Kedoshim Tihiyu: Being Holy by Rabbi Yossi Goldin

okay good morning everybody nice to see everybody again I hope everyone had a wonderful PES um thank you for asking about my father um yes my father is doing well uh my parents should be back in in two weeks I don't yet know if I will be doing the one in two weeks or if he'll be doing one in two weeks depending on exactly when they land um I believe that next week there is no class for for yamat so we have this week and potentially uh two weeks from now uh what I wanted to do today again continuing uh what we've been doing which is par shaba I wanted to talk about as I wrote on the title here being holy mean this week's paraa opens up with the the famous command seems to be a command if you look at source number one hasem says to MOS speak to saying speak to the nation of is and you should say to them you should be holy because IEM your God am Holy and what I'd like to spend some time doing today is to really understand what exactly is the Torah asking us what exactly does it mean be holy meaning be holy is a very very vague phrase uh you know the imagery that I always think of when I think of being holy is like someone who's like an aesthetic who's atic excuse me who sits there uh sitting and uh just not doing anything and not eating and not drinking and trying to connect to to but the question is what exactly does the Torah mean when when it says be holy and in fact theim there's a whole range of of opinions here in the MIM that I'd like to explore with you today and to try to unpack a little bit and hopefully gain some message and some lesson for us I do think I do not think it's coincidental that this is that this week's paraa is connected to the weeks that we have right now y uh the weeks where we talk about those who died Al the same phrase right who died in order to sanctify God's name and I and I I'd like to understand what exactly does it mean you should be holy well let's let's even throw it out there for one second what is how do you understand it what does it mean to be holy what does what does it mean what does kadosh mean what does it mean to be kados I like the word ho w w okay e okay good okay there the play on words there I don't know exactly if it if it works here but what what does what does holiness mean person true true although I don't know okay right God the Torah tells us in commands isad right we're supposed to be or we're supposed to be aad a holy nation so what did you say SE what it means separate okay so the simple understanding and this is true the simple understanding of the word Holiness as it's generally understood to mean is it means to means to be separate right when we say kadad Kad what we mean is Hashem is separate from us Hashem is on a higher plane than us okay another time when we talk about the word K is refer to interested inly marriage marriage is called when a man betres a woman he says what is mes mean and there are aot number of different understandings but one of the understandings that is given in the Reon is what it means means is you are now separate for me until now you were able to marry anybody and you are now separated to be my my spouse so the simple understanding and this is upon this is the base upon which many of the maim are going to explain K and and the Commandment K means you should separate yourself you should separate yourself on some level and again it's interesting though if you think about it separation has a certain connotation separation implies generally when we talk about separation it implies holding back it implies some kind of stepping back from something if you look at source number one Rashi and sorry Source number two Rashi very famously has a very specific application of this commandment Rashi says what does it mean again keeping within the theme of Separation you should separate seate yourself from the arot arot means elicit inappropriate relation sexual relationships and from sin because in many context asash where you see a person separates thems or sets up a Gad a fence around the area of inappropriate relationships then that is how K is created when when the Torah commands that a person or a woman should not become a prostitute or should not or should not be promiscuous the Torah then also says anytime God commands things connected to inappropriate sexual relationships very often it ends with a statement of that you shouldn't cause any kind of Sac uh any kind of profaning of your of your of your of your of your future Generations I am Hashem who sanctifies you so rash's main idea here and this is discussed in many different context Rashi explains that when the Torah says Kim to you which he is understanding to mean to be separate to hold back referring specifically to the world of arot to the world of illicit relationships and as Rashi points out and it seems to be what Rashi is also noting which is something that obviously we all know ourselves and we've seen throughout the generations that in the world of when it comes to inappropriate relationships and sexuality you can never be too careful right the whole world of Y the laws of Y the laws of need so many different areas in where we see different G different fences that have been put upon them that have been put upon us as Jews in order to ensure that in this world of in this area of illicit relationships we make sure to keep the proper the proper boundaries now why would Rashi assume this meaning did Rashi just get this because the word Kusha is found uh in many different places it's not just based on that where why why is Rashia assuming because again the truth is that after this PK when the Torah then describes all the other none of them are about the arot none of them are about the elicit relationship so why is Rashi assuming that this P has anything to do with elicit relationships exactly so look at source number