Hashem your G-d”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu is in charge. He is the source of true holiness. And the Jewish people are connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu; they are a holy nation, connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Holy One, blessed be He. That is from the perspective of

14:37 “for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy” and “you shall be holy.” If we reflect on the words “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy,” we need to understand what they mean. The commentators ask—and there are a great many explanations of this question—what is the verse saying? “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu comes to the Jewish people and demands that they be holy. Why must they be holy? “For I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” What is the connection? You come to human beings, flesh and blood living in physical bodies, and tell them, “You shall be holy”—that they should be holy. Why? “For I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” How can one even imagine restraining the yetzer hara? How can one even imagine that human beings, flesh and blood, should compare themselves to the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and be told, “Listen, you need to be holy”? Why? “For I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” How do these two things fit together? The commentators ask this question, and there are many explanations for it. In Chassidus there is a wonderful explanation, based first of all on straightforward teachings of the Alter Rebbe in Tanya. Later we will discuss other explanations of this matter. But first, let us say something written in Tanya. The Alter Rebbe says in Likkutei Amarim: What does “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy” mean? The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya that when a Jew performs a mitzvah, every time a Jew performs a mitzvah, through it he is drawn toward and bound to the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is the wording of the blessing over mitzvos that we say: “Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu has sanctified us with His commandments. The Alter Rebbe explains: What does

16:40 “Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us” mean? After all, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the One who is truly holy. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is holy and set apart. He is holy and exalted, exalted above all the worlds and above everything pertaining to created beings; He is truly holy and set apart. But when Hakadosh Boruch Hu commands a Jew and tells him, “Do this mitzvah,” or “Do not do this thing that Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not want us to do,” you must know that through this commandment you will be raised, elevated, and brought to the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In the Alter Rebbe’s words, in chapter 46 of Tanya: “He has raised us to the level of supreme holiness.” When a Jew performs a mitzvah and learns a word of Torah, he rises higher. Hakadosh Boruch Hu raises him, as it were, to His own level, to the level of supreme holiness, to the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And this is what the verse says: “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is truly holy and set apart, but when Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us the commandment and told us that He wants to sanctify us, wants to raise us, and that through every positive mitzvah and every prohibition we will be elevated to His level and His holiness—a Jew, as the Alter Rebbe says, is elevated and raised to holiness, to supreme holiness, when he fulfills the mitzvah. The Alter Rebbe discusses this at length there, in chapters 46 and 47 of Tanya.

18:19 The Alter Rebbe explains there the verse, “As water reflects a face back to a face, so one person’s heart reflects another’s.” It is like water, as we see physically: when a person looks into a pool of water, he sees his face in the water. “As water reflects a face back to a face”—my face is reflected in the water. “So one person’s heart reflects another’s”—when someone shows his love to another person, then “one person’s heart reflects another’s”: the love is naturally reflected back. When I show love, when I love another person, then “one person’s heart reflects another’s”: the love is reflected, so the other person feels it too, and it awakens love in him toward the first person. And that is so even between two human beings. All the more so when a great and mighty king, as the Alter Rebbe says, shows his immense and wonderful love to a simple, ordinary person, someone lowly—as the Alter Rebbe puts it in the starkest terms: “a repulsive man lying in the refuse.” The person is at the very lowest point, and suddenly the great king comes, leaves all his attendants, ministers, and servants, goes out of his palace, and approaches the person lying in the refuse. He goes over to him, takes him out of there, cleans him, and draws him close.

19:42 Face to face, [unclear], so “as water reflects a face back to a face.” Even if this person, this lowly person, has a heart of stone, “it will surely melt and turn to water”—his heart will become like water; love will pour into his heart for the great king who showed him love. The Alter Rebbe says that the analogy is like this, but the reality is far greater: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is a great and awe-inspiring King. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the King of kings, who is holy and set apart from all the worlds, all the angels, all the seraphim, all created beings, and all the sefiros—this Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the King of kings, descended, approached, and entered Egypt, “the nakedness of the land.” There He took the Jewish people, brought them out of the nakedness of the land, and brought them to the Giving of the Torah after the Exodus from Egypt. There Hakadosh Boruch Hu sanctified us. “Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us”; “For You have chosen us and sanctified us”—He sanctified us at the Giving of the Torah and gave us the ability and the opportunity, through each mitzvah, for a Jew to rise and draw close to the level of the Holy One, blessed be He. This is the meaning of “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” So this is what Chassidus tells us: this is the explanation of the verse’s words, “You shall be holy.”

