Edited and adapted from Ari’s Grill & Torah – May 5, 2017
A lot of people read the Torah in translation. But there are two levels of understanding language. There’s the verbal – when I say the word “orange,” you think of an orange, the color orange, orange juice – and you think of the verbal meaning. But you don’t really get the emotional intelligence involved in that word. When you’re changing the language, you can never get the full emotional understanding of the word if you’re just translating verbally.
This week we have a double parsha: Acharei Mot-Kedoshim. The questions we’re asking are: What does it mean, “Kedoshim tihiyu”? What does that word “kadosh” mean?
First, what does it mean to live according to the Torah? What does life mean according to the Torah? Second, this week’s parsha says “Kedoshim tihiyu” – you have to be kadosh. The question is, what is that word “kadosh”? It’s translated literally as “holy.” But if I ask you what holy means, it doesn’t help me because holy is just another word. You didn’t tell me what it means, you just translated it into another language. I want to know what it means, and I want to know what our responsibility is when it says “Kedoshim tihiyu.”
We also have the famous quote in this week’s parsha: “Ve’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha” – “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We have to understand what that means. It doesn’t mean that if people are evil, you have to love their actions and hug them. Where does that begin and where does it end?
The Source of Morality
Let’s go through the parsha. The first thing it says is, “Vayedaber Adonai el-Moshe lemor” – God says to Moshe Rabbeinu – “Daber el-benei Yisrael ve’amarta lahem ani Adonai eloheichem” – “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: I am Hashem your God.” And that’s the end of the verse.
What is that telling us? By the way, the reason we say Hashem is not because that’s God’s name, but it’s instead of actually saying God’s name, which we’re not supposed to say in vain or continuously for no reason. So instead of saying the word Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei, which is the actual name of God, we say the word Hashem – “the Name” – in order not to say the real name.
So it says, “Ani Hashem eloheichem” – “I am Hashem your God.” What does that word “eloheichem” mean? Your king, your ruler. And why is that verse there? What is it telling us?
The message of “Ani Hashem eloheichem” is that this is the source of all knowledge and morality. We say every morning in tefillah, “Atah chonen adam da’at” – “You give man knowledge.” And at the end we say, “Mi’etcha de’ah binah veshma” – we want the knowledge to come only from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, only from Hashem.
Why is that important? We have freedom of thought. We have freedom of choice. We can believe in whatever we want to believe in. People believe in some crazy things. So what does it mean that God should give us from Him the knowledge and the ability to learn and to have conclusions? Why from God?
The reason is because ideologies, political opinions, philosophy, and all kinds of belief systems can be made up. Society can flip from one end to the other within a span of fifty years. And legalities of a community or society do not in any way define morality.
If I go to the extreme: If you tell me that your society defines your morality, well, then you have to accept all society’s rules and laws as moral. In other words, if morality is defined by society, then whatever society you happen to be in – I cannot judge, for example, 1942, the Nazis. Their society said Jews are subhuman, gypsies are subhuman, the disabled are subhuman. To burn, kill, and murder them – there’s no moral problem with murdering these people, according to their society.
Now, if society defines morality, we can’t judge anyone who behaved according to society’s laws. Of course, according to Judaism, we believe that every man, woman, and child over the age of thirteen – obviously, because under that it’s the parent’s responsibility – has a moral responsibility to check themselves. Is what I’m doing right or wrong? The problem with that is: how do you know what right and wrong is? What is the definition of right and wrong?
How Do You Know?
This week, I had a debate with someone at the TV station where I work. We often have philosophical and ideological debates, and she was yelling at me about how dare I kill animals. It’s so cruel to kill animals, so cruel to eat animals, to wear leather, et cetera.
So I turned to her and said, “Listen, your ideas and ideologies are very nice. I have one question for you: How do you know? How do you know? You’re saying, ‘Don’t you feel it? How cruel are you to animals?’ Feelings don’t mean anything per se.” We have to be nice to people, that’s true, but because I feel that this is wrong or mean doesn’t mean it is.
