Divrei Kedoshim
Be Holy
“Kedoshim tehiyu” “Be holy.” Kiddush. Kaddish. Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh. Kedushah. As Torah Jews, we are constantly implored to strive to bring holiness into our lives. Chazal reinforced this demand, both through the many references to kedushah in our tefillos and through our bircos hamitzvos, for within every one of the latter is the phrase “asher kidshanu b’mitzvosav – Who made us holy through His mitzvos.” Certainly, attaining kedushah is a lofty goal; in the braisa brought in the Gemara (Avodah Zarah 20b) Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair places it near the pinnacle of his tower of spiritual progress -- above watchfulness, zeal, spiritual cleanliness, separation from this world, purity, piety, humility, and fear of sin; and just below the spirit of holiness and the ability to revive the dead. On the other hand, Hashem expects that every Jew, even those not near the top floor of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair's tower, will in some manner acquire and master kedushah; when the Torah says, “Be holy,” Rashi brings the Toras Cohanim, which notes, “This parsha was said to the entire congregation.” Clearly, because Hashem has made the attainment of kedushah an imperative upon all of Klal Yisroel for all generations, we have in front of us the means to become holy.
So why don’t we? The most glaring problem comes from a lack of knowledge; do we really know what it means to be holy? Without any preparation, kedushah is apt to be relegated to some amorphous spiritual concept, bandied about but never truly understood However, if we can pinpoint it, at least to the extent that we can then gauge the extent of our progress in kedushah, we can then plan to develop and increase it. Still, where do we start?
HaRav Aharon Kotler zt”l notes the continuation of the posuk: “Be holy, for I am holy.” On a simple level, one might think that holiness is a middah, a character trait, of Hashem’s which we are expected to emulate, as the Gemara (Shabbos 133b) instructs us: “Just as He is gracious and merciful, so also should you be gracious and merciful.” Says Rav Kotler: kedushah is different, for it emanates directly from Hashem, and our attaining it comes only though our attaching ourselves to Him. One might despairingly think that attachment to Hashem is an impossible goal; however, says the Yalkut on this posuk, Hashem has already attached us to Him. How? Just before Matan Torah, Hashem told Moshe to tell the nation that “You shall be to Me a kingdom of kohanim and a goy kadosh, a holy nation.” (Shemos 19:6) Now, there is no coincidence that Hashem chose this language, for it can also refer to marriage – kedushin. The Yalkut gives a simple mashal: A king married a common woman, then told her, “Because I am a king, so now you are a queen!” Likewise, at Har Sinai, Hashem married us, and in doing so, He raised us to a level comparable to His own – kedushah.Now that we understand that we are intrinsically holy, how can we access our elevated status? That, says Rav Kotler, comes from forming and developing a relationship with Hashem. As in every other aspect of Yiddishkeit, Hashem is utterly fair – the more effort that we put into our relationship with Hashem, the more He relates to us. And like a marriage, the seemingly little things count: the paragraph of tefillah recited out loud, rather than mumbled; the article of clothing chosen and purchased over another which, while less tznius, was more stylish/less money; the extra minute of Torah learned instead of a shmooze with the chavrusa; the smile to that moody teenager/too-pushy meshulach/grouchy neighbor, and so on.
How far can we go? The Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 23:9) rhetorically asks, “Yachol Kamoni? – Could your kedushah be as great as Mine?” ‘For I am holy’ – My kedushah is beyond yours.” Hashem is not burdened by an endlessly demanding body; while we can aspire to great levels of holiness, any attempt of ours to utterly divorce ourselves from this world is bound to end in miserable failure, as happened to such self-flagellating cults as the Essenes. Rather, says Rav Kotler, our goal is to control our interactions with this physical world, not allowing ourselves to become lost to any of the many, many addictions – illicit and otherwise – which lie at every turn. When we must take care of a certain need, we must precede it with a careful assessment of the ideal manner to do it, then do it, striving to keep the intent leshaym shamayim, for Hashem, not for us, and thereby elevating it to become avodas Hashem. In this manner, says HaRav Avigdor Miller zt”l, a woman standing by her old stove and preparing lunch for her children can become like a Kohen Gadol standing by the Mizbayach and preparing korbanos for all Klal Yisroel. Likewise, the Slonimer Rav zt”l notes that kedushah is a subset of ruchnius, especially for the Jewish nation. While every human being has access to spirituality, attaining it entails suppressing physicality. Only the Am Yisroel enjoys the privileged power of kedushah, another route to the spiritual which, rather than bypassing the physical world, runs right through it.
Thus, a life striving for kedushah need not be cloistered, monk-like; Rav Kotler cites HaRav Chaim Volozhiner, who said that his rav, the GR”A, strictly kept to the entire braisa of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair mentioned above (meaning that he lived every detail of the Mesillas Yesharim, which is based upon that braise), to every statement of Chazal, and to every facet of HaRav Chaim Vital’s Sha’arei HaKedusah (meaning that he lived according to the guidelines of the Ari z”l). Yet, if one could have met the GR”A, said R’ Chaim, one would be struck by the fact that his daily lifestyle was quite normal.
That, says Rav Kotler, is our goal.