21:07 “For I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” How does one reach this? The answer is that Jews are indeed holy, because a Jew has a soul. After all, Jews are “truly a part of G-d above,” “for Hashem’s people are His portion,” as the verse says, and the Zohar says: “The Jewish people and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” Jews and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one. Therefore, by virtue of his soul, a Jew has this holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu within him. But that is from the perspective of the soul. Once the soul has descended below and become clothed in a body and an animal soul, and in all the material concerns of this world, the Jew asks: How can he rise to that level? To this Parshas Kedoshim comes and says: “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy.” Because you have this holiness within you, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is truly holy, has commanded you in all the mitzvos we will learn later in the parsha. Through all these things you can rise, draw close, and connect to that holiness. When a Jew hears this, he understands something very deep, something wonderful: What does it mean for something to be “fitting” or “unfitting”? When a Jew hears the truth about who he is—that he is holy, that it is said of him, “You shall be holy people to Me,” that a Jew is one of those holy people, that he has a holy soul, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu

22:30 chose him, and that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has, so to speak, bound His holiness to the holiness of a Jew—then with every mitzvah he does and every mitzvah he fulfills, he becomes part of that holiness, rises up and connects with it. It is very simple: a Jew understands that it is fitting to do things that reveal who I truly am and connect me to the true holiness of my soul, to the true holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And it is not fitting, G-d forbid, to distance oneself, become absorbed in material things and move away from that holiness. Here we come to the interpretation brought in the book Me’or Einayim, by Rabbi Nochum of Chernobyl, concerning “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” He cites the Midrash. Midrash Rabbah says on the verse: “You shall be holy—could you be like Me?” That is the Midrash’s question: “Could you be like Me?” After all, one might understand from the verse, “You shall be holy, for I am holy,” that a Jew can attain a holiness like that of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Midrash answers: No. “Scripture says, ‘For I am holy’—My holiness is above your holiness.” My holiness is higher than yours. That is what the Midrash says. Rabbi Nochum of Chernobyl asks: What does this mean? What is the Midrash saying? What is new here? Who would imagine saying, “Could you be like Me?” And what is the answer, “My holiness is above your holiness”? What is the question here? What is the explanation? What was the initial assumption? And what

24:01 is the conclusion? The explanation is, as we discussed earlier, that it really is not a question. Just the opposite. According to the teachings of Chassidus, we read the Midrash as a statement, not as a question. The Midrash says, “You can be like Me.” Not “Could you be like Me?”—as though it were asking whether that is possible. The Midrash states plainly: “You shall be holy”—the Torah tells Jews: “You shall be holy; you can be like Me.” A Jew has the ability, because “Yisroel and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one,” to attain a holiness resembling the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And if you ask where this ability comes from, and how “you can be like Me,” “Scripture says”—the Torah itself says: “For I am holy.” That is why the Torah says it. The Torah says, “For I am holy”; the Torah gives a Jew the strength and the proof that he “can be like Me.” And this is the meaning of the continuation, “My holiness is above, from your holiness,” says Rabbi Nochum. In other words, the Torah means: “My holiness above”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu is, so to speak, telling the Jews: Know that My holiness above comes “from your holiness,” through your holiness. When a Jew is here in this physical world, surrounded by all the temptations of this world, by its materiality and darkness, and nevertheless stands firm, sanctifies Hashem’s name, serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu and fulfills His Torah and mitzvos—“You shall be holy”—through his holy conduct, in his speech and in the world, he, so to speak, sanctifies Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He, so to speak, exalts and elevates Him, bringing exaltation, holiness and elevation above, to Hakadosh Boruch Hu

26:06 Himself. The service of the Jewish people brings about exaltation with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Sanctifying Your name, Hashem”—through their conduct, Jews bring, so to speak, holiness, exaltation and elevation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. “My holiness above”—My holiness above depends on “your holiness” and comes through your holiness. So it is clear that this is the truth: the Torah is telling us what a Jew’s approach to the whole matter of Torah and mitzvos should be. When a Jew reflects on all this, a tremendous joy awakens within him, as the Alter Rebbe says in these chapters of Tanya. It is the tremendous joy and love a Jew feels when he knows that he has this possibility of “You shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy”—that he can connect to this holiness. So it is clear that approaching it this way brings meaning, vitality and joy. It is not that I must merely forbid myself things, avoid impurity, distress a Jew, restrict him or make him suffer. Quite the opposite. This is what the verse says: “You shall be holy people to Me, and you shall not eat flesh torn in the field.” All the practices of kashrus and holiness, and all the ways of conduct the Torah requires of a Jew—where do they come from? They stem from the fact that Jews are a holy people who belong to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who is holy. And through the holy Torah, a holy people connect to the holiness above, to the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is Parshas Kedoshim, which tells a Jew how to conduct himself with holiness, out of this love and in this way. And particularly, we are in days called

27:53 Hakhel. The mitzvah of Hakhel, which took place in the year after Shemitah, is about gathering the Jews together, showing them this holiness, this distinctness, and bringing holiness into every material aspect of life. The Ramban explains that “You shall be holy” means “Sanctify yourself in what is permitted to you.” Chassidus explains that this means bringing holiness into permitted things. A Jew’s strength does not lie in holiness that flees the world, in withdrawal and separation that flee the world. On the contrary: it lies in bringing that separation into the world. In everything physical that one does, one brings in holiness, G-dliness and sanctity, until the entire world is made into a holy land, as the Tzemach Tzedek said: “Make this place Eretz Yisroel.” May we bring holiness into the entire world, and may we merit that, speedily in our days, the whole world will indeed be a world of holiness, and “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.”