three the G and many of the note this that if you look at the par before there is a list of all the that a person that that forbids says the G which is authored by the Mah a commentary on Rashi you should separate from the illicit relationships even though in this specifically the are not mentioned according to Rashi we just all talked about the ilicit relationships inappropriate relationships comes the Torah to say kind of like a summary when you do this when you listen when you follow these added G root or you follow very carefully and you're very careful about this area of then you achieve this sanctification this holy level of what we would call kidos Ship which begs again the question which I don't have an answer for right now which is well then maybe this PK should have been where the end of last week's par meaning why are we putting it could be now again I think there I I seem to recall there was might be a perish that tries to connect it and show that that that that both areas both what is before and what is after are connected to levels of Kusa but according to simple according to Rasha that simply talking about arot this might this might have belonged or more appropriate to have been in the and last week's P I supposed to First of this week's para but that's that's that's a question we can we can push to the side the other hand the end the end of kadim are all the the the own shame for that for that that's true good point correct the end of Kim does does reference all the punishments that were to come and as someone I heard someone point out that very often they're read together that is true that is true as well it could be that that generally uh to be on some level of unit which would be which would be appropriate appropriate as well so all all very good very good points the in Source number four says something very similar to Rashi but gives a technical twist to it which I thought was very very interesting says the says the what's the goal of this Mitzvah what is what is what exactly does hasm want what doesm want when he says be Holy says the something very but I think very interesting there are two different types of mitv that we have in the Torah we have mitv positive Commandments and then we have mitvah say negative Commandments sometimes you have certain Mitzvah which are only negative don't steal don't commit adultery don't don't kill and then you have certain mitah which are only Mitzvah you should put on you should sit on the many then you have some mitv where the Torah will command both in a positive and a negative okay a classic example would be there is a mitvah there is a a Mitzvah to get rid of your of your of yourit called you should get rid of all theit that you have that is a a positive commandment there's also a negative commandment not to eat the not to see the not to find thees so some times you have certain where the Torah will command both and says what the Torah is doing here with according to rash is it's adding the positive element positive not in a good way but adding a mitv to the to the Commandment last par the tah just said don't do this don't have this relationship and don't have this relationship now the Torah is saying be holy another way of saying it is and I think this is the way to say it is that sometimes this is just my own interpretation of it sometimes when you're dealing with with how to educate people there are different ways to phrase what you're looking for them to do it could be this is true in in all things when it comes to educating children when it comes to anybody so the Torah will say don't do this or or the parent will say don't do this don't do this don't do this and then sometimes you need to say sometimes you need to go what the don't do because you need to show how strict it is other times you need to say this is what I want to see from you be this do that and that says and and the Torah will do that at different different times for various reasons says the that's what the Torah is doing here the isn't it's coming and saying last par I told you don't do all these different relationships don't have these different relationships now I'm telling you the goal of that the purpose of that is to positively create an atmosphere of Kusa an atmosphere of Holiness an atmosphere of of of of of of of beauty and therefore says the that's why the Torah commands K even though it already told us not to do it as well and this it's important to not it's interesting to note by the way that the the par that we were talking until now when do we read them during the year anyone know when besides when do we read right and many people ask that question what it seems totally strange it seems totally strange for the for us to be reading something about like what does this have to do with the like the morning we read about theod okay so interestingly enough it actually is part that's actually the same par as theod okay and some people point out I remember seeing one one of the perim I once read about why we read it was because since everyone's coming to SCH and their finest clothing and therefore we have to be extra extra careful about about about these relationships but I think one other interpretation could be and this is what we're basically saying is what what Rashi has Point has shown us here is that arot or or being able to limit ourselves and have and and and and not be involved in these relationships and in a positive way is what creates kadus and therefore on which is the day the holiest day of the year the day when we're trying to create that Holiness if anything understanding the arot understanding these prohibitions is a way to help us achieve that achieve that level of Holiness so that's Rashi rashi's interpretation is that the purpose of Kim to you is very very limited it's about making sure that we are extra careful we have extra fence around the prohibitions