The word of the week is Kedusha - קדושה - Holiness. This is a transcript of my senior sermon, delivered 3:30 April 17th, 2013:
My Family, my friends, my loved ones, my teachers, my rabbis, my classmates - I stand before you today to share my senior sermon, and it's the last senior sermon of my class – it’s a class I'm honored to be graduating with. Over the past several months we've heard from these remarkable people about chova, mitzvah, v’hachana– obligation, commandedness, and the preparation that we've lived for the past 4, 5 or even 6 years.
And thisweek we come to the point in the reading that sheds light on some of the biggest questions we as humans can ask:
What is our purpose on this planet?
What does God require of us?
How do we live a meaningful life inthis troubled world? and
How do we spend that limited amount of time we have walkingthis earth when life is so fleeting – when, as we saw earlier this week, tomorrow is promised to no one.
Baruch Ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh Ha’olam Asher Kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu Laasok b’ivrei Torah
We thank you God, ruler of all, for the opportunity and honor to spend time engaging the words of Torah.
We read this week:
א וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר. דַּבֵּר אֶל-כָּל-עֲדַת בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם--קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ: כִּי קָדוֹשׁ, אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם.
God spoke to Moshe, and said: Speak to the entire community of the children of Israel, andtell them: Kedoshim Tehiyu - be holy people. For I Hashem your God, am holy.
This is on the one hand, a very concise commandment - a very few words “Kedoshim Tehiyu” – Be Holy. And even a rationale – Ki Kadosh Ani Hashem Elokeihem – Because I Hashem your God am holy.
On the other hand, the reader, we are left wondering:
What on earth is it to be holy?
And how on earth can I possibly be like God?! We are supposed tobe Kedoshim, like God is Kadosh – how do we make that happen??
I actuallyhave a long standing relationship with this text - when I came to my rabbinicalschool interview roughly 5 years ago, I spoke in a room down the hall, with some of the people that are in this room today, about how I understood this enigmatic phrase.
And then, onmy first day of orientation, the assistant dean; Rabbi Gelber, handed each person in the class a different slip of paper, each with a quote on it, the one handed to me was this verse. We were told to use our quote as a frame for our journey.
And today, we are all here together - looking at it, engaging it.
I'd like to tell you how I conceived of it then, and how I conceive of it now and whatchallenges I saw this text putting before us, and how I now see so much rolled into this efficiently phrased imperative.
I rememberin that interview that I spoke about way the Torah continues. For me, it’s helpful to think about the phrase not as a standalone – you can’t make sense of this phrase in isolation, but if you look at in the context of what follows, and even what comes before, what emerges for me is that this phrase is somewhat the umbrella statement, the ultimate goal, and what follows, is the methodology- the details of how to accomplish this lofty goal: and so, in my interview I jumped– and started talking about how the Torah, a just a few sentences later continues:
Lo Tikallel Heresh, v’lifnei Iver Lo’titayn michshol –
We are commanded not to curse the deaf, and to not put stumbling blocks before the blind.
I explained five years ago that I was proud that our religion had this statement. I saidthat I was proud that our tradition, through the midrash – specifically Midrash Hagadol, and through later commentaries, flips this negative – the Torah reads: don’t put the stumbling block before them - into a positive: you must remove them. It's kind oflike: If you see something, say something. But it's more - it's something like:if there's a problem you're aware of, deal with it. And Specifically, davka in the case that you must act in orderto prevent a situation when there is no danger to you – the danger here is to others. Professor Mittleman explained that the Torah was talking here about moral hazards. I talked about the great teacher of teachers, Nehama Leibovitz zichrona l’vracha, and how she understood that:
"The Torah teaches us thateven by sitting at home doing nothing, by complete passivity and divorcement from society, one cannot shake off responsibility for what is transpiring in the world at large, for the iniquity, violence and evil there. By not protesting, "not marking the … danger spots, you have become responsible for any harm arising therefrom, and have violated the prohibition: "Thou shalt not put a stumbling block before the blind..."
