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Acharei-Mot Kedoshim: Bedtime · A Thought for the Week

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a thought for the week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Torah in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.
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  Speaker 1: The clarion call of the Torah is to be holy.
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  Speaker 1: At nount Sinai, we were charged to be a goy
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  Speaker 1: a'm kadosh, to become a holy nation. That's the requirement
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  Speaker 1: of the Jewish people as a whole, and every individual
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  Speaker 1: within that nation must personally become holy. As we read
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  Speaker 1: in this week's Parsha kadoshim to you, you are to
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  Speaker 1: be holy, and the tour continues. We are to be
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  Speaker 1: holy because God is holy. In other words, being holy
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  Speaker 1: is one of the ways we imitate God, we express
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  Speaker 1: our divine image. What is unclear is the definition of holiness.
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  Speaker 1: You know what exactly mean to be holy kadosh. So
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  Speaker 1: this simple definition one would assume is well, just read
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  Speaker 1: the the diverse. To be holy introduces a whole series
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  Speaker 1: of laws, and let's take a look at some of
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  Speaker 1: those laws. That's the definition of the holiness. So just
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  Speaker 1: very briefly, just overview. So begins with honoring parents and
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  Speaker 1: honoring God. Have to honor our creators, the way we
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  Speaker 1: honor God, the Tour says, through the observance of Shabbat.
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  Speaker 1: Then we have a whole series of interpersonal laws, how
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  Speaker 1: we treat the poor, the worker, your neighbor, the deaf,
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  Speaker 1: the blind. It includes respect for nature. You're not allowed
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  Speaker 1: to cross breed animals, cannot even mix seeds, cannot plant
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  Speaker 1: the vine and wheat next to each other, and we
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  Speaker 1: can't even wear wool and liling clothes. Shot nace, mixing
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  Speaker 1: the animal and the plant kingdom that the tour also
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  Speaker 1: somehow leaving nature and its natural place is also part
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  Speaker 1: of holiness. Probably the same idea why we can't eat
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  Speaker 1: meat and milk together. There are two different realms. Milk
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  Speaker 1: gives life. Meat is the taking of life. Okay, that's
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  Speaker 1: a simple definition just to read the verses. Obviously, there's
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  Speaker 1: much more to delve into. All that is holy is special.
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  Speaker 1: Now we know if you look at the thing to
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  Speaker 1: a special distinct, Shabbat is holy. Obviously, it's very, very,
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  Speaker 1: very different day from the other day. So the Jewish
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  Speaker 1: people as a people, we have our whole group of
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  Speaker 1: meats for that, like you know, nobody else has tore
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  Speaker 1: itself is holy Israel. It's the land of visual taties.
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  Speaker 1: Yo mut smooth. So I know you're not listening today,
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  Speaker 1: but Yo MutS smoothsa ach. And with holiness comes extra responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: Holiness is great, but misusing holiness is dangerous. And as
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  Speaker 1: I often quote, the greater the power for good, the
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  Speaker 1: greater for the power for evil. This is this spiritual
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  Speaker 1: corollary of Newton's third law of motion. For every action,
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  Speaker 1: there's an obstinate equal reaction. Holiness is really powerful and
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  Speaker 1: therefore can do tremendous good, and it can be used,
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  Speaker 1: misused for tremendously negative ways be very dangerous. That's why
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  Speaker 1: not of a review probably died it. It's something they
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  Speaker 1: went into the holy of holies, or they brought some
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  Speaker 1: holy fire that they didn't have to was a little
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  Speaker 1: they got burnt, as we say. I think perhaps with
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  Speaker 1: this this background gives a little bit greater resonance to
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  Speaker 1: Rushi's definition of holiness. Rushi defines holiness he obviously looking
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  Speaker 1: at what came not after in chapter nineteen, if he
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  Speaker 1: comes before in chapter eighteen of a Yikrat, and that's
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  Speaker 1: the end of Ahning, which we'll also read this week,
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  Speaker 1: and that is the Laws of Jewish Sexual Ethics. That's
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  Speaker 1: chapter eighteen. So Russi says that kiddusha means kadoshi too
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  Speaker 1: is heavy, parushi means a right separate yourself from sexual