of arot of sexual relationships and making sure that they are that they are what they need to be the sorno uh in Source number five is a bit more expansive we're not going to see it inside but it's it's a little bit of a technical sorno and hard little bit to follow but He suggests the following he says that Kim the creation of K is not just connected to refraining from arot but is refraining to everything that has been discussed in the last few partio whereas Rashi limits it just to Aros from says this Forno everything we' been discussing in tazri tazs where we talked about not eating certain foods we talked about doing there there were all these different things that the Torah was suggesting to us to do don't eat this don't do this I think he brings different examples there was the laws of the laws of Nida and the law of and a all these different areas and Realms of Kusa comes the Torah now and summarizes it by saying all of these things that we've been talking about since now and as well if you are able to refrain from doing these things then then you will achieve this level of K so then then we put this into the last part and not as aing this coming that's a great question that's what we mentioned before aot of correct correct I think I think I think it's a good question the the question correct well the qu the qu so the qu correct no correct okay so one second so so the question that she asked was well then well then if K if kosim is all about what's Happ was referring to summarizing let's say or the Pinnacle of the last few par it should have been the first last PK of last paraa not the first part I think it's a good question and that's we noted that before now when we're saying that she's asking also well that if K is all about refraining from then what about K shabat now I want to clarify K is a concept that exists in many different Realms okay we have we have the concept of as opposed to we have the description of as being kados we have the description of us as being kados Kad is a very very pervasive concept what we're trying to understand is just what the phrase here means it doesn't mean that this is the only area that's connected to Holiness but the question is when the Torah says Kim to you what's it referring to and and some including Rashi and and mno are much more localized in their approach we're going to see not everyone agrees we're going to see that there are some who take a much more expansive understanding of what K means now it doesn't mean that you can have K in other Realms it just means this p is referring to is referring to something specific okay when we talk about K Shabbat or k Shabbat what we're doing is we're separating Shabbat from the rest of the week K in and of itself seems to imply a separation of some sort but Rashi and Theo and some theim they're suggesting the phrase Kim to is more specific even though K can exist in other Realms in other Realms as well the word kados the word apply is is said all over the Torah the question is this phrase to what does it mean so so that very well could be and I think and I think that that's an approach that we're going to see we're going to see later on that's not the approach that Rashi and the sperno take but I do agree with you in that in your desire to be be expansive because I think it's I think there's something very very meaningful about that but let's let's go on and we'll see and we'll see that yes it seems to me that the thrust of this particular assertion is that we need to that Kusa exists when you restrain all kinds of appetites and impul good okay good all good good good we're going to get we're we're going to see that as well we're going to see that as well there are many MIM who are not necessarily happy with limiting this to these specific mitzvot and they therefore have an approach that is much more expansive I'd like to start and the truth is if you look at source number six the Mish the mid in verse number six K says the following which I thought was very very interesting K says what is PIM mean separate you should be separate or you should act in a separate way way now what what the Torah what this medish doesn't do is what limit it to anything specific okay it says you should be separate separate from what separate in what separate how what the medis seems to be hinting at is that it's is true Kusa is this concept of restraint is this concept of separating but not necessarily limiting it to anything specific and I think that's very important for what we're going to see now which is a number of MIM that insist that the concept of K is much more expansive than than what we thought you look at source number seven the of the ram okay the rambam as many people are aware has many different for that he wrote one of the major for that the r what called the where he lists all the different mitv all 63 mitv in the Torah the positive Commandments the negative Commandments now the challenge with doing that is that there are many many people who have done this over the years many reshon him who have tried or gim who have tried to list 63 mitzvot the problem is if is that it's sometimes it's very hard to know what to include and what not to include where do you find something one for example how many how many with so many mitzvot some could have it could be one Mitzvah that's made of five different pieces do you count that as five mitzvot you count that as one Mitzvah or when you have an A and that are on the same Mitzvah you count them separately there's many different questions and by the way if you look at any of the mon mitv any of the rabbis who venture to try to uh to do this none of them have this same 613 they have a lot of disagreements okay the rambam in his introduction to the he lists what he calls the shim where he lists the principles that he uses to Define what is considered one of the 63 mitv and what