The fact that I might feel pain, that an animal might feel pain, doesn’t make us equal. I mean, you don’t have humans on leashes, right? It’s terrible. How can you have a human on a leash? So how could you have a dog on a leash? We should have wild animals walking in the streets? After all, they’re equal to humans. Of course, I’m getting extreme on purpose, but you understand that the bottom line of morality is not the same for man and animal. And animals are not equal to humans. According to Judaism, animals are here for our consumption.
You’re not allowed to hunt and hurt them without any reason of consumption. You’re not allowed to cause them pain. Eiver min hachai – eating from a limb of a live animal – is forbidden. Tzaar baalei chayim – you’re not allowed to hurt or injure animals just for sport. That’s absolutely not allowed in Judaism.
But she wasn’t going on that. She was saying it’s absolutely immoral to eat meat. And I said to her, “Well, how do you know that?” She said, “What do you mean how do I know that? I don’t need the Bible, the Torah, to tell me it’s immoral.” I said, “I didn’t ask you what you don’t need, I asked you what you do need. What is the base of your belief? You believe that you’re not allowed to eat animals. I believe that I am allowed to eat animals. How do you know you’re right?”
What Does Kedoshim Mean?
In Kedoshim, we have this idea of kedusha. Most people around the world would translate this word as “holy.” That’s a great translation, but that doesn’t help me because all you did was translate a Hebrew word into English. What does holy mean?
If you asked a person in the street, “Who is a holy person?” they might point to someone who’s abstaining from everything in this world, not getting married, not having anything to do with the opposite sex or having children. They’re not eating, and they’re living maybe in a cave, meditating. It sounds very, very holy. But that’s because people have defined holiness according to what they think is holy, and Judaism does not believe that at all.
Don’t Follow Their Laws
Let me go through a couple of things here. When we come into the land of Israel, it says we shouldn’t do like the actions – “kema’aseh Eretz Mitzrayim” – like the actions of Egypt where we were for many years. “Ukema’aseh Eretz Canaan” – you should also not do like the actions of the Canaanites that you’re coming to their land. “Uvechukoteihem lo telechu” – and in their laws you shall not go.
It would have been enough to say, “Don’t go in their actions.” If their actions are immoral, just don’t go in their actions. What does it mean, “don’t go according to their rules”? What if they have nice rules? Rules that make sense? Or comfortable rules? Why is it such a clear-cut “Don’t go after the rules”? What is it about their rules that’s so bad?
The issue of their rules is they’re based on their society, and society’s rules change according to their own comfort level. Without going into depth: in 1950, abortion was cold-blooded murder. In 2017, it’s pro-choice, it’s okay. Here’s the thing about abortion as an example: Either you’re killing a human, a life, or you’re not. I heard this from, I believe it was Ben Shapiro. If you’re killing a life, then you can’t do it, no matter what. If the woman’s in danger, it’s a different story. But if it’s not a life, then you can do it without a problem. The question is: what is the base of that decision? Is it a moral decision or is it something else?
When it comes to the chukim of the Canaanites who were here, those laws are based on their culture. When their culture changes, when their comfort levels change, so will their laws. It happens all over the world and you cannot judge that society in a godless world. In a godless world, the laws of society are only dependent upon the opinions of the society and their comfort zone.
Who am I to say, if I’m living in Western society and I believe that you can’t beat women, and then I go to another society where they believe that you can, I can’t judge them? How can I judge them in a godless world? They believe in their morals, I believe in mine. We’ll go even further. How could we judge Assad for killing six hundred and fifty thousand people? How could we judge Hitler – may his name be wiped out from history? If in a godless world, every society decides what they want to do, well, what’s the problem?
This is the warning that the Torah gives the nation of Israel when they come into the land of Israel: Do not go by their rules. The truth is Judaism does believe that the Gentiles of the world – “chochmat hagoyim ta’amin” – there is wisdom there. We’re not saying everything’s bad. Not at all. But when it comes to laws that define morality, that’s what we have to be very careful not to fall into that trap.
Follow My Laws
Then what does it say? It goes on: “Et mishpatai ta’asu” – the laws, the mishpatim, God says to Bnei Yisrael – “ve’et chukotai tishmeru” – and my chukim, guard them, keep them – “lalechet bahem” – go according to them. “Ani Hashem eloheichem” – I am God. Again, that same word. Why does He keep repeating that? Because that is the source. If you wipe out that source of “ani Hashem eloheichem” – I am God, your king – if you wipe out that source, you wipe out the objective source of morality.
