What it Means to Be Holy

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

We live in a bizarre period in history. We see things transpiring in this country and across the world that are stranger than fiction and people are powerless to stop the retreats from normalcy, morality and common sense. What can we do to ensure that we aren’t infected by what is going on around us and are able to maintain our fidelity to propriety and decency? What does Hashem want from us in times like these?

Perhaps He wants us to keep to ourselves, minding our own business as we withdraw from involvement with what is going on in our communities and in the world in general.

This week, the Sefirah period really kicks in as a time of mourning. We are back to saying Tachanun and there are no weddings taking place or music being played. This week, we lain the parshiyos of Acharei Mos and Kedoshim, which present many mitzvos relating to our conduct and how to treat other people.

The posuk (18:3) tells us not to act as the other nations do and not to adopt their culture, habits and hobbies. A subsequent posuk (18:5) states, “And if you observe My mitzvos and chukim, you will live.” While Rashi cites the Chazal that if you follow Hashem’s commandments you will live in Olam Haba, perhaps we can also understand the posuk to mean that no matter what is going on around you, if you live your life according to the way the Torah directs you, your life will be worth living. You will live a productive, healthy life and won’t fall prey to the insanity that surrounds you that causes life to be empty, worthless and bizarre.

If you seek the fulfillment and contentment that come with a good life, spared of drugs and emptiness, stick with a life of Torah. Otherwise, your life will bring you depression, sadness, emptiness and loneliness.

This parsha is followed by the parsha of Kedoshim tihiyu, which teaches us to be holy people. And we may wonder: I am awash in a sea of hedonism, decadence and licentiousness. How can I be expected to be holy? The answer is that if you follow the Torah’s guidance, you will live life on a higher, protected plane.

This is why Parshas Kedoshim was said b’hakhel, to all of Klal Yisroel, as the posuk states, “Dabeir el kol adas bnei Yisroel.” Hashem told Moshe to tell all of the Jewish people that they must be holy.

Many meforshim wonder how all of Am Yisroel could be commanded to be kedoshim, when holiness is way up there, one of the highest levels a person can attain. How can it be expected of plain simple people to rise to the highest rung on the ladder of devotion?

The simple answer is that the way to attain holiness is by following the mitzvos contained in the pesukim that follow: Honor your parents, don’t steal or cheat, don’t curse other people, don’t step on the poor and kiss up to the rich, don’t be a tattletale, don’t stand by as innocent blood is being spilled, respect young and old, and love, don’t hate. These are mitzvos that we are all aware of. By following them, you become a kadosh. Loving other people, treating people with love, and not hating or embarrassing other people are not just nice things. They aren’t just mitzvos. By living that way, you become a kadosh, a holy person, and Hashem wants all of us to be kedoshim, because we all can.

Living among rotten, depraved people is not an excuse and does not have to hold us back from being holy.

And more than that, the meaning of the word kedusha is commonly misunderstood. We loosely translate the word to mean holy, synonymous with asceticism and austerity. Kedusha certainly means that, but it means much more.

A life of kedusha means to live with Hashem and to be enveloped by an awareness of His reality and presence. To be a kadosh means to live with a vision and a goal. It means living within the present, but never losing sight of the reason we are here, what life is all about and what our ultimate aim ought to be.

A person who lives with kedusha can rise above our one-dimensional world and see a bigger and deeper universe. That realization propels him to accomplish so much more than people who are trapped in the here and now.

Other people don’t have time to spend with a boy who wants to learn, lovingly reviewing the Gemara with him repeatedly until he understands it, and then moving along with him and helping him develop into a great talmid chochom, but a kadosh does, because his focus is on the larger goal of spreading Torah. Other people don’t have the patience and drive to return and introduce people to the beauty of the Torah way of life, but the kadosh does. Other people have no problem embarrassing people they disagree with, but the kadosh doesn’t behave that way. He treats all with respect.

Last week, I had the pleasure of spending some time with Rav Shamai Blobstein of Monsey. A tzaddik who spends his life opening the beauty of Torah to teenage boys, he embodies this definition of a kadosh.

A kadosh doesn’t tire after sitting with people and helping them through their problems. He doesn’t complain when he speaks to a person for several hours, providing a comforting shoulder and calm direction, because he is focused on the goal of having another healthy person in Hashem’s army.

Rav Michoel Bender’s yahrtzeit is coming up. He was a tzaddik and also a kadosh.

There are so many other kedoshim among us, who enable us to live, exist and grow. But Hashem wants us all to be kedoshim, not just a select few.

A kadosh has time and infinite patience for davening, learning and bentching. No matter what he does, he is not in a rush, because if it is worth doing, then it is worth doing right. If he is talking to Hashem, then he is going to make sure that he understands every word he is saying and says it with the proper pronunciation and kavanah.

