Echoes of Holiness | Rabbi Ari Kahn | April 23 2026

Acharei Mot and Kedoshim are together. And there is this tendency to look at Parshat Kedoshim and as specifically the very first line of Kedoshim and maybe even one word in this. And well, not first line, maybe the second one. And to try to define for us what exactly is holiness. So, if one starts to think about it, the entire book of Vayikra is about holiness. By the way, you can now say maybe the whole Torah is really about holiness and the pursuit of holiness. But the book of Vayikra has this challenge to it because at least in terms of reputation for starting off the very beginning having the first number of chapters dealing with korbanot, offerings, and so on. So, therefore we kind of get this perception that we're dealing with the whole book with holiness. And or the whole book with uh what should we call it? Well, uh >> [clears throat] >> We we we can call it a God-centric perspective. Maybe I'll just say it like that. But then trying to put our finger on what as a whole the book is about sometimes is a challenge. So, I'm just going to say that and push that on you know, to the side for the moment. So, what I'm going to do actually is I'm going to skip to source number five. Vayidaber Hashem el Moshe lemor el benei Yisrael umarta lehem Kedoshim tiyu ki kadosh ani Hashem Eloheichem. So, here we have our description or for first of all, we have an obligation to be holy. What that obligation is or what it means is subject to debate. And the debate itself I think should be subject to some more debate and I'm going to explain to you exactly what I mean. Some people if they were asked, so what is holiness? Will immediately go to this verse. And then most likely start with Rashi and then if they're little bit a little bit in tuned then they'll go to the Ramban. And they'll say, oh what holiness is really is machloket between Rashi and the Ramban. Now, everything I just now said is true. But of course sometimes the biggest untruths come when you present a truth. And I will explain to you exactly what I mean. Rashi tells us that what exactly is what exactly is Kedoshim tiyu? First Rashi says in source six, "Vayidaber el kol adat benei Yisrael lemor Parshat Zot Behaqhel." Everyone was gathered together. Why? "Mishum rov gufei Torah teluyim bah." Because the now rov would be the majority. The majority of Torah is dependent upon this. That's a very interesting formulation and there's a lot to say about this. I'll just point out in passing that one of the verses in Kedoshim in this chapter is "Veahavta lereakha kamocha." If I say "Veahavta lereakha kamocha" is a "klal gadol baTorah" it's the biggest principle of Torah then I can just extend it from this "Mishum rov gufei Torah teluyim bah" are dependent upon it. So, I can say looking through you know, carefully through the section. Also, the question is what this section is. Where exactly it ends. I think we know where it begins, but that's not clear. "Kedoshim tiyu." What does it mean Kedoshim tiyu? Now, I am going to be annoying for a second. But this particular annoyance I learned from Nechama Leibowitz. Okay? Rashi over here is not telling us what Kedoshim means. How do I know that? Cuz the divrei hamatchil is not Kedoshim. The divrei hamatchil is Kedoshim tiyu. Now, if you think I'm nitpicking or if you think I'm being a little bit unfair, I'm not. Right, that this is the point from Nechama. Rashi is extremely specific in terms of how he frames the divrei hamatchil. There are sometimes you can see in Rashi that you have two or three Rashis in a row. At one time it's the whole phrase, one time it's part of the phrase, one time it's one word, not the phrase anymore, one word. Rashi is extremely specific. So, in just in case in your imagination what Rashi over here is telling you what Kedoshim means, I would argue back he's not. He's telling you what Kedoshim tiyu means. Now, of course you can now push back and say to me, well what's the difference? Well, one would be a definition of what is that word Kedoshim and the other is a definition about how does a person possibly fulfill Kedoshim tiyu? Did that make sense? By the way, I just now separated you from the mis- I I told you the biggest lies can be based upon truth. The truth is, look Rashi says it. The biggest lie would be then to think that that is necessarily the definition. Point taken? Anyone? So, Rashi here says, "Havayu perushim min ha'arayot umin ha'aveira." Not what does Kedoshim mean, what does Kedoshim tiyu mean. And Rashi says, how do you do Kedoshim tiyu? He says you stay away from arayot. By the way, it's not just arayot. Why did he pick arayot here? Why in chapter 19 does Rashi pick arayot? The answer is, well it's one of two. Either because chapter 18 or because chapter 20 deal with arayot. So, it seems to be that Rashi's doing and I'll make believe that Rashi is ignoring the headline. This is Acharei Mot and this one is Kedoshim. And Rashi after the whole list of all of the arayot in chapter 18 says now Kedoshim tiyu. Although there's there's another part of Rashi. And that's the next two words, "Umin ha'aveira." Which means arayot is not specific. If you would somebody would say, "Oh, Rashi says that you know what holiness means? Holiness means to stay away from sexual sin." "Umin ha'aveira." And from all sin. So, why did he pick that one? Cuz that's the one that was just listed. "Shekol makom she'atam motzei ervah atam otzei kedushah." Now, Rashi doubles back and he tells you why he's talking about ervah because that again is the context. And then he gives you a bunch of examples. Now, these examples could cause me to back up in what I said before. Actually, I said chapter 20. Over here all of these examples are in Kedoshim, but chapter 21. Sorry. "Ishah zonah uvehallalah ani Hashem mekadeshechem. Uvelo yichalel zar ani Hashem mekadesho. Kedoshim yu ishah zonah uvehallalah." All of the all those three examples are chapter 21, which actually then can lead one to restate this. Not so much that Rashi is giving you a conclusion from chapter 18, although it still could be. But Rashi also is clearly focused on what's coming up