Shnayim Yomi - Acharei Mot-Kedoshim - Sh'vi'i - #7- Rabbi Reuvein Brand

[Music] Shvi the seventh aliyah here in Aramos and Kadoshian. The aliyah begins with the extensive list of the consequences of a person who engages in various inappropriate sexual relationships. the isurayos that come with these punishments tells us we have to live lives of kadusha which is parallel to what we heard in the end of the previous para in the beginning in of this Torah reading inos and then in conclusion we are told we should not mimic the non-Jews and this became an interesting discussion over the ages does our Jewish dress have to be distinctive or can it be the same as the non-Jews for other reasons so the accepted approach like the mik is that We can wear suits and ties and uh decorative garb, let's say at a graduation, which is for the purpose of honor. We could also wear lab coats if you're a doctor or special robes if you're a judge because we're not trying to mimic the noim for no reason or for pagan reasons. We're trying to copy them in the sense that there is a sense of honor and dignity in this profession. But the core question we're always asking ourselves is why do I act this way? Why is my haircut this way? Why is my comportment this way? Is it because I'm trying to mimic other cultures? So then that's not the way to live. Rather, it's about taking the elements from that culture that describe honor and we channel that to our and the conclusion is it's not just in the safer the way that we have physical relationships with spouses, but it's also in the safer the way that we eat. Both elements are things that we have in common with animals of reproduction and also food ingestion. And these are things that we can transcend to take to a higher level in our in all aspects of life. There's a fascinating beautiful that is quoted in the name of that describes the end of the that he enables us to be. He calls us to be we are spark of God. We are I separated you says from the so they say in the name of he says we should be holy. We should be distinctive. We should be connected to we should be an or we should be a part of the world. We should be part of society trying to cure cancer and heal all of the sick and and end homelessness and all those important pursuits. But we have to be kosh we have to be somewhat separate. We have to be distinct from them. And if we're not then if we don't know how to say kdish then the go they're going to learn how to saydah they're going to make sure that we're going to remember that we are distinct because has a specific identity for us and we need to maintain that for ourselves we don't want the goim to make havdah to remind us that we're separate as we've seen throughout Jewish history tragically [Music]