is it now we're not going to get into all the details now but this is an important introduction to understand what the r is about to do here one of those rules that the r outlines is the following he says sometimes the in the Torah you will have a Commandment that is all inclusive where the Torah will basically just say do all the Mitzvah says the ra I'm not going to include that as one of my 613 because all the Torah is basically doing is saying everything that I've commanded you to do do it and that's not going to be one of my 613 what is an example that the rambam brings of this that would be K look at source number seven it's a fascinating fascinating R where he really outlines some of his Logic the fourth rule for the r and how he outlines what is considered I'm not going to include in my cter 613 any that include all the mitv within them says the ra sometimes the Torah will have a commandment or a warning and it won't be something specific it'll include everything it as if the Torah is turning to you and saying make sure you listen to Everything I told you to do do all the things I tell you to do and don't do the things I tell you not to do he says says the there's no reason to include this as its own Mitzvah because it's just basically saying do what I've asked you to do it's not telling you to do a specific action do this or don't do that and it say if you're saying sometimes the Torah says anything I tell you to do you should be careful to do it or you should keep that's not a separate Mitzvah that's telling you to keep the mitzvot and any of my you should do them again says the ra that's not that's that's just telling you to keep the MIT now says this is the everything I said until now makes when the Torah says right that you should keep my of course that makes sense of course that makes sense comes the ra says included in this list is when the Torah says in this week's para to you what the Torah is exhorting us to do is to keep the mitzah it's telling us that if you keep all of the Mitzvah or the best as many mitv to the best of your ability you are becoming kados you are creating K and no it's not referring to one specific Mitzvah it's referring to everything and says the ra there are some people who are mistaken and they think it refers to a specific Mitzvah and therefore they count it in their says they're wrong is as if and and what's what's fascinating if you look at the end of the last uh the last line of the of the of this piece this is I think the key word he basically says it says the r there's no difference between when the Torah says you should be holy or if the Torah were to say do my mitv it's the same Essence it's the same concept so here's the question then so again just to make sure we understand the Rah is much more expansive than the than Rashi Rah is basically saying all of the Mitzvah are included in so then the question becomes well then why phrase it this way why phrase it as as opposed to saying do would probably be a lot more clear what what Tor wants to tell us why do you think the Torah is Hashem is specifically saying you is action oriented refers to the Persona to the person what's supposed to happen if you excellent I think that's the point if if we were just if God were to just say it's similar I think actually as I'm thinking about it similar to the to the focus on the versus the although is as well if you were to say the focus is on just just do it do what I told you to do I am Hashem when you say k to you you're you're almost giving a statement of purpose to what this is meant to do what's the point what's the point what's the goal what does a want from this what or or I would say it this way what will you get from doing this if you do my you're not just doing my mitzvot you're becoming Sanctified you're separating yourself you're creating you're you're you're you're achieving a higher level you're accomplishing something you're not just doing my Mitzvah which as we've seen before we talked about the reasons for doing Mitzvah sometimes you do mitvah said so okay that's that is a Valu in of itself but when you say to somebody do it not just because just don't just do it because I said so but do it because you're going to achieve something from it that gives a different perspective and that might be what the is saying here according to the ram according to the rambam this is including everything in the Torah but it's almost a statement of purpose statement of goal when you're able to do this when you're able to do this mitzvot you are then able to achieve a higher level uh that sometimes the difference in formulation helps us understand it in a in a in in a in a different way yes um you have to keep what exactly does that mean it's a great question I don't I don't I don't want to spend too much time on that it's a good question I I I I I I specifically put that in actually as I was as I was saying it because because in the end of the dayes only asks us to do the best that we can and it's important to know that can you just a little I don't I don't I don't want I don't want to take too much time of that and I also think it's a hard thing to do yeah meaning yeah it's and you know we're going to see it soon we're going to get to some some of that in a little bit when you talk about what I mean it's the best of our ability what I mean is the Torah there's a phrase in the in in the med the Torah was not given to Tor wasn't given to Angels right another way to say saying it as well right I know that there was something that you know the sometimes around pesak time people have OCD and they try to get doesn't want us to be perfect wants us to try our best now how you do that and what you need to do is a personal thing but what I the point is and it means that creating a level of Kusa does not demand Perfection it might demand striving to grow and striving to get to the