afterwards and that's chapter 21. So, when I say par- this parsha Kedoshim tiyu or this verse Kedoshim tiyu, what is it introducing? So, it's chapter 19 or chapter 20 or chapter 21 and all of that would still be included cuz that would be interesting, you know, to this section or this speech or this instruction. So, when does it end? So, maybe you have to look a little bit more carefully in the Torah. But my point is about Rashi, he's not just telling you a definition what Kedoshim means. Now, by the way, you could absolutely push back and say, "No, but look at all of the examples." And he says that that's what Kedoshim means. So, let's just hold on. You know, Correct. So, I'm just saying let's file this. Let's keep this in mind. The Ramban is very celebrated, very well known, and actually very difficult. The Ramban and I skipped number seven. Number seven is the Chizkuni and this Chizkuni actually he has the same books, Midrash, open in front of him that Rashi did. He just articulates it a little differently at least right over here. "Vayidaber el kol benei Yisrael lemor Parshat Zot nemrah bikinus ke'aseret hadibrot." Just like by the aseret hadibrot everyone's gathered together. So, now that's a question of form. The form where everyone gathered there by Sinai and the form where everyone gathered here or or is gathering here is the same form. But it's not just the same form. It's also content. Cuz he writes "Ulama lefi shekol hadibrot kulot bah." Beca- Again, remember how Rashi put it, "Mishum rov gufei Torah teluyim bah." He writes because all the aseret hadibrot are right here. "Kan in one case "Anochi" but "Kan Anochi Hashem Eloheichem." "Kan lo tisa" but "Kan lo tishavu beshemi lashaker." "Kan zachor et yom hashabbat lekadshecha" but "Kan et shabbatotai tishmoru." "Kan kabed et avicha ve'et imcha" but "Kan ish imo ve'aviv tirau." "Kan lo tirtzach" but "Kan lo tomar dam re'echa." "Kan lo tin'af" but "Kan lo tim'atu no'efet kan lo tignov" but "Kan lo tignovu kan lo tenavu bere'echa" but "Kan lo telech rachil ba'amecha." "Kan lo tachmod" but "Kan lo tit'av." But "Kan Sorry, "Umin hashemuchah Parshat Zot leParshat ha'arayot shelo yasburu shebishvil shmirat arayot levad yamdu ba'aretz ki gam yesh mitzvot acherot she'alehem letkaiem ba'aretz." "Kedoshim tiyu mikol asher hisharticha besamuch." Don't be overly focused that it's only the arayot that you may have thought after looking at chapter 18 cuz one of the things that it says there is, which maybe we'll come double back to, is that the land will not tolerate if you don't keep these laws and you will be vomited out of the land. And he's saying, "No, there's also a whole bunch of other commandments that we need to do as well." And by the way, once the Chizkuni said all this, you can't argue, right? You you you understand that he's right and that the this is a restatement of the aseret hadibrot and therefore gather everyone together not just how we're teaching, but what we're teaching. This is an expansion of the aseret hadibrot. Very good, very good. So, therefore and maybe that's what Rashi meant, you know, But then the Ramban tells us something really interesting. He quotes Rashi and then he says, "And I don't agree, right?" As would be his want. It's in the Ramban around four lines in. I don't think that what Rashi's saying is separate. And by the way, there are those who will always describe Kadosh. How do you translate Kadosh? So, go ahead, tell me. Holy. So, then I'll ask you, so what is holy? So, therefore, holy you're going to end up saying is separate. I once heard a recording of the Rav, probably from the early '60s. And he was describing the verse Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh, and he says, "Separate separate separate." That's how he translated it. And he says that when we say Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh, what we're trying to say is that God is completely separate. God is you know, trans >> [cough and clears throat] >> What word should we use? Uh You don't have any trans then. You could completely outside of our realm of being. God is separate. It's separate completely in some other realm. And that's what that's what it means. So, therefore, when we're told to be Kadosh, there's this separateness that needs to be. And over here he says, I don't The Ramban says, "I don't think that this is correct." Transcendent. That was the word. I say trans when you're all thinking something else. Okay. And he says, "I don't think that Rashi is correct." So, to almost carry me come a come the Talmud. Surely I don't push him. It's interesting that they call the push him. He says, "What does it mean?" The Torah about the master of the room. The Torah Now, what the Ramban is about to say is that there's a letter of the law and there's a spirit of the law. So, as I want to hold on to this, cuz you know, we can give a whole class on the Ramban's approach to the spirit of the law. This is not the only place where I think that he intuits this kind of a concept. And those are not his words. Those are Those are my words. Which means to a certain extent I can say that all the need of the Ramban are Torah mandated. Where people would follow the letter of the law, but perhaps perhaps break the spirit of the law. So, for example, I can say that when you shall Yahoo, that's a Navi, tells us to close our stores on Shabbat, a person can basically keep their store open, not break any Torah law necessarily. Which means you shouldn't make an acquisition, cuz somebody may end up writing a contract. And writing is one of the 39 Malachot, which means I I could possibly keep a store open. There's actually some interesting Gemaras about stores being opened in some way, shape, or form on Yom Tov, where people needed to to acquire, let's just say a Korban to be able to have Simchat Chag. And maybe for Simchat Chag, there's going to be some kind of a leeway. And I know that that would horrify, you know, any rabbi in a Jewish community. You know, I'm going to keep the people may may need need some milk. People may need something on a But that makes a lot of sense. People need things on Yom Tov. So, why not keep the stores