Originally published May 9, 2024
This week’s Torah portion, Kedoshim, is part of a section of Leviticus known as “the Holiness Code.” Smack dab in the middle of our Torah, we have a blueprint for what it means to live in holiness with other humans, a guide for setting up a society that is fair and just. Kedoshim commands us to honour parents, to leave the gleanings of our fields for the poor and the stranger, to not render unfair decisions, to welcome the stranger. All of these disparate laws and practices (and many more) are towards one common goal: You shall be holy, for I, your God Adonai, am holy. Bible scholar Tamar Kamionkowski writes, “All the commandments are set within the context that God is holy and that we ought to strive toward holiness in every aspect of our lives.” We ought to – because it does not happen automatically. Kedoshim presumes that there is work to be done by us to achieve holiness, to build that ideal holy community, a kehila kedosha. Kedoshim sets out that ideal, and the responsibility rests on our shoulders to strive towards it each and every day.
Jewish communities will read these words just days before Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, which begins on Monday night. Israel, too, is striving towards an ideal society. Its holiness code can be found not in Torah, but in Israel’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence. The Israel State Archives notes the Declaration is “regarded as an expression of the nation’s vision and its central beliefs.” 76 years ago, Israel’s founders were visionaries, and their legacy lives on in these words:
The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions…
These words are what the State of Israel strives for, and in many ways, accomplishes. These words, and those who live them every day, are what I look to for inspiration and hope, even in these dark times.
שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם יִשְׁלָיוּ אֹהֲבָיִךְ׃
Happy birthday, Israel. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem; may those who love you find peace. (Psalm 122:6)