A kadosh sees himself as part of a greater group, connected with all, and seeking to bring the world and all he is connected with to a better place.

A person who cares about Hashem and His people is a kadosh, because the decisions he makes aren’t guided by personal negios or petty calculations, but by the one essential truth. That is kedusha. His life is spiritual and he is occupied with big and important things. He is not a slave to pettiness and silliness. Therefore, he is a kadosh. Small things don’t get in his way. He remains focused on the goals set for him in Parshas Kedoshim.

That is why the parsha of Kedoshim was said by Moshe himself b’hakhel, to everyone. Every person can be a kadosh. Every person can study Parshas Kedoshim with Rashi and the Ramban and improve himself step by step until he is a kadosh.

If you do so, then every interaction with another person becomes an opportunity to demonstrate that you are a kadosh. If you present yourself properly, carry yourself with dignity, dress in decent clothing, and speak like a mentch, then you are mekadeish Sheim Hashem and demonstrate that you are not caught up in the vagaries of the moment.

If you have time for other people, you show that you are on a higher plane. If you exhibit common courtesies, you show virtues of a kadosh. You demonstrate that you believe Hashem is with you and watching you, and you behave the way Parshas Kedoshim indicates you should.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Although we are living through a historic and trying time, we can rise above the nonsense. We can daven better, taking time to say each word properly. We can find more time to learn and thus lift ourselves as we bring more kedusha into our lives.

We can learn Chumash and mussar with our children, teaching them what our mesorah is and incentivizing them to be good, ehrliche people whose lives are occupied with doing good and living a life of kedusha.

The life of a kadosh is spiritual and focused on important things. Small things don’t get in his way. He remains focused on the goals set for him in Parshas Kedoshim.

Nobody can say to himself that he is but a simple person. I don’t have to get involved with other people. I don’t have to spend time helping other people. I do the mitzvos, give tzedakah, and daven three times a day. That’s enough.

It’s not enough to be satisfied with coasting along in your own lane. Hashem demands that we be part of a larger group, living as much for others as for ourselves.

The Torah demands that every person who can study Parshas Kedoshim be a kadosh, focused on the vision to see beyond our little corners, seeing a wider world and playing a role within it.

When you have time for other people, when you hold the door for an older person, you show that you are on a higher plane. If you exhibit common courtesy when you drive; if you stop to let someone park, pull out of a parking space or cross the street; if you give another driver the right of way, you show virtues of kadosh. You demonstrate that you believe Hashem is with you and watching you, and you behave the way Parshas Kedoshim indicates you should.

If you’re dealing with your chavrusa, or a delivery boy, or a salesman in a store, talk to him the way the Mesilas Yeshorim tells you to, because you know that kedusha is the highest level you can attain, and you know that you get there by being a person of Torah, which means acting in a way that brings you closer to Hashem.

Every day of Sefirah, we take a step forward towards Kabbolas HaTorah and a step further away from Mitzrayim and enslavement to physical wants and demands. Each day that we care about other people, every day that we prevent a machlokes or work to end one, each day that we treat people the way we wish we were treated, we become holier and make the world a holier place, closer to the ultimate goal of Moshiach’s arrival.

Let’s admit it: Money is very important. We all need it to pay bills and to live. But there is more to life than making money. It is a tool, not a goal. We live to set goals, reach them, and seek success in things that are really important. Help a person and you’ve created a world. Smile at someone and you’re doing something important. Rid your heart of hatred. Don’t be involved in machlokes. Pursue peace and constructive enterprises, and your life will be enriched. You will be richer than the person who earns millions of dollars a year but keeps it all for himself, to satiate himself.

Kedoshim tihiyu and v’ohavta lerei’acha kamocha are both in the same parsha. They are interdependent. If you are a kadosh, then you love every Jew, you appreciate each person for who they are, and you embrace them even if they aren’t on your level or behave differently than you do, because they are children of Hashem, just as you are, and Hashem commands you to love them.

If you understand “mah chovaso ba’olamo,” what the world is really about and why we are here, then you can love and aren’t jealous, intolerant and judgmental.

And you can be a kadosh.

Keep That Spirit

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

We just recently completed observing the eight-day Yom Tov of Pesach, which celebrated our freedom - geulah - from Mitzrayim. After many generations of subjugation under a depraved nation, Hakadosh Boruch Hu heard the cries of pain and intense tefillos of our forefathers and mothers, and brought about our miraculous deliverance. From there, we were led though the Yam Suf and the midbar, reaching great heights, attaining prodigious achievements, and overcoming disasters of our making and enormous tragedy. Finally, with our shared destiny, we entered the Land of Israel as a nation, bound to one another.