open for Simchat Yom Tov? But as I said, that would be horrifying to us. So, who was the one who who Which rabbi said to shut the stores? It was Yeshayahu is the one who says it. So, the way the Ramban would put it is that there's a letter of the law and the spirit of the law. And the rabbis come up with Dinay D'Rabbanan where they feel that even if we keep all the letter of the law, we're not necessarily keeping the spirit of the law. So, what do you need to do? You need to create more letter, which is D'Rabbanan, more letters in order to fill the gaps in order to create the spirit. Now, the Ramban actually says that. He's not here. He actually says that regarding certain things, certain Malachot, maybe Chol HaMoed, maybe certain things along those lines, Shabbat, Dinay Muktzah. And again, I can keep on going. There are things that are rabbinic, but the rabbinic law is in order to fulfill a Torah now gap, because the Torah wants us to keep the spirit of the law as well. Good? Good. The Ramban says something very similar over here. Cuz what he's saying is that a person can keep all the letter of the law and still not have a have attained holiness. And therefore, what he he coins a term, which is then going to be quoted often by others, and he calls it a menuval. That's It's not exactly where he So, he puts it a menuval b'reshut HaTorah. A person who is a menuval, how do you want to translate that? You're not helpful today, are you? Vile. Vile is better than the word I was going to use. So, somebody somebody who keeps the letter of the law, but does not attain a life of holiness. So, he here describes somebody who is a hedonist. So, essentially, he sees that hedonism, or put it this way, glatt kosher hedonism. You know, any of you who have been unable to afford to go to a luxury Pesach program to now attack all of those people and say, "Look at those hedonists. They're missing the law. They're missing the letter of the law, the spirit of the law." Right? No way those places are really kosher. And I can keep on going. Unless I was invited to be a rabbi there. Then then of course it would be under rabbinic supervision. But but a person can say, "No, there's supposed to be this element of Kedusha." And essentially, years ago in Tradition, somebody wrote an article, "Is Club Med Kosher?" And he wasn't talking literally about is the place under rabbinic supervision, but is it this concept? Or for that matter, you know, others have played with the idea to what ex to what extent does Judaism talk about vacations or luxury vacations? Or again, I I used a better word. Hedonism. Hedonism. To to what extent does Judaism tolerate a hedonistic life? Or let's put it this way, literally, a glatt kosher hedonist life. And anybody who'll talk about it seriously, then the first source that they'll go to most likely is going to be this Ramban. Cuz the Ramban over here, let's you know, look look at his words. And he says, The Inyan. I mean, like the sixth line or so, three learn words in in the Ramban. The Inyan Kitoris here about the Yot. It gave us prohibitions regarding sexual misadventures. I make it sound attractive that way, right? Misadventures. Over Malchli Masurim. And foods which are prohibited. The Hetira But relations between spouses are obviously allowed. Similar to eat meat and wine and so on. And came in about the So, now now we got to our hedonist. How do you say about You'd rather me say about Ta'avah? What is about What is a about Ta'avah in English? A hedonist. Or Ba'al HaTa'avah. Only out Shatuf. Busy Mat Ishto. To be completely saturated in his, shall we say, in his relationship with his spouse. Or Nashav Harabot. Again, if you want to be technical in terms of Torah law, or his many wives. Or Leot Bisuv Yayin Uzel Ba'asa. This person could be again completely entrenched in his in his drunken lifestyle by drinking kosher wine. And by eating glatt kosher meat. Be the bearer of the whole of the world. And technically, he can use all kinds of bad language. He'll always carry Torah, because it never said that you're not allowed to use bad language. B'nei Yea Naval B'reshut HaTorah. And this person can then be What term did he use? A violent Is that strong enough? Is vile strong enough? You can't use the word you're thinking of. What What word are you thinking of? Yeah, but they don't say it. We can turn the camera for a second. So So, the way the Ramban describes it is some The way the Ramban describes it is somebody who is who is this hedonist B'reshut HaTorah with Torah license. And therefore, he says that on top of all this other 612 commandments, there is a 613th, which modifies all other 612. So, it's it's actually going to the Ramban, it's not it's not Kedoshim Tihiyu as much as Kedoshim Tihiyu how to do everything else. Which means the spirit of all law is to be holy. But if you're keeping law, but you somehow avoided holiness, so now God adds on to everything else, "Oh, by the way, when you're eating your glatt kosher, when you're drinking, you know, your your your proper wine, you know, with with his theoretically movulshal or whatever else it may need to be, then make sure that you're still achieving holiness, cuz holiness is the objective. So, the Ramban actually has what I can call a kind of an external type of a definition. It's also interesting towards the very end he writes, "V'Atama K'tuv Sh'Amarki Kedoshim L'Okeychem Lomar Sh'Anachnu K'Lidavko B'Yoto Kedoshim B'Nezek Inyana D'Varim Shonim B'Seder HaDibrot." So, it speaks about clinging to God. See, there are those who would follow this kind of an approach a little bit more and maybe go a little bit further with this is that the idea of Kedoshim Tihiyu is to be like God, to cling to God. And therefore, as God is, you shall be. And the Ramban kind of hints at that over here. Now, I'm going to ask the same question again. Is the Ramban over here telling me a general definition what is holiness? Just like I did with Rashi. Or is he telling me how to fulfill Kedoshim Tihiyu, or what is Kedoshim Tihiyu? Which means there is going to be this perception. And again, I think it's very widespread. And uh and I'll I'll tell you something else