Parasha Kedoshim (Holy People) Lev.19: 1- 20:27
The Lord spoke to Moses: “Speak to all the community of Israel. Say: ‘Be holy, for I am holy; I, the Lord your God.”
By Raphael ben Levi
The Hebrew word “kadosh,” meaning “holy” Speaks of someone or something that is holy is set apart, distinctive, different. The Priests were set apart from the rest of the nation and had no share in the land but the Lord was their great prize and inheritance. Their whole sphere of focus was the Tabernacle and later on the Temple, the place where the manifold presence of God, the Shekinah glory resided.
So the priests lived at the very epicentre of the Divine Presence and as God’s ministers were responsible to kerp themselves pure without defilement because they were the “Kedoshim”, the holy ones, who dwelt in the secret place of the Most High and abided under the shadow of the Almighty (Ps.91). This was not something taken lightly as Aaron’s two eldest sons discovered to the cost of their lives.
Until now, holiness was a special feature that separated a priest from the remaining nation of Israel although in Ex.19 at the giving of the Torah the children of Israel were told that at some future stage they would also be included as a priesthood. God told them:
“You shall be to Me a Kingdom of Priests and a holy nation” (Ex.19:6).
Now, in this week’s parasha, Kedoshim, God was explicit. “The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev.9:1-2). Here, it speaks about holiness extended to include the entire nation.
But here we must differentiate between function and status. Initially it was to have been the firstborns who were saved from the last of the Ten Plagues who were selected to serve the Lord as His special ministers. It was only after the sin of the Golden Calf that the change was made to restrict this ministry to the Levites specifically in terms of Temple service.
Until now, the Book of Leviticus is centred around the theme of sacrifices, purity, the Mishkan (Tabernacle), and the Priesthood. Things are focused around a holy place, holy offerings, and a holy people, specifically Aaron and his descendants who God chose to be the custodians of the Mishkan.
But now, suddenly in the beginning of Lev.19 we see a radical paradigm shift where the focus is broadened to include every Israelite. This is the first and the only instance in Leviticus that such an inclusive command is found. And here the entire nation is commanded to be holy.
Now every believer including the Gentiles who have been grafted into the Vine and are adopted as the Commonwealth of Israel are commanded to be holy: distinctive, set apart, held to a higher standard which we ignore at our peril – an integral feature in our walk with God that holds profound implications for every believer regarding our present and future destinies.
Holiness is defined here in this parasha in many ways that is linked to righteousness down to small details such as descriptions as to how the nation should make its clothes and plants its fields; how justice should be administered, how workers are paid and business conducted. The vulnerable: the deaf, the blind, the elderly, and the stranger were to be given special protection. All of this is an outflow of our walk with God and our desire to be obedient in even the very smallest things in life that is pleasing to Him.
This provides flesh on the bone in context and within a framework that is embedded in a holy relationship with the living God. This brings a greater clarity to Yeshua’s scolding the religious hierarchy. They had a form of religion which they scrupulously adhered to but denied the power thereof, the type of people who Paul was referring to in 2Tim.3:5 who,
“…hold to a form of godliness although they have denied its power… They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.”
So now God was calling the entire community of Israelites to be ”..holy even as I am Holy,” and as such every individual now held a greater accountability before Him.
So it is for us as believers. We read that Peter urged the congregations to “13 … brace your minds for action. Keep your balance. And set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Yeshua the Messiah. 14 Like obedient children, do not be shaped by the cravings you had formerly in your ignorance. 15 Instead, just like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in everything you do. 16 For it is written,
“Kedoshim you shall be, for I am kadosh. 17 If you call on Him as Father—the One who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds—then live out the time of sojourning in reverent fear.”
And he continues: “22 Now that you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth leading to sincere brotherly love, love one another fervently from a pure heart.”
Yeshua said: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” and the Book of Hebrews adds this codicil that, “Without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).
There are many believers walking this earth who reject the clear command throughout Scripture regarding holiness as though it is some outmoded and irrelevant doctrine that no longer bears any relevance to our daily lives within modern society. Among them are false shepherds who are leading their flocks to eternal destruction – the blind leading the blind.