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  Speaker 1: sins arayot in illicit sexual relations. Tellingly, it's really fascinating
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  Speaker 1: to think about it. This is the tora reading on
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  Speaker 1: young kipper afternoon, we read about holiness. This is what
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  Speaker 1: holiness is on the holiest day of the year, on
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  Speaker 1: yum Kipur. I also think, I think it's pretty obvious
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  Speaker 1: in my mind that the area where Jewish ethics call
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  Speaker 1: it what you make Jewish and secular ethics most differ
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  Speaker 1: in the modern world is our attitudes towards towards sexuality.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you don't have to be Jewish to believe
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  Speaker 1: that you should be honest integrity, and you should get charity,
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  Speaker 1: and you should honor your parents even a day of rest. Conceptually,
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  Speaker 1: these are all not uniquely Jewish ideas, and we expect
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  Speaker 1: non Jews to observe the basic moral laws. Where Judaism
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  Speaker 1: and sort of currents more rays differ the most is
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  Speaker 1: in the realm of sexuality. So on the positive side,
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  Speaker 1: I would say in Judaism, sex is holy. It's holiness
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  Speaker 1: is very good. That gets you closer to God. It's
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  Speaker 1: not by accident that Judaism says the most appropriate time
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  Speaker 1: to be intimate with one's spouse is on Friday night
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  Speaker 1: on Shabbat. But I think maybe under the influence of
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  Speaker 1: the of the Catholic Church, and you know, sex tends
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  Speaker 1: to be viewed in a very like dirty, negative way.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, in Catholicism, of course, the priests are
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  Speaker 1: not allowed to marry, have to be cell a bit
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  Speaker 1: and nothing can be further from how Judaism views this
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  Speaker 1: realm where we're choosing not to have kids. A person
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  Speaker 1: who willingly you know, has no kids is k elu.
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  Speaker 1: It's k elush. I mean, it says, if he's a
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  Speaker 1: murder's not quite the same thing. But that's this strong,
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  Speaker 1: very very strong language. It was actually that language was
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  Speaker 1: that comment was actually made by ben Azai, who himself
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  Speaker 1: didn't have kids. He didn't have kids, but he said that.
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  Speaker 1: The rabbi said, you know, very nice, you speak very nice.
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  Speaker 1: He said, why don't you do what you say? Want
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  Speaker 1: to put your money where your mouth is? He says,
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  Speaker 1: what can I do? I can't get married. I married Torah.
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  Speaker 1: I can't change diapers at two in the morning, I
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  Speaker 1: can't go shopping carpools is not for me. Some people
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  Speaker 1: are are not cut out to get married and that
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  Speaker 1: so he taught Torah and that's a partial fulfillment. Is
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  Speaker 1: she only vanefe Lou tell me Deca having students? Is
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  Speaker 1: it not the same thing? But it's a little bit
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  Speaker 1: and so, but he understood that most people should, hopefully,
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  Speaker 1: please God, can not everybody can have biological children with
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  Speaker 1: some of the greatest rabbinic figures of the twentieth century
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  Speaker 1: do we're not blessed with kids? And we can talk
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  Speaker 1: about another time. But because it's so holy and so special,
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  Speaker 1: it has to be used used properly, because it's it's
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  Speaker 1: dangerous if it's misused. And from a Jewish perspective, that
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  Speaker 1: means when only when two people are committed to living
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  Speaker 1: a leg together, that's when they should be intimate at
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  Speaker 1: the same time. I think it's very important to point
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  Speaker 1: out that, you know, premarital relations and many of the
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  Speaker 1: other sexual you know, norms that are accepted in society
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  Speaker 1: but go against the traditional approach of Judaism may be unholy,
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  Speaker 1: but it is not immoral. I think it's an important
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  Speaker 1: distinction to make. The Rambamb, in his introduction to per
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  Speaker 1: Ka Vut, says, we've got to this on other occasions
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  Speaker 1: that we distinguished, we see certain types of them and
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  Speaker 1: kukim the laws of the tour, which we should have
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  Speaker 1: made up even if there wouldn't have been a tour.