so that he can actually hear it, cuz he'll be guessing. There's somebody who keeps asking me to talk about this. Okay? One of the one of my publishers, this is good about having multiple publishers, um is a publisher which is called Kodish Press. The reason it's called Kodish Press is cuz the person who runs it is very very interested in this idea of kedusha. I actually wrote a book about kedusha. And he's reworking this book on kedusha, and he keeps asking me questions about what I think about certain aspects of kedusha. So, here is my partial response to him is don't misunderstand this pasuk. This pasuk is not a definition of what is kedusha. This pasuk is a definition of what does it mean to do kedusha to you. And therefore both Rashi and the Ramban, I think are similar in that I don't think either of them have given us a definition of kedusha. I think what they've told us is what they think this verse means in this particular context. And now the question is now like what else do you do do you do with this? And now it's at this point that I want to spread out a little bit, and then I want to you know fold up a little bit as well as we as we continue. I almost started, if you notice the first couple sources, I almost started in parshat Acharei Mot. Acharei Mot also deals with holiness. Acharei Mot shnei bnei Aharon, what are we told? The al yavo b'chol et el hakodesh. Notice that word? Kodesh. By the way, this kodesh doesn't mean perushim min arayot, it doesn't mean not to be amina v'arba b'shita Torah. Actually, what does kodesh mean over here? The Mishkan. It's Mishkan. So it's interesting that over here we just now use the same word, but the word that's why I said let's not be over you know, conclusive about what kedusha means based on that. Over here we're dealing with kodesh. Not only we're dealing with a place which is kedusha. Again, the framework is Acharei Mot shnei bnei Aharon, al yavo b'chol et el hakodesh. Don't come at any moment, which means there's a special time to come. Now now, that's interesting cuz there's a special place, el hakodesh. What's the special time going to be? The time is going to be a holy time as well. What is that time going to be? Yom Kippur. So now if I were to say to you that Yom Kippur is actually itself a a special time, what would you say? You'd say, well, of course it is. It's Not only that, you may be very tempted to use another word. If you were describing Yom Kippur to somebody who doesn't know, you'd say, well, that is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. So look what you just now did. It's [clears throat] the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and the way it's framed over here is that the Kohen Gadol, who may very well be the holiest person, has to now empty enter into the holiest place. >> [clears throat] >> So now if I would go back and ask you, so does parshat does parshat Acharei Mot have any does it deal with holiness at all? So, yeah. It absolutely does. Not only deals with holiness, would you be willing to say that holiness is triangulated over here, right? That actually worked. Look at that. It's It's triangulated over here in terms of location, in terms of chronology, in terms of personality, charisma, the individual. So therefore you have the Kohen Gadol in the kodesh, in the kodesh hakodashim, you want to be more specific, on a day which is Shabbat Shabbaton, right? You I hope you appreciate the this. Not the Kohen, the Kohen Gadol in the kodesh hakodashim on Shabbat Shabbaton, Yom Kippurim. So therefore did I earn that triangulating this concept of of of kedusha? And therefore and therefore if we would have been tempted to say, well, everything we need to know about kedusha is in the beginning of parshat Kedoshim, I would argue back, did you skip Acharei Mot? Cuz there may have been a little bit of a treatment there in terms of what is kedusha, which absolutely does not fit into Rashi and doesn't fit into the Ramban, and rather it's suggesting a completely different concept of what is kedusha. Point taken? Okay. So here's my thought, and the truth is this is good enough that I that I could have stretched this out and made this the whole point of the shiur today. Okay? So therefore, just in case you space out afterwards, this is all you need to walk away with. What happens over here when I say not everybody can go there and not on every day to go there and not in every place can this be done is that I've just now created a whole bunch of boundaries. Do Do Do you all see that? It's It's all about boundaries. Which means now I can say, so what is kedusha? Kedusha is boundaries. Right? I mean that's that's really what this is over here. Well, that's a separateness, no? And I could say it's separateness. I could say it's separateness, but but I have boundaries over here. Now, if I think about this and say, well, where else do I see this that not everybody can go there and if go if somebody else goes there and this is actually dangerous, and there and there will be this this holiness taking place. I hope I'm saying enough that already led you to the right answer. And if you're not sure, then just look at source number two. And what is that? And that is Matan Torah, or the preparation for Matan Torah. And by the way, most notably here is creating a brit, segula mikol amim, mamlechet kohanim, vegoy What's the next word? kadosh, right? So So the elements that we're seeing over here by Acharei Mot, by by the avodah of Yom Kippurim, I hope you realize there's a certain sense that there's an echo, but it's not only that, we also have special clothing, like v'kibsu. And not only that, we also have altikshu al isha. If you want your perushim, separation over here in terms of And this is going to be true both in terms of Yom Kippur, and it's going to be true true in terms of Matan Torah. And And see, the thing is, but this is not the same thing as the list of the arayot, which By the way, if you're the Ramban, maybe you'd be inspired by this, but there is something interesting over here. So for example, I can look at the list of arayot and say all of these things are outrages, and I can say, but over here it's