highest level you can but it doesn't mean Perfection and and sometimes when people think about Holiness they think of it as this lofty level that never be achieved we're actually going to see that soon that's not what kadus is Kusa is something that anyone can attain in their own way depending on their level and and when it's done to the best of their ability yes question and then we'll move on I think also coming here from what you were just saying it brought up the idea that not just do the Mitzvah but the why you're do the Cabana excellent what's your name sorry Ruth Ruth okay so Ruth Ruth was just m to the ran which we're about to do right now exactly 100% this is is where the phrase n comes in okay well so we're GNA get we get on right now excellent thank you Ruth so the what's important about the rambam and Rashi so far and this is where the ramban is going to differentiate a little bit that the rambam and Rashi have been talking specifically about mitv Commandments the ramban is going to also have an expansive version of the concept of kosim but it's going to be almost in a little bit different where it's going to be not just do the mitzvot and don't do the a wrot but even things which may be technically mut technically permitted you should stay away from depending on you and your and your personal situation and this is where ran develops the concept of what's known as n t this is a famous idea in the ran which he which which is repeated in a number of different places and is and is very very important concept look at source number eight the ran and Source number eight the ran says the follow we're going to skip to the second paragraph the idea of says something he first quotes Rashi he doesn't he doesn't love the the the the very limited understanding that Rashi has for this and he understands it to be very very much more expansive he says the ra the Torah prohibits certain types of eating and certain types of relationships and permits other types of relationships it prohibits arot inappropriate relationships but it permits certain type of sexual relationships it prohibits eating certain foods but it allows us to eat other types of foods whose car T because the Torah does permit you know there some people who think that that that that Judaism prohibits a lot it does it doesn't I think we're doing okay the Torah does permit a lot of things and says the ran sometimes a person could take advantage of that and do everything that's mutter but still as he says at the very end of this line he what is comes with the word like disgusting he is a disgusting person who is still keeping to the letter of the law because technically he's allowed to eat as much wine and he's allowed to eat wine he's allowed to eat meat and drink wine he's allowed to have relationship with his wife he's allowed to do all these things there are so many different areas which are technically permitted but you have the issue where a person will stay strict to the letter of the law and yet be a naal and yet be a disgusting person says the ran comes the Torah after the Torah lists so many things that you shouldn't do now the Torah comes to say that not only should you avoid those things that are prohibited but sometimes you should also even stay away from those things that are that are allowed even things which are technically mut sometimes you should stay away from them in order to make sure sure that you maintain and are a a proper person that another way of saying this also is I think this is what this is what you were hinting at as well when we talk about a statement of purpose we say what what what you want to make sure that you don't lose the forest for the trees right the prohibitions or the everything are the trees don't do this don't do this don't do this don't do this don't do this don't do this don't do this says the Raman but the Torah is much more than that it wants to turn a person into something it wants to build it wants to create similar what we talk about before K to you wants you to be kados and therefore says the ran come to the Tor and says until now I told you all the things you shouldn't do don't do this don't do this but sometimes there are things that you technically can do but you shouldn't do now the problem is going to be and this is what we're going to see soon that might be different for every single person meaning what the Torah prohibits those are things that nobody should do and then you have what we would call the gray area which is technically permitted and for certain people in certain areas might be okay whereas for other people it might be prohibit and comes the Torah and says some of this is individualized and you need to know and understand yourself and make sure that you don't just avoid the things that are assur but you make sure that it turn that the Torah and its Commandments turns you in to a proper person excuse me are you including b b is a different type of is a is a different world and it literally means after it's been done so that's something else I'm talking about how a person the ideal of how a person should should act yeah I think it's something I think it's something different says the Torah as as just as an example says the ran again we going to skip a little bit here we're we're in the third paragraph the second line when it comes to relations the husband and wife should be together as much as is appropriate and needed within the relationship don't go overboard and you could drink wine what but within reason just like the Nazir is often called K there's a whole debate as to whether total abstinence from m is appropriate or not appropriate but we see different levels of where a person should be doing something and is allowed to do something but you should limit it depending on who you are the Torah will sometimes bring a whole list of things that are technically allowed but says the