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  Speaker 1: Don't steal, don't kill, don't gossip, honor your parents, and
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  Speaker 1: those laws which you know nobody in their right mind
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  Speaker 1: would make up on their own, not for the fact
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  Speaker 1: that God told us keeping kosher, not wearing shot maes.
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  Speaker 1: You know that we would never do on our own.
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  Speaker 1: So the Rambam says, when it comes to those who
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  Speaker 1: team that, you know there's no moral reason, at least
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  Speaker 1: before the fact, to keep kosher. You can be the
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  Speaker 1: one of the most wonderful person the word. You can
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  Speaker 1: be the most fantastic jewishly ethical, moral person and not
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  Speaker 1: keep kosher. Okay, you don't observe those laws of the tour.
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  Speaker 1: Doesn't make you a bad person, so the Rumbam says,
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  Speaker 1: and those laws a person should not say. I can't
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  Speaker 1: stand pork, I don't want to eat meat of milk.
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  Speaker 1: Ef she Lev I don't want to eat drink me
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  Speaker 1: if it's not kosher. If she lil bush, I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to wear will and linnenda, it's against the Torah.
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  Speaker 1: Person should never say that. He should say, f she
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  Speaker 1: I want to do it, but what can I do?
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  Speaker 1: Aviva shamai ghazarale, my father in heaven told me not
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  Speaker 1: so I quoted two of the three examples the Rumbum gives.
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  Speaker 1: He's actually quoting earlier sources in our literature from Shumu
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  Speaker 1: mingham Leo. The third example of the rumm says is
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  Speaker 1: ef she lola erva. A person shouldn't say I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to have an illicit sexual relationship. I do want
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  Speaker 1: to have it, but what can I do? God said
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  Speaker 1: I cannot have it. So it's fascinating that the Rumbum
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  Speaker 1: puts sexual sins. Now. Obviously he's not talking about adultery,
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  Speaker 1: which is uh uh, you're hurting somebody first. But what
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  Speaker 1: we say in the water world two consenting adults, anything
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  Speaker 1: too consenting adults do that? Doesn't you know? It's none
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  Speaker 1: of your business. You don't even know about it. I
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  Speaker 1: should have known about it. That is ahok, that's that's
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  Speaker 1: something the tor has commanded us to do. But it's
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  Speaker 1: not immoral. It's an holy but it's not a moral
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  Speaker 1: I think that's an important point. We don't stress enough.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, the Torah says, it's not enough to be
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  Speaker 1: moral and ethical. I mean, how have I everybody should
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  Speaker 1: be moral and ethical, and everybody does, but Jews, Jews,
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  Speaker 1: we have a special relationship with God, and that relationship
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  Speaker 1: requires us to be holy, and that comes often with challenges,
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  Speaker 1: and it's very hard. But that's the charge of the Torah.
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  Speaker 1: As Rushi says rove goofe Torah tooly about the majority
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  Speaker 1: of the fundamental principles of the Torah are enumerated in
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  Speaker 1: this chapter nineteen. This is what it is all about
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  Speaker 1: to be Jewish. And interesting that Russia, of course is
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  Speaker 1: talking about what comes ahead, honoring our parents and honoring God.
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  Speaker 1: Interpersonal relationship, well thinks you spoke about. So Russia of
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  Speaker 1: course is really saying two things, right Katusha from our
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  Speaker 1: sexual ram that the Torah you know, is combining eighteen
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  Speaker 1: and nineteen Chapter eighteen and nineteen. This is the essence
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  Speaker 1: of what it means to be a Jew, to be
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  Speaker 1: holy like God says, and let us try to live
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  Speaker 1: up to the best of our ability. Chabushalom. We hope
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• 11:08
  Speaker 1: thank you very much, looking forward to learning with you
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  Speaker 1: next week.