Now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any moral atheists or kind atheists. That’s not what I said. As long as the general morality of the world is in line with the laws of the Torah, everything’s wonderful. I’m not talking about religious laws in terms of keeping kosher. People who are not Jewish are not commanded to do that. I’m talking about laws between man and man: Thou shall not steal, thou shall not kill, adultery. All those things are universal laws, and when it comes to those, the Torah takes precedence. It doesn’t matter what the world decides is okay. It’s not.
Why Can’t You Kill?
You know what’s interesting? In Mishpatim, Rashi – a commentator on the Torah and the Gemara – says “et mishpatim ta’asu” – these laws. Mishpatim in the Hebrew language is literally like law, like you go to court. And chukim is a law that we don’t quite understand.
Rashi says “eleh mishpatim” – these are things that are said in the Torah by mishpatim, like by the civil court of law. Why? “Af al pi she’ein ketuvin haya rauyim lehikateiv” – even if the Torah didn’t mention them, people should have the brains to think, well, you cannot kill. Now, why should people have the brains to think thou shall not kill? Because socially, we want society to exist, so if everyone’s killing each other, it won’t work. That’s wonderful. Society should figure that out.
But morally – and this is a scary thought – if I go to someone who does not believe in God, in a creator of the world, and an objective set of laws of morality, they don’t believe in that, and I ask him, “Why can’t I kill someone?” Morally, not socially. What’s the answer? I like his car, I want to take his car. Why can’t I kill him? They’ll say to me, “What do you mean? You just can’t kill.” “You just can’t kill” doesn’t work for me. The same way if I say to someone who doesn’t believe in Torah, “You just can’t eat a pig.” They’ll say, “Why not?” I say, “You just can’t.” That won’t work for them.
So why can’t I kill? I want the guy’s car, why can’t I kill him? On a moral level. They’ll say to you, “Well, how would you like if someone killed you?” Well, that means if I’m the strongest guy in the world, and I have a lot of guns, I can kill everyone because they’re not going to kill me. That is not a moral reason. That is an egotistical reason. That would give the fittest to survive – the strongest person in the world – the ability to kill whoever he wants. Because if I’m just worried about what if someone does it to me, no problem. I’ll make sure I have nuclear weapons all over the place, and I can kill everyone else because they can’t kill me. So that’s not a moral reason.
What we’re saying here is: “Follow my laws and my rules.” It’s not that we’re going to get whipped if we don’t follow them, or lightning is going to strike down. That’s not what Judaism believes at all. Or you’re going to hell. That’s not a Jewish issue. That’s not the way Jews explain it. It’s not negative, it’s positive. If you don’t follow those rules, your moral ladder will turn into a ramp, and you’ll be sliding down because it’s iced over. And it’s not because you’re doing it on purpose. People don’t want to be evil, they want to be good, so they justify their beliefs, whatever they are.
Evil Exists So We Can Choose Good
I want to go on to a couple of other things. Obviously, this parsha also talks about the issue of homosexuality, and I want to make something very clear. People have desires in life, and everybody’s got desires. People have desire sometimes to steal, kleptomaniacs, whatever it is. The goal, the point of life according to Judaism, is to make the choice. It’s not that life is a bowl of cherries, everything’s happy-go-lucky and easy. It’s exactly the opposite.
Listen carefully: The existence of evil, according to Judaism, exists in the world so that we can choose good. You can’t have the ability to choose good if there’s no choice of evil. Therefore, the whole point of life according to Judaism is to choose good because we have to be the owners of good. If God forced us to be good, we wouldn’t be the owners of good. In order to be the owner, we have to choose it. In order to choose something, I need the ability to say yes or no.
Give you an example: A guy falls in love with a woman and puts a gun to her and says, “Say you love me or I’ll kill you.” And she says, “I love you.” There’s no love there. There’s no relationship. Someone says, “Well, I love her a hundred percent, and she doesn’t love me back at all.” There’s no fifty percent relationship there. There’s zero relationship because a relationship takes two sides. So if we don’t have choice, if you don’t have this idea of choice, there’s no relationship.