Torah don't do them if you know that will turn you into into something inappropriate and that's the concept of the ran here without without going into all into all the details but that again without saying the rest of the raban inside but this is the famous ran Tora where the ran is more I would say more expensive than the ramban because for the rambam it was limited to do all the things that are that are the Torah commands says the ramban don't just do the things the Torah commands sometimes you need to even hold back from the from the things that the Torah permits because you know that it's not good for you okay again a classic example could be and this is an extreme example obviously is someone who has struggles with with alcohol should make sure that he's not going to go anywhere near alcohol okay for someone who knows he struggles with certain types of let's say emotional issues to make sure that he doesn't put himself in a certain situation somebody who has an addiction to a x y or Z will go to The Other Extreme same thing here says the Torah means make sure that you're keeping the proper balance make sure you're keeping the proper limitation within who you rers in Source number nine mentions this ran and I'm bring it even though it's a similar idea to the ran because I think he verbalizes it and the way his language is extremely important so I'll read it with you inside just for for one minute says the says the kadha is the product of completest Mastery by the Godlike free willed human being over all his forces and natural tendencies what you were saying before how real kidan this is what refers is verbalizing here is when we talk about K andus it means to master yourself to master your does with the allurements and inclinations associated with them and placing them at the disposal of God's will this Mastery over oneself the highest possible art which human beings can practice does not consist of neglecting curtailing killing or doing away with any of one's powers and natural tendencies no single one of the powers and natural tendencies which are given to man is either good or bad in itself from the most spiritual down to the most sensuous they are all given to him for beneficial purposes to accomplish God's will on Earth the Divine Torah gives them a positive aim and a negative limit in the service of this purpose indicated by God and Within These limits set by God everything is good and holy separated from these purposes and outside these limits excuse me coarseness and evil begin virtuosity in this the highest Human Art is only attained as in any in any other part by practice constant exercise and using one's moral Free Will in mastering these Tendencies but these exercises are not to be practiced in the realm of the forbidden where a slip would result in wrongdoing but it is in the realm of the permitted that the resolution of one's will is to test and strengthen oneself now before he was just talking about the goal is to master yourself and master your midot but then he says why should this be but then he says but if you start to challenge yourself in areas that are too close to the actual prohibition if you if you slip up you're going to violate the prohibition says first that's why when you deal with these areas that are mutter that's where you can start to figure out where is your limit it is in the realm of the permitted that the resolution of one's will is to and strengthen itself in exercising one's power of restraint and self-control in things which are permitted but are related to The Forbidden is what is to gain one's is to gain Mastery of one's inclinations and and so make one's powers and tendencies subservient to the pure fulfillment of the will of God and then he add that think which I think is the key that is the work that everyone is called to do each one according to his own individual peculiarities work that is done quietly silently known to no one but himself on his own inner self the which Sage is called pre abstinence so what a person is highlighting here is this is referring to a person controlling his urges and pushing everything too towards what God's will is but it's going to be individualized because while there are certain things that are Usher to everybody the world of the ran of naal T is a world that is that that that that will be individualized depending on each person and it's our job to know ourselves or to get to know ourselves or to work to know ourselves and to know where are those areas where preo is appropriate and where are those areas where preo might not be appropriate now what I what I what the I just remembered was the part that we skipped in the ramban which is important is the ramban then notes that this concept of of of sometimes the Torah commanding something which is overarching in addition to the regular mitv is a theme that the r has in a couple of other places and he says another place where this exists which may be familiar to you is he says there's a PK in the Torah inim the PK says you should do what is straight and good in the eyes of God thank you thank you what in the world does that mean what does it mean to do to do that I already say to you do good thank you what does it mean to do good so says the ran it's the same concept right after the Torah says don't steal in in context there the Torah says don't do this and don't do this and don't do this the Torah then summarizes it by saying remember that what this is meant to do is to turn you into a person who is y or in the language of my bubby used to say to be a mench right to be a good person there's a goal here there's a purpose here there's a higher goal of what is trying to be accomplished and what the Torah says is technically you might not be stealing but maybe you shouldn't do it because this it Yash and says the ran that's what the Torah does when it says the other example the