To be holy is to be set apart from this world. Even though we are in this world we are not of this world. So to “Be holy” means, to have the courage to be different. That is the root meaning of kadosh in Hebrew. It means something distinctive and set apart. “Be holy for I the Lord your God am holy.”
The Sages have said that a “mamzer talmid chacham,” a Torah scholar of illegitimate birth, is greater than an “am ha’aretz Kohen Gadol,” an ignorant High Priest. What are they saying? To walk in obedience and reverence to the Word of God whatever one’s status in this world is infinitely greater than one who simply masquerades as a religious person no matter what their status may be.
We dare not ignore these implications for our lives and a decisive clue to its meaning is provided by another key word used throughout Tanakh specifically in relation to the priest is the Hebrew verb “Badal” meaning to divide, set apart, separate, distinguish. That is what we as priests of God are called to do – to distinguish between the sacred and what is secular (Lev.10:10) and those things which Scripture defines as ‘unclean’ and ‘clean” (Lev.11:47). The purpose being encapsulated in the command that we are to “… be holy (unto God), for (He) the Lord (is) holy, and (has) distinguished (us as His covenant people both Jew and Gentile) [va-avdil] from other peoples to be Mine.” (Lev.20:26)
If we were to translate this into NT terms we see it as both a command and a warning that by living a holy life unto God He has equipped us with Divine discernment to filter through everything that is fake and preserve us from Satan’s myriad of deceptions in these end times. We are living in perilous times where Yeshua warned has warned that many would be deceived (because of compromising biblical standards) leading to the love of many growing cold.
There is one other place in which the Hebrew word “badal “ is employed as a key word, in Gen.1. concerning the account of Creation where it occurs 5 times. God separates light and dark, day and night, upper and lower waters and for the next three days places in each domain appropriate objects or life-forms. God fashions order out of chaos and as His last act of creation, He makes man after His “image and likeness.” Genesis states that God breathed His “neshima” (breath) into Adam and Eve providing them with a soul which separated them from every other living creature.
Since God made each of us within the depths of His fathomless love, it follows that if we seek wholeheartedly to participate in His life we will earnestly seek to be like Him in all manner and expression thereby fulfilling the command to “…be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
It has been said that the pursuit of holiness is based on the vision of creation as God’s work of love that will surround every life we touch – our neighbour and the stranger – as in the image of God – to be “salt and light.
The first command , to “Love your neighbour as yourself,” is often described as the “golden rule” and Yeshua beautifully defines and illustrates this in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37)
The second command (to love the stranger in our midst ) is even more radical. Most nations throughout history have harmed the stranger rather than loved them, particularly with regard to the Jewish people, as Yom ha Shoah that we commemorated a few days ago well illustrates. The xenophobia (violent prejudice against other people groups) has replaced God’s command to be filled with xenophilia (a love for them) because as the Scripture portion reminds us, “…we were once strangers in Egypt.” The Jewish people like no other nation know what it feels like to be a persecuted minority and among all people we have least excuse to turn our backs upon them. So we must be careful at all times to avoid making negative blanket statements about other people groups. Listen to what Paul had to say about this:
“ Even one of the Cretans’ own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons” — and it’s true! For this reason, you must be severe when you rebuke those who have followed this false teaching, so that they will come to be sound in their trust and no longer pay attention to Judaistic myths or to the commands of people who reject the truth.” (Titus 1:12-14)
To better understand the underlying concept, we need to go back to Gen.1:26-27. God said: “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness.” So God created man in His own image: in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
What is extraordinary is not that a human being could be in the image of God since this is exactly how the kings of Mesopotamia and the Pharaohs of Egypt were viewed. They considered themselves to be living images of the gods from whom they derived their authority.
The revolutionary statement clearly revealed here in this parasha is that every human being regardless of class, colour, culture, or creed, is created in the image of God rather that is not restricted to an elite few.
If we neglect to love one another (both believer and unbeliever) indiscriminately as mandated, without prejudice of nationality, social status, culture or educational background, we will at best fail miserably in our sacred duty.
May God provide us by His grace with strength to fulfil His command to love one another as He loves us steadfastly and unconditionally. Without it we are left bereft, empty vessels, without substance and of all people ones to be most pitied.
