Acharei Mot/K’doshim   2009

Once again this week we have a double Torah portion, Acahrei Mot and K’doshim. As always, the names of the Torah portions are taken from the first new words of the parasha. The words אַחֲרֵי מוֹת mean after death, and the word קְדשִׁים is the plural of the word קדש, meaning holy. 

The very similar word קדשטן, based on the same rood, means marriage, and I was sure there was a joke in there somewhere about life after death versus life after marriage, but somehow it never came to me. 

Actually, the words ‘after death’ refer to the death of Aaron’s sons Nadav and Abihu. וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָֹה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אַחֲרֵי מוֹת שְׁנֵי בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן  The Eternal spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, and the Eternal did not use the opportunity to say ‘sorry, for the death of your two sons,’ nor even to give an explanation as to why Aaron’s sons died. Rather the Eternal gives instructions to Aaron on the duties of the High Priest on Yom Kippur.

Those who have experienced the death of someone close to them know that this is really the way it works. The world has turned upside down, but there are still kids to feed and bills to pay, and somehow you have to continue functioning.

And this could make death, and therefore life, seem meaningless. Someone passes away and everything else goes on. Do we not make a difference? Is there no meaning to our struggles? When we sacrificed to do good, to help others, wasn’t that worth something? When we slipped, we were cold to our parents, indifferent to the problems of others, less than honest in our business dealings, didn’t we suffer for it? It bothered us on Yom Kippur, or when we read the Ten Commandments, or when we prayed to be better people. Weren’t we right to be bothered? Weren’t we right, to swear to become better, to not make the same mistakes again?

The answer is yes. 

The answer must be yes, not only because we would not accept a religion in which the answer was not yes, but because the Torah tells us thousands of times that our deaths and our lives are not meaningless. We need only look at K’doshim, the Torah portion linked with this one. What does this parasha say about holiness? קְדשִׁים תִּהְיוּ. You shall be holy. Not you can be holy, not you may be holy. You will be holy. And not just one person. Lest we think that Gd was talking to to the oh so holy משה רבינו, the sentence is plural. You, plural, all of you, shall be holy. Plural. 

And what does it mean to be holy? The dictionary says ‘free from sin or evil.’ ‘Cleaving to Gd, separate from human foibles.’

That definition seems to agree with the Torah. The complete statement is קְדשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי ײַ אֱלֹיכֶם You shall be holy, for I the Eternal your Gd am holy. 

That is a stunning statement. Instead of saying that holiness is a quality of the Eternal, and therefore we mere humans can never attain it, the Torah says that because it is a quality of the Eternal, we will attain it! You will be holy for I the Eternal your Gd am holy.

How then shall we be holy? By following the commandments of our Gd. “When you reap the harvest of your land you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest...You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger.” “Do not cheat your fellow... Do not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind.” “Do not stand by while your neighbor bleeds.”

This parasha, which is the central parasha in the entire Torah, contains the central message of Judaism. You shall be holy. You shall be holy because you shall be like Me, and I, your Gd, am holy.

How can we, mere humans, ever be holy? And if we ever feel far from holiness, surely we are furthest after a death, when everything feels hollow and meaningless. What, after all, are these mitzvot but a bunch of meaningless rules? But parasha Acharei Mot tells us וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת־חֻקֹּתַי וְאֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַי אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה אֹתָם הָאָדָם וָחַי בָּהֶם  You shall keep My laws and My rules which, if a person shall do them, he shall thereby live.

The sages tell us that the meaning of this verse is that we can disregard any commandment to save a life. We can, for example, put out a fire on Shabbat, or eat non-kosher food if there is nothing else available, if by doing so we may save a life. We shall live by these commandments, live by them and not die by them. But I believe this verse has another meaning.

If we do not follow these commandments, we are not fully alive. If we close our eyes to a life of holiness, if we turn our backs on the possibility of being like Gd, we have given up on what it means to be human. And all of us are human. The saints, the sinners, the sick, the well, the addicted, the confused, the whole, and the wounded. We are all human and therefore we can live by His commandments, and therefore we will all of us be holy. Shabbat shalom.