When it comes to homosexuality, there’s no question in terms of the Torah that the sexual acts are immoral. Now, does that mean if someone has these desires they should be spat on, beat up? Of course not. Absolutely not. Someone has desires – whatever they desire – they shouldn’t be beat up or screamed at or insulted. No. They have a very big challenge ahead of them to try to figure out what to do with their life and not fall into one of the acts which are defined in the Torah as toevah – abomination is the loose translation – one of several that are really put on a pedestal of evil.
So the question is, what does that person do? That person has been given a challenge which is probably terribly difficult. But the goal in life is to face that challenge and still behave in a moral way.
The Land Spits Out Impurity
It says the following: All the toevot – “kol hatoeivot ha’eileh asu anshei ha’aretz” – the people who were in this land before you did all these things. “Vatitma ha’aretz” – they made the land impure – and the land spit them out because the land of Israel does not take impurity. It’s like poison to the land of Israel, so it spits it out. And it says, “You should not follow their ways” – “velo taki ha’aretz etchem” – “the land should not spit you out” – “betamachem otah” – “as you cause it to be impure” – “ka’asher ka’ah et hagoy asher lifneichem” – “the way that the land spit out the non-Jews before you.”
Yeah, the land of Israel is ours, but it’s not ours just because it’s ours. Coming to the land of Israel is a responsibility. There are responsibilities, and if one does not uphold those responsibilities, there’s a danger of being kicked out – not you or me individually, but the whole nation. So it’s not just the army – which is of course utmost important – but there’s a moral standard that we need to uphold in order to merit continuing to live in this country.
Kedoshim Means Separate
Now, it’s interesting. Parsha Kedoshim comes in, and the next part is “Kedoshim tihiyu” – the commandment to be kadosh. So what is kadosh? We know that when a man gets married to a woman, he says to her, “harei at mekudeshet li.” So it certainly doesn’t mean “you are holy to me.” I don’t know what that means. There’s no holiness from one person to another. I’m not holy to another human being.
So what is the word kedoshim? It means separated for me. A man says to a woman, “harei at mekudeshet li” – you are now separated from all the other men for me. That just means mekudeshet – you’re special, and you’re separated from everyone else, and you are now considered my partner, my wife.
So when it says “Kedoshim tihiyu,” it’s not telling them “be holy.” The commandment doesn’t mean “be holy.” It means be separate. What does separate mean? Be separate from the laws of the world which are based on air. Be separate from the laws of the world which are based on a society’s comfort level, where things are flipped over from up to down, right to left, without a blink of the eye.
You have to remember, if we go back to the United States of America, you were allowed to own people – Black slaves – and beat them, and there were no rights. And it was legal. Doesn’t make it moral. The challenge of human beings is to say, “Okay, I understand the law, but I’m not doing that.” You can imagine the people who were against slavery back then – it was considered insane. Just like people who are against abortion today – it’s considered insane. “How could you – you’re primitive. What do you mean? It’s my man. I bought him.” Of course, they would justify it the same way. The question is: Is it moral? Are you killing a human, a life, or not? Are you allowed to own a human being or not? That’s the question. Everything else doesn’t matter.
Not Out-Of-Body Spiritual Experiences
So Kedoshim means be separate, and come to a level of consciousness of spirituality where you’re living in this world not just by the law of the land. Absolutely not. If the law of the land is not moral according to objective morality, I’m not living by the law of the land. Now, as long as the law of the land is going according to objective morality, of course, you have to live by the law of the land. And by the way, if the law of the land for some crazy reason would say I can’t eat meat – there’s nothing immoral with me eating meat – but if I live in a land that’s not mine, I have to follow those laws.
But the idea of Kedoshim – you would expect that a parsha talking about this separation of spirituality, this celestial kind of living, would have sacrifices in it. It would be talking about fast days. It would be talking about separating yourselves from society. It would be talking about not eating, maybe really not eating, not having relations, not with your family, being separate, being like an angel. Being a hermit in some kind of cave, living out there with no communication. “I’m only with God. I’m married to God. I don’t talk to anyone else.” That’s very nice and sweet, but that’s a man-made, made-up idea. And although it might sound wonderful, it’s just not what the objective morality is talking about.