ran gives another famous example is with Shabbat the ramban refers to the fact that there are certain things that are strictly assur to do on Shabbat certain things you should not do you can't do this you can't do this you can't do this you can't do this and then he says the ran says the ran then later on the Torah s calls something shabbaton what does shabbaton mean says the raban it means something which is technically allowed but you shouldn't do okay which in English we used to call it's not shabis stic okay and in Hebrew they or another way of saying it is it's not not in the spirit of chabis the raan says that the ramban the ramban has a famous idea where he says the Torah explicitly well he talks about it here he talks about it here which which the source source number Source number eight Source number eight and he does elsewhere as well so what says the ran the same idea after the Torah tells us don't do all these things on chabis or do these things on shab it then gives us what's a vague purposely vague concept of shabis keep the spirit of chabas now that might differ from Individual to individual it might differ from Community to community I've had H questions where I've asked myab about this for example and part of it it might depend on which Community you live in different communities might Define that differently different families might Define that because there is no rule but says the ramban you need to have these Concepts to complete the picture because you have to remember what the goal is it's not just about the trees don't do this don't do this don't do this it's about what is shabas looking to create and that says the ran is what Kim is all about and as as refer said it beautifully it's about submitting ourselves it's about remembering the goal remembering what we're trying what we're trying to accomplish so we've seen until now and then I want to just end with uh with one closing closing section what we've seen until now is we're trying to understand the Torah comes in and says this week's para you should be kados so what does kadus mean what does it mean to be holy so we saw that the simple understanding of the word kadus in all the different context you have to understand how it fits with all the different context generally tends to be the Commandment to separate to separate yourself or to separate oneself from something we saw Rashi who was very very limited in his understanding that that means to separate from the world of arot to be very very careful about the world of AR to make sure that the world of elicit relationships you're extra extra careful we saw the farno who expanded that a little bit it doesn't just refer to arot it also refers to all the things that were prohibited in pars world of nid the world of Zava the world of not eating non kosher different areas where the Torah that sums up by saying if you if you are able to separate from these types of things kosim to you you will become kadosh this is how you that's how you do it we saw the rambam who has a much more expansive version where he understands Kim to you to mean follow all the mitos it's like to quote the as if God said do my Commandments but as we noted the value in phrasing it as not just as do my mitv but as be holy shows us what you accomplish when you do these mitzvot which is the ultimate the ultimate goal and then we saw right now the ramban the ran has the famous idea his famous idea called where the Torah lists the prohibitions tells you don't do them but then the Torah then and this is a theme that develops a number of places and then says it's not just about don't do don't do it's about what are you trying to become that's the ran raan and it's about it's about try it's about remembering it's about understanding what the goal is it's about some things where it might not be technically prohibited but you shouldn't do it and that will be an individual thing depending on each person but it is part of the Commandment of of the Torah which is to always have know where where where our limitations are I'd like to close as with with another question that is asked on this week's para another major question that we that M asked on this week's para and that is raised in Source number 10 the Torah um if if we go back even for a second you don't have to go back I'll read I'll read it out loud you don't have to go back but if you look at the way the Torah introduces this commandment of Kim to you it's a very very strange phrase the Torah says Hashem says to Moshe is you should speak to the entire Congregation of Israel and you should say to and all not notes this as well this is a very strange phrase what do you mean what does it mean speak You're always speaking to the entire Community why here does the Torah say is so Rashi in Source number 10 brings a wellknown mid says rash it teaches us that this commandment of kosim to you and this whole para not just not just kosim to you seemingly but the entire para of was said what's h h means as a gathering many of you may familiar with the mitvah H there is a mitvah h where once every seven years the entire entire Jewish people are commanded to go to gather on sukot at uh right the hak is is the sukot right after shita to gather as a community means to gather what Rashi means here is apparently whereas most of the Torah was given in groups Moshe would give it to different groups at a time this was mosha gathered the entire Jewish people and shared with them these mitzvot all together okay very nice of course the question begs is why mean what what was special about this whereas appar way the way that it's understood the medis generally describes as what used to happen was Moshe would would learn something with a Kesh the way the medish describes it he would then teach it to Aon who would then he would then teach it to Aron's children he would then teach it to the to the