not the question of an outrage as much as a question of inappropriate time, inappropriate place, or it's something inappropriate about it, which means that when it comes to kosher romance, there is a proper time and place and partner. You know, one has to always be careful. If anybody I mean, anytime I've said to college students that uh that in Judaism there is perhaps a special thing on Friday night, I have to always qualify it with the right you're married, right? And and and and so on. And you happen to be married and to that person. You don't Being married is not good enough. >> [laughter] >> There's lots of There's lots of qualifications that one needs to say in order I don't know. I I I I I I probably need to have a very very specific list of of things that I should say here. But over here in terms of Matan Torah, so then we have No, this is not the right time and place. And yeah, there is something about Yom Kippur which echoes this. I mean, on top of all that, again with the clothing and preparing, it also creates boundaries and you can't go to a certain place. The And it's almost now, if you think about it, the only one who can enter into the place of holiness is Mosha, which means on Matan Torah, Mosha is the Kohen Gadol. Right? Now the difference that you'll tell me is is that over here it's supposed to bring about kappara or atonement, and over here, well, it's not kappara, but it still is an absolute What do you want to call it now? The There is going to be a a a change in the personality in the person. There's a transformation taking place. Which means Matan Torah transforms the individual, and hopefully Yom Kippur transforms the individual. Which means Am Yisrael standing by Har Sinai before and after becomes something different. And maybe Am Yisrael before and after Yom Kippur becomes transformed as well. But the difference over here is that the ones who enters it By the way, it's also in Yom Kippur, what does it say? If you If you again, it says val yavo kol et, but it goes a little further, ki va'anan erel kapo, rather you walk into a cloud. Do you notice Mosha walking into a cloud by Har Sinai, which really makes it interesting cuz again, I don't know to what extent you ever imagined that what's taking place in Yom Kippur is actually a restatement of what's taking place in terms of Matan Torah. But what in the world is Yom Kippur if not a reacceptance of Torah? And now on top of everything else, what do Chazal tell us? That the second luchot were given on Yom Kippur. So what is Yom Kippur? It's Yom Matan Torah. So now all that happens is that Yom Kippur now gets done every year, and as that we do it every year, we reaccept the Torah every year. So therefore it is a replay of Matan Torah, or even better than Matan Torah of kabalat Torah, right? Because maybe we messed up. Now, when we think about the Mishkan, and again, we now we have our two paths to take. Again, Rashi and the Ramban. Is the Mishkan merely something there to fix a mistake that we made, that we sinned with the golden calf, and now we get to build the Mishkan? Or according to the Ramban, it was this necessary and natural following of Matan Torah, it leads us directly towards building the Mishkan. But what I'm pointing out over here is that Yom Kippur is the next step along the way. Now you can ask the same question. Had there Had there never been a ego, would there never have been Yom Kippur? Does God imagine that we never would have sinned? By the way, even better. Does God give us the Torah and expect that there would have been perfect adherence, or does giving the Torah require us to have a way of recalibrating, a way of fixing, a way of made, which means is Yom Kippur built in from the very beginning because we are happen to most of us happen to be human, and by human we are going to be making mistakes. So therefore, what I'm saying over here is Now notice what I'm saying and what I'm not saying. That when we look at chapter Look at Parshat Acharei Mot. We look at chapter 16, Perek Tet Zion. What we're seeing in the Avodah there is very much a continuation of Perek Yud Tet, very much a continuation of Matan Torah. We're seeing the form being shifted from Sinai, which was the holiest place, and now we have a new holiest place. It was a place that you could not enter. Only one person could enter into the cloud, and that is Moshe. It is a place of intimacy with the Kodesh Baruchu. And the intimacy intimacy with the Kodesh Baruchu is really interesting because then it tells us that we can't have intimacy with anybody else as we're having intimacy with the Kodesh Baruchu. I'm saying again that that is really interesting. And therefore, very much of the form of Matan Torah ends up entering into Parshat Acharei Mot. But now do you remember what I said when we got to Perek Yud Tet, to Parshat Kedoshim, and we that we read that Chizkuni that we completely convinced about? Because the Chizkuni was too convincing. And what was that? That the content of Matan Torah follows in Perek Yud Tet and Parshat Kedoshim. There we have the whole of Seder Dibrot. So now if I say again, so what do I need Parshat Acharei Mot for, Acharei Mot Kedoshim for? And what's my answer? I need it in order to reenact and not just reenact, to reenact and to be able to live by the Aseret Hadibrot. One in terms of form and actual transformation of individual in order to attain holiness, to become a holy people. To become an Am Kadosh, to become Malachei Kohanim VeGoy Kadosh. And the other one is the content of what was given by Har Sinai. So the form and content within these two Parshiot. And by the way, I'm absolutely convinced of what I just now said. I looked I could not find anybody who said this in this particular way. Anyone wants to steal it and publish it before me, go ahead, it's yours. It's a present. You pay enough to get entrance into this place, you may as well be able to I don't know where that money goes. I guess to the coffee. But but you get to you get to use it. By the way, is that completely completely convincing what I just now said? As as it was framed as I said, I am a I The first thing is I have to convince myself. Then