But there is more to Pesach than that; the Yom Tov and the freedom that we celebrate are understood on several levels, each deeper than the other. The Ramchal, (Maamar Hachochmah, Derech Hashem) for example, understands the chag hageulah as a redemption from a life of chumriyus, literally servitude to the physical aspects of life, commonly referred to as materialism.

With the onset of Pesach, we search for and destroy any vestige of chometz, for it represents chumriyus, the materialism of life, as it is comprised of basic flour and water that have been enhanced. Since the geulah that we celebrate is freedom from servitude to materialism, we banish chometz from our lives for the period of the chag.

We celebrate the Yom Tov with matzah and recite the Haggadah over matzah, for it represents the happier and more fulfilling life, free from chumriyus. For the days of Pesach, we abstain from the food that is rooted in the yeitzer hora and only partake of that which is rooted in the yeitzer tov. We commemorate our freedom from Mitzrayim and the enhanced lives we were able to lead, unconstrained by servitude to chumriyus and evil, and free to live enhanced lives seeking spiritual fulfillment as guided by the yeitzer tov. The kedusha this adds to our lives remains with us the entire year, if we prove worthy.

That pursuit didn’t end with Havdolah on Thursday night for those of us in chutz la’aretz and Wednesday night for those in Eretz Yisroel. In fact, it continues until Shavuos with Kabbolas HaTorah. The Ramban and Rabbeinu Bachayei (Vayikra 23:36) write that the days of Sefirah between Pesach and Shavuos are sort of like the days of Chol Hamoed between the first and last days of a chag. And we wonder what that means.

A hint to this can be derived from the parshiyos of Tazria and Metzora, which serve as a bridge between Pesach and Sefirah. These two parshiyos, which we lain this Shabbos, discuss the affliction of tzora’as and the necessity to remove the afflicted person from among the community, placing him in isolation for weekly periods as he recovers from the Divine affliction.

The Medrash (Vayikra Rabbah 16:1) teaches that tzora’as is brought on by engagement in any one of seven anti-social acts: hubris eyes, a tongue that speaks falsehood, hands that spill innocent blood, a heart that plots bad thoughts, feet that run to do evil, a liar/one who testifies falsely, and, the worst of them all, someone who causes arguments to break out between people. This is accomplished through spreading defamation and lies, motzie sheim ra and lashon hora. Thus, the Torah refers to the person with tzora’as as a “metzora,” for the word is formulated from the words motzie sheim ra.

A person who speaks lashon hora and engages in other anti-social behaviors that cause people to quarrel is punished with tzora’as. Let us offer an explanation.

In this world, there are four elementary forms, each one on a higher level than the one below it. They are domeim, tzomei’ach, chai and medaber, the inert, such as stone and dirt; that which grows, such as grass and trees; that which is alive, such as animals; and, above them all, man, who is granted the gift of speech.

The ability to speak allows us to effectively communicate with each other. With speech, we can learn, grow, develop, study Torah, engage in mitzvos, and be part of a cohesive social fabric. We can teach other people, help others, and offer them words of support when they are down.

Targum Onkelos famously writes that the words used by the posuk in Parshas Bereishis to state that man was alive, “Vayehi adam lenefesh chaya,” indicate that “vehavas b’adam ruach memalela,” man was given the power of speech. The ability to speak gave man his spirit and life.

The essence of life is the ability to connect with others – the experience of joining others, interacting with them, and using words to convey emotion. The breath invested into each word is the stuff of life itself.

Man was bestowed with the gift of speech to enable him to live an exalted life, connected with Hashem and Klal Yisroel. One who follows his yeitzer tov uses speech to earn eternal life and blessings. Through the power of speech, the enslaved Jews in Mitzrayim were able to shout out to Hashem and earn their salvation. Through proclaiming “naaseh v’nishma” at Har Sinai, we were granted peoplehood and the Torah. Through studying the Torah, we rose to unprecedented levels of holiness and perfection in creation.

Our geulah from the chumriyus and evil of Mitzrayim brought us to those levels.

We were freed from Mitzrayim, led through the dried bed of the Yam Suf, and received the Torah when we were united, k’ish echod beleiv echod, and all of Klal Yisroel became areivim zeh bozeh, interconnected. Yisroel v’Oraisa v’Kudsha Brich Hu chad hu. We are connected to each other, to the Torah, and to Hashem, as one.

But people who are under the spell of the yeitzer hora and live lives of chumriyus betray the gift of speech and use it to cause machlokes and separation of people from each other. They use what could be the greatest gift to bring about evil and dissention, disconnecting people from each other.

Thus, as we enter this new period of Chol Hamoed and seek to grasp onto the levels of kedusha and simcha that we reached on Yom Tov, study the parshiyos of tzoraas, which admonish us to stay in the righteous lane we hewed through the exalted days of Pesach, as we eschewed chometz and partook of matzah, following its message daily.

Those who abstain from the chomer of man and chumriyus of life are saved from pettiness and jealousy. People who live lives of matzah are guided by their yeitzer tov, are freed from superficial distractions, and are able to love all.

Humans are comprised of chomer and tzurah. Chomer is the physical and mundane aspects of man, while tzurah is the spiritual. The authentic core of a person is his tzurah, his depth and spirituality, which are coated by the outer layer of chomer. A person who is caught up with his chomer is wrapped up with the superficial and is missing out on the greatness, essence and spirit of life.

A person of chomer, who lacks in tzurah, rejects unity, as he is shallow, with no appreciation for what lies at the root of everything. He becomes a baal lashon hora, a hate-monger, resenting other people’s success and popularity. He cannot live comfortably with others, because other people’s possessions arouse envy in him. He is unable to be with them. Rejecting unity and suffering his own punishment, he is forced to sit alone.

Tzora’as forces the person consumed with exterior impressions to confront physical imperfections that are brought on by his spiritual inadequacies, as he ponders the essence of his existence.

The posuk in Bereishes (2:18) states, “Lo tov heyos ha’adam levado.” As Hashem was creating the world, He said that it is not good for man to be alone and He fashioned a partner for him. Loneliness is not healthy. Man must be involved with other people and not be enveloped in himself without social contact.

Those who engage in lashon hora, hotza’as sheim ra and rechilus divide people, bringing on loneliness and ill feelings. The punishment fits the crime, as such a person is left in solitary confinement.

A person of tzurah, arvus and ruach memalela feels the soul of another.

Good people are generally happy when with other people. They value being part of a whole. When people make a simcha, they want many people to be there with them. No matter how many people are in attendance, each one of them brings added joy. We are all one, big, happy family, and the holier and more fulfilled we are, the more we feel that.

The more we are matzah Yidden, the easier it is for us to get along with others and the happier we are to help other people, offering words of support, chizuk and nichum when appropriate, and always finding nice and positive comments to share with people when engaging in conversation.

The more a person is a chometz Yid, beholden to his chomer and chumriyus, the more he is controlled by his yeitzer hora, which leads him to put people down and speak lashon hora to deprive his victims of their self-worth and the respect others have for them. Instead of using his words to strengthen people and cause them to smile, he demeans and saddens them.

The lessons of Pesach and matzah are meant to change and improve us so that we can maintain the elevated lives of Yom Tov throughout the year. I don’t know anybody who dislikes Yom Tov and waits for the hallowed period to end so they can return to work and the rat race. I’d venture to say that most people are like me, saddened when Yom Tov ends, the Pesach dishes are put back into storage, and mundane work beckons.

Through maintaining the refinement we reached by banishing chometz from our homes, hearts and neshamos, and becoming matzah Yidden connected to our tzurah, we can keep alive the spirit of Yom Tov through these days of Sefirah - Chol Hamoed. A valid test of where we are holding is by judging our social relationships. If we aren’t jealous or judgmental, and are able to celebrate the achievements of others, we can know that our chomer and chumriyus are in check.

Hopefully, while on the Yom Tov break we tuned out from the goings-on in the world, we have quickly been reminded that there is much darkness in our world today and much evil as well. Most people are afraid to confront the evil that has overcome the social fabric of this country since the election of Joe Biden and the administration he brought in to lead this country. People are even afraid to publicly express the moral foundations that Yiddishkeit and, lehavdil, this country are built on.

We see the forces of evil, pure evil, appearing to be on the ascendance. We see secret intelligence giving Russia much more credit than the official Western government spokesmen and media analysts. We see Iran, Saudi Arabia and China coming together for no good. We see the anti-religious forces in Artzeinu Hakedosha gaining as they gird for another round against the religious and right-wing forces. We see the United States leadership tottering and the economy teetering. Everything everywhere seems radically off kilter. Nothing seems to be going correctly and we become fearful.

The revelation of the Ramban and Rabbeinu Bachayei that these days of Sefirah serve as a Chol Hamoed bridge between Pesach and Shavuos would also indicate that the powers that were evident during the original redemption from Mitzrayim and again from the 15^th through the 22^nd of Nissan are still in effect now. If we can remain free from the shibud to our chomer and to chumriyus, and we use our kochos to engage in Torah, tefillah and kedusha, we can merit to be fully redeemed speedily in our day.

The world seems to be hurtling towards a great upheaval. But it doesn’t have to be catastrophic as many fear. Let us use the gifts of Pesach and sefirah to make it instead the coming of Moshiach and the longed-for geulah.