to the zakim would teach it was taught in groups in various groups seemingly for a specific purpose there was a reason why that was done that way so if that was the way the most of the Torah is done why is this why is this given differently why are these or these given differently and there's a number of different interpretations that are given I'd like to share with you the interpretation of the in Source number 11 we'll see just a few lines from it he says the following now we're gonna come to explain this who says the ra says sorry the the Torah is now commanding the concept of K of K and how to attain that K and there are some people who may mistakenly think that Kusa Holiness is only for specific people this isn't for everybody this is only for the great great rabbis or this is only for the leaders or this is only for the people who are born that way not everyone can attain K not everyone can attain Holiness so therefore says the there are some people who will think that on the third line the middle they might they might not even try they're going to look and say like I can never get there I can't achieve the level of Kusa I can't I can't achieve Holiness so what do they do they don't even they don't even try to go up the ladder they don't even start says the this is just not true there is no Jew who is incapable of growing of achieving of achieving a certain level of that is appropriate for him the reason why this commandment specifically had to be was to make it clear to every single Jew there is no person who is incapable of training of attaining Kusa Kusa is not above or Beyond anybody everybody can attain a certain level of Kusa and in order to stress that Moshe or insisted that Moshe teach it to everybody all at once just look here Source number 12 when this will end this is by sax who says something very very similar I'm quoting from a u from actually an earlier Torah tidbits that I had seen where he says the following idea something fundamental happens at the beginning of this paraa and the story is one of the greatest if rarely acknowledge contributions of Judaism to the world until now vayikra has been largely about sacrifices Purity the sanctuary and the priesthood it has been in short about a holy Place holy offerings and the elite and holy people Aon and his descendants who Minister there suddenly in chapter 19 the text opens up to embrace the whole of the people and the whole of Life the Lord says to Moses speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them be holy because I the Lord your God am Holy this is the first and only time in Leviticus that so inclusive and address is commanded the sages explained this to me that the contents of this chapter were proclaimed by Moshe to a formal Gathering of the entire nation it is the people as a whole who are commanded to be holy not just in El leite group of priests it is life itself that is to be Sanctified as the chapter goes on to make clear Holiness is made manifest in the way the nation makes its clothes and plants its fields in the way Justice is administered workers are paid and business conducted the vulnerable the deaf the blind the elderly and the stranger are to be afforded special protection the whole society is to be governed by love without resentments or Revenge what we witness here in other words is the radical democratization of Holiness it's a line that only rabis saaks could pull up Dem like democracy that everyone can achieve holiness Holiness belongs to all of us when we turn our lives into the service of God and Society into a home for the divine presence that is the moral life as lived by the kingdom of priests a world where we aspire to come close to God by coming close in Justice and love to our fellow man so what I think what sex as as as beautifully phrase in a way that only he can do is something that we were even someone was suggesting earlier which is I agree with you that I believe K is not just referring to the psim before is also a description of the psim that are about to come and this is whatx is basically saying saying what the Torah is basically doing here is suggesting kosim to you is referring is is both a summary of the past and a and and and and almost like a uh coming attractions of what's to come if you want to know what Holiness is about it's about the opportunity for each of us both to control our desires and to separate and to also create a community of Holiness and so what what we what as as and as uh RX points out and this is what the the Alik was saying as well lest we think that Holiness is this abstract thing that only certain people only can achieve Holiness is something that every single person can achieve and that's why it was said as a group it was said in the context of everybody so everyone could realize that they could achieve that Holiness different interpretations as to where it will apply whether it applies only to aray whether it apply to all the mitv but in the end of the day the ultimate goal is submission of of our own wills and our own inclinations to God and if that is the concept of Kim I just want just just just to end with this thought that obviously when we talk about subm submission of ourselves to a and to his will uh it's only most appropriate that we talk about in the in the week of y y and leading up to yon those who achieve the ultimate K the K the Holiness of hem those people who didn't just submit themselves in a spiritual way but submitted themselves and their lives uh in in in a physical way as well and that is the highest level of submission the highest level of Kida the highest level of dedicating yourself to to uh to and to and obviously we owe every single one of them those who perished in the Holocaust and those who perished uh for for the land of Israel we owe them everything um and we and and we appreciate everything that they that they have done