convincing the rest of you is easy. I'm the harder audience than than you are. But that But that's what it seems to me is taking place. And therefore, it's a really interesting combination between Acharei Mot and Kedoshim, one of form and content, and we really need both. And I'm going to go back and ask you the question. So what is holiness? Well, holiness is really interesting. That's the answer to the question. Holiness is really interesting, but you look at the way that we that we worked it out. Now there was one more place that I wanted to get to with all of this. And you realize that I've that I've skipped all kinds of things. Of course, what happens when we move from Perek Tet Zion and we go to Perek Yud Zion, there we move into using Mishkan language service sensibilities in other places and other things. It's See, in a certain sense it's Avodah Zarah. In In source three, in a certain sense it's Avodah Zarah. VeLo Yizbechu Et HaShem LeSe'irim Asher Hem Zonim, which is also interesting now to double the language of Avodah Zarah together with Arayot. There's a really interesting Rashi which I did not give you in Shir HaShirim, the Rashi where he suggests that you should read the Luchot. Right. Right? Where Right, read take five and five, and then you have not to do Avodah Right, you have not to do Avodah Zarah. Going on the other side, what's there is not to commit adultery. So therefore, to over here, this verse would be great to try to back that up. It continues in Pasuk Yud Aleph. Ki Nefesh HaBasar BeDam Hi, Va'Anina Natati Lacham Al HaMizbe'ach LeChaper Al Nafshoteichem. It's fascinating. Why can't you eat blood? Because blood was designated for the Mizbe'ach, which means this type of form can only be done in a certain type of place, and there's proper Avodah and improper Avodah. Source number four, Perek Yud Chet. Again, we're still in Acharei Mot. That then leads to all of the inappropriate behaviors which will then result in in exile because the place, going back to location, will be defiled. Which means as much as I may have thought there's only one holy place. There's only one holy place is the Beit HaMikdash or the Mishkan. By the way, what would be the result of that? That in the Mishkan, I have to be really be well behaved. But what about in other places? I can go back to my uh my Glatt Kosher or not even Glatt Kosher necessarily. Which means you need to be a good Jew in a Shul, in a holy place. But in other places, you don't, which is why you need a Shul, right? In order to fix for all the other things. They're saying no, the land of Israel is a holy place. And it And holiness can run the risk of being defiled. And therefore, or not willing to tolerate somebody who is not holy. So therefore, the Mishkan could be destroyed, but we can end up being exiled from Israel. And And that is again this extension of holiness, but now going to place in a And And this is not just talking about over here of Again, if I go back and pick on the Ramban, it's not talking about just doing things the right way in the spirit of the law because Perek Yud Zion talks about breaking all kinds of letters of the law. It's all the list of the Arayot. This is not your own spouse. This is someone else's spouse. So therefore, it's not what the Ramban is saying over here, this whole application of holiness. So So again, I'm just noting this, and I'm going to just double back and say that's why the Ramban was not defining holiness. What was he defining? He was defining what does it mean this verse Kedoshim Tihiyu? What is this Mitzvah? How does this Mitzvah align with the other 612 Mitzvot rather than giving me an absolute definition about what holiness may mean. So I hope that that made sense. And all of this took us back to where we started, and that was Perek That was source number five in Parshat Kedoshim. So we saw Rashi, we saw the Chizkuni, we saw the Ramban. And then we go to source number nine, which takes us to the next chapter, chapter 20. Vayidaber Hashem el Moshe Leimor el Bnei Yisrael LeDaber Ish Ish MiBnei Yisrael UMiHaGer HaGar BiYisrael Asher Yiten MiZaro LaMolech Mot Yumot Am Ha'Aretz Yirgmuhu Va'Aven. Va'Ani Eten Et Panai Ba'Ish HaHu Why? Because it says that this person Ki MiZaro Natan LaMolech LaMa'an Tame Et Mikdashi. That defiles By the way, this is debated. How did that defile the Mikdash? ULaChallel Et Shem Kodshi. In the most literal sense, it's Chillul Hashem, but it sounds much stronger. But you notice that this is the antithesis of Kedushah. So if I had to go back again and go back to the Rashi and go back to the Ramban and say, "Okay, so what is holiness?" And once you tell me what holiness is, what's the opposite of holiness? So they say, "Oh, the opposite of holiness is to be Menubal." That's not what it said over here. The opposite of holiness is Molech. That creates LeChallel Et Shem Kodshi. That's the inverse. So this just now became much more interesting. And the other reason it's interesting is what this leads into, the rest of the list over here. Okay. Let's just make sure that we uh that we follow this properly. So source number nine, we're in Perek Kaf. And it goes Va'Samti Et Panai Ba'Ish HaHu and so on. Et Kol HaZonim Acharei HaMolech. We see this. VeHitkadashtem VeHayitem Kedoshim. So you see that's the focus over here. U'Shmartem Et Kol Mitzvotai La'Asotam Ani Hashem Mekadishchem. By the way, how many times do you need the word Kedushah over here? Which means it wasn't just the very first verse, right? Second verse, okay. Of Parshat Kedoshim, it's doubling back over here. Ki Ish Ki Yekallel Et Aviv Ve'Immo Mot Yumat. It continues over here. The Ish Asher Yishkav Et Ishet Aviv Ervat Ish Ervat Aviv Gila. Then we have Avodah Shanayim. We have all kinds of laws which are all generally the Arayot continuing through. But the interesting thing is that the introduction to this was Molech. And why is that an introduction to all the list of the Arayot? Because they're very very different. So, let's just try to make a little bit of sense of what Molech is and what it is and and so on. Um Molech's reputation, he actually had somebody who worked on the PR. And And And And really created the reputation for what it is. Does anybody know who that was? Milton, Paradise Lost. Completely made up. Completely made up. All He makes Molech into a fallen angel. I don't see that any place in Rabbinic literature. He See actually there's there's a there's a long Ramban which we skipped. He says in more than one place. It's based on the Gamara. The Gamara has a debate. Is Moloch a performance? Is it something that you do? Or is Moloch a false god? What is it? That's a debate in the Gamara. What is Moloch? And Moloch is horrific. That that's what it is because as far as we understand again based upon various verses it is there to take a look at source number First look at source number 10. Back in perek 10 lo titen lahavir lemoloch. So what does that word lahavir mean? If you look in source 11 which is in Devarim lo yimatze becha maavir beno uvito baish. So lahavir is to pass through fire. So therefore Moloch was understood to be to be some kind of offering sacrifices children children children by by fire. In Yirmiyahu I gave you the whole context over here but we we don't need all of it and look in source 12 pasuk lamed hey viifnu et bamot habaal asher bigei ben hinom. That's really important that gives you a location. I would I actually the way that ways took me this morning I drove right right by it. I thought that was really appropriate. lahav lahavir et beneihem vet benoteihem lemoloch asher lo tzivitem velo alali bilasot to'evah hazot leman hati et Yehuda. So what do we do with all of this? What makes Moloch so bad that it becomes really this this definition? By the way the Gamara in source 15 is going to tie this together with the Akedah. And that's that itself is really interesting. Asher lo alali bi. I just want to focus on one point. As far as I can tell the point of the Akedah is the conclusion don't do this. Yitzchak could ask you know you got the fire you got the knife and you where's the se? And God you know Avram could respond as he responds but then the angel comes down and says no. You don't go off of them. This is not what I want. Which means the purpose of the Akedah is not to say oh God really wants child or human sacrifice. No. The purpose of the Akedah is in order to demonstrate no. Moloch is then this institution of child sacrifice. By the way I I was a little intrigued earlier in the week trying to figure out how exactly Christianity tries to reconcile the the crucifixion where where God offers his firstborn. So why is that not really other than the fire part? Why is that not considered to be Moloch in spirit? They would very much by the way point and say oh look the Akedah is what God really does want and therefore God offers his own son. And but how does that work with Moloch who would kind again and again and again God says no. This is not what I want. This is this is horrific. Not only is it horrific I'm just going right back to Vayikra over here where this is the introduction of everything which is wrong. So I'm going to read a Gamara. We're we're going to try to start winding down now but I'm going to read a Gamara which has nothing to do with anything except for one thing. It's in source number 16. Amar Rav Chanina bar Papa kol hanenim olam hazeh belo brachah ke'ilu gozel Hakadosh Baruch Hu miknesset Yisrael. If somebody has any enjoyment from this world without making a brachah is if they've stolen from God and from the and community of Israel Knesset Israel people of Israel. Can I assure you that this has nothing to do with anything that we've seen today? I could say that a brachah is brings God consciousness. I can I can claim that a brachah which is almost always rabbinic where all the brachot we say before we eat are rabbinic and that's the point of you this is the beginning of the sixth chapter of brachot which is talking about making brachot. How do you make brachot? One of the things is the kal vachomer. If you make a brachah after you eat when you should certainly make a brachah before you eat. Okay. But over here it's saying but if you don't make a brachah you've stolen. She'amar gozel aviv ve'emov omer ein pesha and so on fever who le'ish mashchit. It's destructive. That's really interesting. Rashi writes gozel Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What did you steal? Et birchato. You stole the brachah. Which means if you ate an apple without making a brachah did you steal an apple from God? Is God going to be you know where's my apple? No God doesn't care about the apple but you stole the brachah. Brachah brings spirituality to the world brings shefa to the world. You took the brachah. Now did I assure you that this has nothing to do with anything right? There's a Rashba in source 18 that we should probably look at but we won't. The Rashba is the commentary on this Gamara right here. More importantly the Rashba is a student of the Ramban who's in source 19. Now the the Ramban is on our verse. Leman tamei et mikdashi. That was talking about the person who serves Moloch is going to destroy somehow or letamei the mikdash. Et Knesset Rashi writes et Knesset Yisrael shehi mekudeshet li. That what is mikdashi? It is the Jewish people. That's mikdashi Knesset Israel. By the way the word Knesset Israel the term Knesset Israel is evocative. The karamaz tze uh eich titmei Knesset Yisrael shehi mekudeshet leshmo hagadol. The karamzu ze bemishram the rabbis already hinted that that she'amru kol hanenim min haolam hazeh belo brachah ke'ilu gozel Hakadosh Baruch Hu miknesset Yisrael. So I told you the Gamara has nothing to do with anything except for one thing. In order to explain Moloch the Ramban just now brought that Gamara. And now you just have one little problem and what is that? What in the world is he talking about? And he continues to say ki chafetz bitzei Rashi verchulo leshmo hagadol bishmo hagadol misalekhet haShchinah miYisrael bakoskin she'akrivu pre lemoloch shemetaeiv et ga'on Yaakov umishkano. He gorem leShchinah shetistalek miYisrael. Ve'od tuchal lehavin sodo. And he tells you what he believes is the sod over here and I am going to pause and I'm not going to explain anything about this except for one thing. In the very beginning of the world God created the world. And when God created the world he created man. And when God created man he created man in the image of God. He created man with the ability of having relationship with God. He created man with the ability of emulating God which takes us back to whatever this idea of kedushah means. He then blesses man and the first blessing that man receives is the blessing to be able to procreate prove fruitful. So now the question is so what do you do with the blessing? We're back to the blessing. That's the original blessing. So the original blessing is do I take a child and sacrifice the child to some kind of false god? Or some kind of false practice? Because that is a rejection of the very creation of what God did. That takes away blessing at every single level from this world. And that's what the Ramban just now brought in and I want to say it again just in case you missed it. Moloch is the inversion of kedushah. Moloch is a thing that takes away kedushah. So kedushah is involved in bringing the blessing the shefa the blessing of God into this world. I'm going to explain all of this in another way and then we'll stop because we have people ready here for the next year and we don't want them to be overly disappointed. >> [clears throat] >> We like your sheer. Just give me some time. >> [laughter] >> Neither can I apparently. So I want to explain it like this. If I think back at perek 10 it had a whole list of behaviors. So for some of us we have not gone on a date in a long time. Don't even remember what it's about what you're supposed to do what you're not supposed to do. So let's just put it like this. There's certain things that in building a relationship I'll call them etiquette. Etiquette would include I'm afraid to say this to our generation and and people will be upset. You can open a door for somebody. You can let someone else go in. You can let someone sit down first. Um you can actually be attentive when they speak and actually be generally interested in what they have to say. And and and These are secrets right? We should sell them right? And uh I told my wife and she goes you know these things? And And all of this I'll call them building blocks of relationship. And I'll and I'll include everything which is in perek 10. But then you get to things which are acts of betrayal which destroy the relationship. Which means not being attentive doesn't destroy the relationship. It maybe puts a strain but not opening a door or not which means these kinds of things are again it's etiquette. I think a lot of the mitzvot are etiquette. I'm sorry for putting it that way. A lot of the mitzvot there in order to create a type of an etiquette. But then you have things which are destructive. So things are destructive the whole list which comes afterwards are all the arayot. They're all destructive. But apparently the most destructive of them is Moloch. Now why is Moloch there? Because Moloch is something which is destructive in terms of the relationship between God and and the Jewish people, between God and mankind. God created us with this capacity to be like God. And one of the ways that we could be like God is to be creative. And God created and brought people into the world so we could be creative and bring people into the world. But that has to be done with the right person, in the right place, in the right time, in the right situation. And all of that is Kedusha. All of that is Kedusha. But the destruction of that, getting rid of that very first bracha that's the Ramban is hinting at. The destruction of that is the antithesis to Kedusha. Which means that what I've been trying to do from the very beginning today is trying to focus. So, what does the word Kedusha mean? And what I try to delineate is that there's a difference between the obligation and the mitzvah Kedoshim Ti'yu, which as I said, Rashi takes one way, the Ramban takes another way, versus what the word Kedusha means, versus what the concept of Kedusha is, versus what the antithesis of Kedusha is, and therefore the attempt to try to figure out what is Kedusha, it's not a simple attempt. Everything in Acharei Mot and Kedoshim deal with it. The most Kadosh moment we had was when we stood by Har Sinai. And what I tried to show you is that spills over into Parshat Acharei Mot, and then it spills over into Parshat Kedoshim. It spills over into the Avodah of Yom Kippurim in terms of form, and it spills over into Parshat Kedoshim in terms of content. Which means if I didn't understand what Matan Torah was, then I can't understand Parshat Parshat Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. And what is holiness? Well, it is what do you want to call it? The aggregate? It it it it's all of this put together? Yeah, that that's the answer. So, what Kedusha is is one challenge, but what the antithesis to Kedusha is actually becomes fascinating. There was maybe one more Rashi that I wanted to point out. Just to take away our confidence ever so much because we need to do that occasionally. When Rashi talks about Vehitkadash Tem in source number 21, Zu P'rishut Avodah Zarah. This is separating from idolatry. So, what happened to the whole argument that all the what what does Kedusha mean? Separating from Arayot? No, it's contextual. It's absolutely contextual according to Rashi what Kedusha means. If the section is talking about Arayot, so then it's talking separating from Arayot. But Rashi also said Avodah Zarah. Over here, the context is Avodah Zarah. So, what is Kedusha? Separating from Avodah Zarah. So, therefore, yes, to Rashi, holiness is separateness, but what is separateness? It depends what your context is. And the context over here is not a simple context. So, I'm going to say it again. The Ramban was not as simple as you thought because the Ramban gave it just gave us a completely different description about not just what is holiness, what is the inverse of holiness. Rashi gives us a separate definition. So, everybody who's completely convinced you can understand Kedusha what what is Kedusha based upon Kedoshim Ti'yu and that Rashi, that Ramban, so my point is it's a little more complicated.