Kedoshim & Jewish Meditation

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Parshah Summary – P’sha

Parshat Kedoshim consists of the many mitzvot (commandments) through which the Torah envisions a sanctified life, including the prohibition against idolatry, the mitzvah of charity, the principle of equality before the law, Shabbat, sexual boundaries, honesty in business, honor of one’s parents, and the sacredness of life in general. Among these mitzvot is the famous principle which the great sage Rabbi Akiva called the essence of Torah, and of which Hillel said, “This is the entire Torah, the rest is commentary: 

​וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ – and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹ–וָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃
דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־כׇּל־עֲדַ֧ת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל וְאָמַרְתָּ֥ אֲלֵהֶ֖ם
קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י יְהֹ–וָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

​Hashem spoke to Moses, saying:
Speak to the whole community of the Children of Israel and say to them: Holy ones you shall be, for I, Hashem your God, am holy.
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- Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:1, 2; Parshat Kedoshim

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A disciple of Rabbi Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezritch, started home after studying with the Maggid for many years. On his way he stopped in Karlin to see his old friend Rabbi Aaron, who had once been his learning companion in the Maggid’s Beit Midrash (House of Study). It was already midnight by the time he arrived in the city, but he was so excited to see his old friend, he made his way to Rabbi Aaron’s house right away. When he arrived, he could see some light coming from the window, so he looked in and saw his old friend learning from books at the table by candlelight. Excited to see him, he knocked on the window enthusiastically. Rabbi Aaron looked up from his books: “Who is there?”  

​“It is I!” exclaimed the disciple. 

Rabbi Aaron looked back down at his books and continued studying. The student waited a bit, then knocked again, and again, but no reply. “Aaron, why don’t you open the door for me?” Rabbi Aaron looked up and spoke with grave seriousness: “Who is it that dares to call himself “I” as befits only God?” When the disciple heard this, he realized that he had not learned nearly enough, so he immediately turned around and headed back toward Mezritch. 

Through all our life experiences, we tend to take for granted the one common element at the root of them all – the “I” that is having the experiences. What is this “I” that we feel we are? 

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי. וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי. וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי:

He used to say, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” - Pirkei Avot 1:14
 


This little aphorism of the famous sage Hillel, which is often (mis) understood only on an ethical level, actually contains a formula for discovering our deepest identity:

אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי – If I am not for myself, who will be for me? It is up to us to realize who we really are; no one can do it for us. We can do this by noticing that there is, in a sense, two of “me” – the “me” that is made out of my body and mind and feelings, and the “I” that perceives all of that. Which “me” am I? “I” am not the “self” that “I” perceive – the body, the thoughts, the feelings – rather, “I” am the awareness that perceives those elements.
 
וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי – And if not Now, when? There is a way we can know this for ourselves, and that is to be attentive to whatever is present in experience; this meditation. The point is not the content of experience, but rather the act of being aware. Through the intentional act of awareness, we can come to know ourselves as that awareness, as that Presence. This deepest level of our identity, infusing yet also separate from our thoughts, feelings, senses, and all that normally is taken to be “me,” is also the root of what we might call the “sacred” or “holy” – קָד֔וֹשׁ kadosh. What is this קָד֔וֹשׁ kadosh, this quality of “holiness?” 
 
קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י יְה–וָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם – Holy ones you shall be, for I, Hashem your God, am holy. The passage instructs the Children of Israel to be holy without explaining what it means, giving as the reason that God is holy. Why does one follow from the other? Why should we be holy just because God is holy, and what does it mean?


The word קָד֔וֹשׁ kadosh means “set apart” or “separate,” but not in the ordinary sense. Normally, the word “separate” connotes distance, disconnectedness, or alienation, such as when a relationship between two people goes sour and connection is lost. But קָד֔וֹשׁ kadosh actually means the opposite; in a Jewish wedding ceremony, for example, we hear these words spoken between the beloveds:
 
הֲרֵי אַתְּ מְקֻדֶּֽשֶׁת לִי Harei at mekudeshet li – Behold, you are holy to me…  Meaning, your beloved becomes קָד֔וֹשׁ kadosh not because they are separate from you, but because they are exclusive to you. They are your most intimate, and therefore separate from all other relationships. In this way, the separateness of קָד֔וֹשׁ kadosh points not to something that is distant, but to something that’s most central. It points not to alienation, but to the deepest connection. And just as one’s spouse is separate from all other relationships, so too when we become present, this moment becomes separate from all other moments; we are able to get some distance from the world of time – from our memories about the past and our anticipations of the future. This allows us to truly experience ourselves – not as a bundle of thoughts and feelings inhabiting a body, but as the open, radiant space of awareness within which our thoughts and feelings come and go. This is why our awareness is, by its nature, קָד֔וֹשׁ kadosh – separate from the world of thought and feeling within which we can tend to become trapped, yet fully and intimately connected with everything that arises in this moment.
 
קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ – You shall be holy… In other words, access the sacred dimension of your being by becoming present – by separating your mind from the entanglements of thought and time. How is this possible?  

כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י יְה–וָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם – for I, Hashem your God, am holy… In other words, it is because Existence Itself – which is the meaning of יְה–וָ֥ה Hashem, the Divine Name –- is already אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם Eloheikhem, your own inner Divinity. Your deepest “I” is not your “I” at all, but is rather the “I” of the Divine; it is the “I” of Reality Itself, knowing Itself through you. And so it is not only that we can awaken to our deepest identity and recognize that we are not the ordinary “me” we thought we were, but rather, God can wake up to Itself; we play our part in Existence awakening to Itself; that is the deepest potential of קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ kedoshim tih’yu – not merely that we should “be holy,” but that we awaken to the holy, through being.

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