BS’’D
Parshat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim: The
Secret to Being Holy
ב. דַּבֵּר אֶל כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ
אֲלֵהֶם קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם:
|
Think to yourself of a holy
person. What picture do you have in your head? The image of an elderly man with
a white beard, a black hat on his head and on top of that hat a golden halo?
Why didn’t you picture yourself?
Didn’t you think to yourself for
a moment that YOU yourself are holy? Did you not know? YOU have the ability to
be Kadosh!
You may be thinking to yourself, Who am I kidding? I’m a simple person who goes
about their day just like anybody else. I’m not anywhere near that Rav or
Rebbitsen’s level. I wish I was! Or maybe, I’ve done so many wrong things in the past, there is no way a person
like me can ever reach such high levels, I’m so sunken in my avonot, my sins! I’m
a lost case (has veShalom)! And so, you discourage yourself from even trying
to seize this thing known as Kedushah.
This isn’t correct thinking.
In Parashat Kedoshim, HaKadosh
Barukh Hu instructs Moshe Rabbenu to gather the entire Kelal Yisrael as a congregation to speak to each and every
one of them. This is one of the only times this happens in the Torah HaKedoshah.
The pasuk says, Daber El Kol Adat Benei Yisrael ve’Amarata
Elehem Kedoshim Tehiyu, Speak to the ENTIRE
Kelal Yisrael and tell them, You Shall be Holy. What is so urgent that the entire Benei
Yisrael, the religious ones and the sinners alike, needs to be told in unison
to be holy? What is the purpose of telling those who it seems the Missvah doesn’t
even pertain to that they must be holy? If we told a Rav to maintain his
holiness and strive for more, I understand. But even the lowest of the low, the
heretics and the complete resha’im (wicked and immoral people) are required to be there
and are commanded the same thing as the rest of the nation is. It’s like
telling a student who can’t even get a 20 on an algebra test that they will be
a world renowned calculus professor one day. Impossible! Why should we even waste their
time? Because every single person in Kelal
Yisrael has the ability to be Kadosh. Everybody,
no matter what their level now, no matter what they think of themselves, can
reach such high spiritual levels. Don’t be discouraged!! If even the most
wicked and lowly person in the entire nation, who doesn’t even recognize HaShem
is required to be present when HaShem instructs Benei Yisrael ‘Kedoshim Tehiyu’
because he too is capable of such sanctity, so
are you.
The Parashah reveals to us how.
There are different levels of
attaining Kedushah, depending on how we define the concept. The main factor of Kedushah
is that of separating ourselves.
Rashi tells us that Kedushah is attained by separating ourselves from
immorality, from what is not good. On the most simple level, pull yourself away
from lying, stealing, coveting what is not yours, and you will end up being
kadosh. So you can lock yourself in a room away from it all and bam, you’re
Kadosh! But the point isn’t to be a holy hermit. We must find Kedushah within
our daily lives. The Ramban explains the next step, separate yourself from what
is permitted to you. True, we are permitted to eat meat and drink wine, but a
kadosh person will not over indulge; they know their limit. One should not
stuff themselves until they can’t breathe or get so drunk that they cannot
function. Just because the Torah gives us
the license to do something, doesn’t mean that we should take advantage of this
privilege. If you do eat and drink too much it is not that you sinned, it is
permissible after all, but you are missing out on attaining a higher level of ruhaniut, spirituality. You are missing
the whole point of what Kedushah really is.
Believe it or not, there is a
level even higher that this one. HaRav Ginzberg revealed to me that the reason why
during Kedushah we jump up three times when we say ‘Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh’ is because
to attain Kedushah, we must elevate
ourselves; we separate ourselves from what is below. So far, we discussed how
to attain Kedushah by not doing
something, by holding back, by not overindulging, but an even higher level is
by actively
pursuing
good things until we won’t even have the desire to do the bad that we
so much want to pursue. The Baal Shem Tov explains that this is exactly what is
meant by the pasuk ‘Sur me’Rah ve’Aseh Tov’. Turn yourself away from bad and do good. By the time you turn back
around, you won’t even consider taking up the bad you once left behind.
In the first two levels, we tell
ourselves we have to stop everything we are doing and give up so much in order
to end up a kadosh person. The highest form of Kedushah can be attained, not by
suddenly stopping to do all those ‘bad things’ but rather doing so much good,
so much Torah and Missvot, that we become so elevated that we won’t even want
to look at the things we used to do
before. This way is doesn’t feel like such a sacrifice after all. This way, it’s
really true, ALL of Kelal Yisrael have the opportunity to be Kedoshim! Just keep
doing good, keep doing Missvot! This way we actively build ourselves to become Kadosh
people.
The Lekah Tov brings that the Zohar
HaKadosh describes in more detail how a Missvah brings a person to Kedushah. In
Parashat Aharei Mot, the pasuk tells us, ‘U’Shemartem et Hukai ve’Et Mishpatai
Asher Yaaseh ha’Adam Otam ha’Adam ve’Hai Bahem’. Essentially, a person lives on
and by their Missvot. When we do a Missvah, what we are doing is really taking
the actual source of that Missvah in Shamayim and bringing it down to this
world. This Missvah gives off a certain light that envelopes us. The source of
this light is none other than the Kedushah of HaShem; the Missvah simply creates
the bond between the two. When we do a Missvah, we literally become holier. This
is why we say ‘Asher Kideshanu be’Missvotav ve’Sivanu’ in
a berakha before we do a Missvah; HaShem surrounds us in his Kedushah when we
do His Missvot, and in this way, we are directly connected to Him. We survive
based on the Kedushah we attain from the Missvot we do. That is why the pasuk
tells us, You Will be Holy, Because I, HaShem am Holy. The Kedushah we are
getting is actually HaShem’s Kedushah which is brought down to this world.
We learn, Kol HaMekadesh Assmo mi’le’Mata,
Makdishin Oto mi’le’Maala. One who sanctifies himself from the world below, by
doing Missvot, They sanctify him from the World Above, from the actual source
of the Missva, the Kedushah of HaShem!
Be’Ezrat HaShem may we all
develop the intuition to actively Mekadesh ourselves every single moment of our
lives, not only by giving up what is not good but by doing such abundance of
good that we should no longer even have a desire to be amidst the bad. May the
Kedushah that we bring to this world through our Missvot envelope us and sustain
us and may we only continue to elevate our levels of Kedushah each day!
Wishing everybody a Shabbat
Shalom Kadosh u’Mevorakh!
Ariella Samimi
No comments:
Post a Comment