Mishpatim
Exodus 21:1-24:18
Jeremiah 34:8-34:22; 33:25-33:26
In this Torah portion we read, “V’anshei kodesh t’heiyoon li,” translated as “You shall be holy people to me” (Ex. 22:30). What does it mean to be a holy people? What does it mean for us today to read this phrase and think about how it informs our lives?
A review of some of the other ways in which this same Hebrew root is used may be helpful in our understanding. From the three root letters in the word “kodesh” — kuf, dalet and shin — we also find Kiddush, holiness or sanctification. This is what we do when we welcome Shabbat and the festivals, and what we do when we bless the fruit of the vine that we drink. For this is to make something and sometime separate, distinct and unique in our lives.
This is also the root of the word we use typically to describe a wedding or marital relationship. Frequently at wedding ceremonies I say to the bride and groom the following:
“A Hebrew word that is often used to describe both the wedding ceremony and the marital relationship is kiddushin, which means sanctification, or holiness. For you two this time and place is separate and distinct from all other occasions in your lives. Your relationship with one another is, and hopefully will remain, unlike any other.”
The same Hebrew root provides us the Aramaic word Kaddish — the sanctifying of God’s name, the prayer which we associate with loss and death.
This same root forms the word kadosh, which we recite in the Kedushah prayer that comes from the words of the prophet Isaiah. In describing God, Isaiah says “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh,” which means “holy, holy, holy.”
In his commentary on the Holiness Code text in Leviticus, Chapter 19, Gunther Plaut says, “The Law of Holiness is not addressed to selected individuals. It is addressed to the entire community of Israel. Its objective is not to produce a few saints. Rather, Torah aims to create a holy people which displays its consecration to God’s service in normal day-to-day relations.”
Torah gives us a clear account of holiness in life. Its laws call for just, humane and sensitive treatment of others. The aged, the handicapped and the poor are to receive our consideration and our courtesy. The laborer is to be promptly paid. The stranger is to be accorded the same love we give our fellow citizens.
These are some of the components of the way of life called kadosh. A Chassidic teaching is that holiness consists of being truly human, not angelic. God already has plenty of angels.
In our daily life we can strive to be holy while acknowledging that we are all in this mystery called life together. Our goal is to understand that without one another, no one can make it.
But what does it mean to be truly human? A story from Martin Buber illustrates this point:
Once there was a man who saw a beautiful bird high in the top of the tree. No one else saw it. A great longing came over him to reach the bird and take it. But the tree was too high and there was no ladder. So he devised a plan. He persuaded the people who stood there with him to form a pyramid so that he was able to climb to the top and reach the bird. Those who helped knew nothing of the bird; they never even saw it. But the one who did would never have been able to reach the bird without them. Indeed, had any of them left their place, everyone would have fallen to earth.
Our task is clear, but it is not an easy one: to live in such a way as to become “anshei kodesh,” holy people. This is a monumental undertaking that we need to remind ourselves of each day of our lives. It is an awesome responsibility, yet it is one that we have chosen.
The words of Pirke Avot help make our task clearer. Rabbi Tarfon teaches: “You are not required to complete the task, but neither are you at liberty to abstain from it.”
Rabbi Larry Raphael is the senior rabbi of Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco.