Acharei Mot Kedoshim 5783 ~ April 28, 2023

ow do you define “holiness” within your personal existence? Is it something tangible to you, or it is something spiritual? As we join on our Zoom services and we gaze into one another’s homes, I often marvel at the items that surround you that provide that sense of sacredness within your humble abode. It might be a picture on the wall of the Kotel - the Western Wall, or Shabbat candlesticks.

In our home, immediately to my right is a glass-front cabinet filled with kiddush cups that I have collected over the years. There is a sterling silver kiddush cup from when I was bar mitzvah that were given to me by shul; there are sterling silver kiddush cups that we purchased for each of our children which they still use when they join us for Shabbat or festival dinners. There is one kiddush cup that my mother-in-law gave my middle son, Cory, that comes from her family that he insists on using. Why? It is not only tradition, though that is quite important to him, but rather it gives him a sense of connection to family. For our son Cory, that sense of connection takes place, not only when he calls us to say hello and to share with us about his day; it is a connection to his Jewishness in a spiritual manner which he finds through items such as that kiddush cup. There are other religious items such as a silver menorah and a rather large coffee cup on a plate that Lisa’s grandfather used on Passover to dip his matzah in his coffee each morning. All of these items have that unique connection. On the other side is another glass- front cabinet filled with Passover China and wine goblets that were passed on to us from Lisa’s family and have been part of an heirloom collection in our family for close to forty years.  And then on top of that cabinet is a picture of Cory when he was just a couple of years old putting on a child’s tallit. And in a second picture, it is a picture of his son Mason, at the same age, putting on that same tallit, while his father is donning his tallit and tefillin in the background. I often gaze at those pictures during our Zoom services. In some way,s that is my spiritual connection continued.

Our Torah reading for this Shabbat, the double portion of Achrei-Mot and Kedoshim, suggest many other connections to what it means to be kadosh - holy, or shall I say, how to lead a life that is filled with holiness and spirituality. For some of us, it is connecting with the religious aspects of prayer as described through the sacrifices of old in this weeks’ parasha. For some of us it is connecting with the moral laws of Torah found in this week’s readings. From business practices to law related to how one treats one’s neighbor, the question of holiness is defined by understanding what is truly ethical in our personal behaviors.

This week in the news, the question of sexual promiscuity seems to be a headline. And, in our Torah reading, there are specific commandments that deal with what is appropriate and with whom such acts are permitted. As we witness the closing of another big box giant of old, Bed, Bath and Beyond, we recognize how our Torah reading’s suggestions of how businesses might be run and how consumers should also relate to businesses, might have helped such a business not fold. And while the laws in the Torah are only the beginning of understanding of business practice, the continuing discussion found in tractates of Talmud and commentaries, plus the many volumes of interpretation in the many codes of Jewish law and myriads of books written on the subject, provide more than sufficient understandings not only of how to run a successful business, but also how to be kadosh, spiritually ethical - both as a store owner and as a consumer.

The question of what it means to be kadosh, holy, based on our Torah reading for this Shabbat, suggests that it is not simply on how we choose to practice the religious customs and the laws, but also on how we connect with our ethical selves as we walk in this world in the company of our fellow human being.