I’m going to give you the perfect example: Loyalty to your beliefs is not necessarily a good thing unless your belief is based on truth. Let me say that again. Loyalty to your beliefs is not necessarily a good thing unless your belief is based on truth. You want an example? A radical Muslim terrorist – and not all Muslims are terrorists – a radical Muslim terrorist who blows up innocent people and screams, “God is great,” while doing so, and believes that he’s going to go to heaven for that – whatever he feels is totally irrelevant to the facts of life. His belief is not based on truth. He’s murdering people, and the fact that he’s saying, “God is great,” doesn’t help. That would be like me saying, “My father is great,” and spitting in his face. That doesn’t do anything for anyone.
What Kedoshim Actually Contains
So when it comes to Kedoshim, the idea is that it’s not talking about these out-of-world, out-of-body spiritual experiences. That’s not what we’re talking about here. Listen to what it says. It’s unbelievable.
We start off: “Kedoshim tihiyu” – be this kind of separation. And then the first thing – “ish imo ve’aviv tira’u” – the first thing that’s mentioned is respecting your mother and your father. That’s the first thing that’s mentioned. And then next is Shabbat.
What’s the connection between having respect for your mother and father and Shabbat? One is between man and man, and one is between man and God. The connection is it comes from the same source. If you give up on the relationship between man and God, you will give up when it’s comfortable on the relationship between man and man because there’s no source for it.
Let’s go on. Then it says you shouldn’t go to the other gods and the other beliefs. Why? “Ki ani Hashem eloheichem” – because I am God, your ruler. And then it goes on to some really odd, secondary sacrifices which are not one of the major ones. You would think that Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, should be involved here. It’s not. And then what goes on?
Listen to this. It talks about charity. It talks about charity. And next it talks about charity. It says, you shouldn’t harvest your whole field. You should leave a corner for the poor. If you have a vineyard, you shouldn’t take the grapes that fall. Leave them for the poor. It goes on: you should not steal, you should not deny that you stole. You should not lie to each other. You should not swear in my name in vain – talking about if you stole something, you shouldn’t swear and say that you didn’t do it.
And then it says – “im ta’asu eileh” – if you do these things, you’ve cursed the name of God, and we’re talking about between man and man. It says you shouldn’t pull a fast one on your friend. You shouldn’t cheat him in business. You shouldn’t steal. You shouldn’t withhold payment to your worker. You shouldn’t fool a deaf person or a blind person.
Why? “Ki tira mei’elohecha” – because you should be fearful of God. Not just because it’s wrong to do – of course it’s wrong to do – but the reason it’s wrong is not because society said so. Because when we go back in the times of the Romans and the Greeks, when they had a stadium, and tens of thousands, if not more, were watching poor people, disabled people getting ripped apart by lions, and they were cheering. So it’s not a given what we just read, and it doesn’t change. It doesn’t change.
You can’t curse a deaf person who can’t hear you. You can’t put a stumbling block in front of a blind person and laugh at him. You can’t do that, but not only because it’s not right – because it stems from the objective morality. And then it goes to the idea of courts. You have to be straight in your court. The people who are the dayanim, the judges, they have to be honest in their judgments. And all this stuff should make sense, and it does make sense, and this is why societies do have it. The United States of America has a court. They have a Supreme Court, and they have a whole court system going on. Even Israel does, and it’s not a religious court. They have a whole system going on, so it’s there.
But the question is: What’s the source? When a case comes to the Supreme Court and they have to decide on a civil rights issue, on a real moral issue, what is their source? Their source today is what society defines as right and wrong, and that’s not our source.
The Land Will Spit You Out
So it says the following: “Ushmartem et kol chukotai ve’et kol mishpatai va’asitem otam” – keep all my laws and my rules – “velo taki etchem ha’aretz asher ani mevi etchem shamah lashevet bah” – and the land of Israel that I bring to you will not spit you out. The second time it’s said in this parsha. What’s going on here?
“Uvechukot hagoy asher ani meshaleach mipneichem lo telechu” – don’t go after the rules of the people that you’re taking over. “Ki et kol eileh asu va’akutz bahem” – they behaved according to their rules, and it says here that I was disgusted with them. Now, what are their rules? It’s not their immoral actions. These are rules.
In my humble opinion, Judaism has a set of rules, certainly when it comes to war, certainly when it comes to the judicial system, and if we don’t have the very clear objective view of moral and immoral, we will slide. We will slide. It’s impossible not to.
The Elor Azaria Case
You want the perfect case? I’ll give the example. Elor Azaria. A terrorist came with intent to murder. In terms of Judaism, “haba lehorgecha hashkem lehargo” – someone comes to kill you, you have to kill them first. However, when it comes to the land of Israel, there are enemies, and there are rules of law with enemies. What I want to do and what I don’t want to do is totally irrelevant. I’m talking about a moral level of laws.
Six, seven minutes after, whether he saw the terrorist move or not, he shot and killed this terrorist. There was a big uproar in Israel, and this guy is sitting in jail for a year and a half now, hopefully getting out a little bit earlier. There was an argument about whether what he did was right or wrong. Legally, it can be said that what he did was wrong. We can’t argue with that. The courts gave their verdict, and in the legal society that we live in, the verdict is given by those courts. So legally, he’s in jail. He broke the law.
Morally? No. Morally, no. He didn’t break any laws morally. But legally, he did. He’s in jail now for it, but morally not.
Compassion on Evil
So let’s go on. Therefore, it says here, “uvechukot hagoy” – don’t go after their laws. Their laws are not moral. To keep terrorists who are terrorists by ideology alive – you’re not being kind, you’re not being compassionate. You’re being actually cruel. And there’s a sentence in Judaism – “hamitrachem al ha’achzarim” – someone who has compassion on evil people – “sofo lehitachzer al harachamanim” – will eventually be evil to those who deserve compassion.
You want a hardcore example? I’ll give you a hardcore example. Yehoshua Friedberg, my friend, was murdered. They caught the terrorists. They all were put in jail. They were all let out of jail. Why? To get Gilad Shalit out of captivity. Now, believe me, I’m very happy Gilad Shalit is home, but it was an emotional decision. And the terrorists who were let out of jail, who murdered my friend, murdered again.
So you cannot – “lo telechu acharei levaveichem” – you cannot go off your emotions. I’m not belittling the emotion of the Shalit family. I’m very happy he’s home. I’m not belittling the feelings of anyone who has a problem or an issue. This has nothing to do with how I treat or react to those people. It has to do with objective morality, and it’s not always black and white. But in terms of that issue, for instance, letting out terrorists, it’s pretty black and white. It’s very simple.
In Judaism, it says you do not go and get people out of captivity if the price will cost more lives. Period. End of story. Is it emotionally easy to do? Of course not.
Live By Them
When we’re talking about Kedoshim, we see that we’re not talking about these celestial issues of having to be holier-than-thou, living in a cave. No. The Torah says, “vachai bahem” – you must live by them. You must live by the laws. Live, not die. Live. Our whole goal in Judaism is to live according to a certain level of spirituality defined by only one objective source.
Now, any bright ideas or wonderful ideas you might have about spirituality that are not sourced in that objective source are fake. You might feel very good about them, but that doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong. Feeling does not define morality, and if it did, we’d be in big trouble because everyone’s personal opinions and feelings are different. And the second someone would act based on their feeling alone, that is immoral – that is animalistic – that is barbaric. That’s what an animal does. An animal sees another animal with food, it kills the animal and takes the food. No problem. There’s no consequence for animals. For humans, there are consequences.
So feelings are very, very important, but they’re important to use your feelings to boost morality rather than strip it and actually boost immorality. And that is the commandment of “Kedoshim tihiyu.” Be separate to be able to accept these rules that have been defined by an objective source, and don’t fall into the trap of accepting laws based on a society which in essence is based on nothing but their own comfort.
Shabbat Shalom from the beautiful rolling hills of Judea, Israel.