I said that it was about speaking up when you see danger. I said it was the commandment todo good, to rectify injustice, and that we as Jews, we were sanctified kedoshim to do this mission – and that we don't have the permission to desist from this work – it’s our calling.
This commandment is still one of the phrases in the Torah I most strongly connect with. When I see pictures of Rabbi Heschel on a civil rights march with the Doctor, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. I can see in his face that he was acting in accordance with this mitzvah – he was living the words out – he was a teacher through his actions, a rav – by being an exemplar of the type of behavior he thought we should all engage in.
I’ve learned a lot in these last four plus years – I learned Torah, Talmud, Midrash, Codes of Law, Aramaic, Jewish History, how to console, how to lead, and even a bit about teaching. In our tradition we have a saying: “Mikol M’lamdei hiskalti" –from all of my teachers I have learned – "U’mitalmidai yoter mikulan" -- though I learned the most from my students.
At the Heschel School where I have had the honor of serving as a rabbinic intern this year, I learned from the students the value of slowing down - it’s often the case that we in these hallowed halls are called upon to read 100+ pages in English, or a half dozen pages in Hebrew, or even a few paragraphs in Aramaic (those amounts are all equal by the way).
Ma’aseh She’haya – one of my first days at Heschel, I had the opportunity to teach a class of 3rd Graders parshat hashavua (the weekly Torah portion) – I planned it out, I had the section of text that I planned on going through with them, and I began – I launched into the text of the Torah – within a minute a young man looked me dead in the eye, and gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up. "Wow", I thought, "I’m doing great!" As a teacher it’s rare that you get a thank you at the end of a lesson, let alone a thumbs up during the lesson. And as I continued, more students began giving me thumbs up – "Wow!", I thought, "This must be the most successful lesson I’ve ever delivered – they are eating this up!" At about the five minute mark the teacher of the class, Yisraela, stopped me: "Rabbi Muki...", she said, "This [the thumbs up] means they have a question, they want you to stop – and go back, there’s an idea you’ve touched on they want to examine more closely."
And as I stood there, surrounded by thumbs of inquiry, it dawned on me:
I learned that in my, and even our attempts to conquer the texts, we often undertake a kind of bulldozing in the process – we are so used to looking at these phrases, it becomes phraseology – that’s an introductory phrase, that’s a concluding phrase – what’s in the middle is the ikkar – the meat (or the tofu to you vegans out there).
And so when I sat down and really looked at this sentence – speak to the entire community of Israel, kedoshim tehiyu, I stopped there.
I stood in amazement as I focused on the beginning of the sentence, a part of the phase that I completely glanced over four years ago - speak to the *entire community* of Israel. I hear those words and I can't help but think there's something powerful and touching about the whole, that all, the entire community together is called upon.
It's not something rabbis do, or the inheritance or birthright of a special caste - it's the whole community's task and honor, goal and blessing: be holy.
All of you. Don't say someone else will take care of the elderly, someone else will watch out for the disabled, someone else will show love ואהבת . It's on you. Not you alone. You will have allies. You have the whole community.
Several years later – I know that community isn’t an abstract concept
– it’s the end result of commitment,
– it’s the outcome of like minded people striving to make it work –together.
– And it takes a lot of work, which is why we call it community building
– it’s about being in relationship with those people with whom webuild that community. Dabber El Kol Adat Bnei Yisrael – all the people. It can’t be accomplished individually, it takes a village.
And I stopped myself there. Wait – there’s more. Rewind – And God said to Moses. Why?What is the value of God instructing Moses to tell us to do this. Why are we commanded in the first place? Why did God choose to reveal the commandment? To quote Abraham Lincoln – “If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” This, this, my friends, is the ultimate test, because we are given th eultimate power – be like God. Kedoshim tehiyu, Ki Kadosh ANI – Adonai Aloheichem. Be Holy, Because I Hashem your God is holy. It’s stunning how, when we peel back the layers of such a small small text, there is so much in it – הפוך בה והפוך בה דכלה בה.
And as I've been nearing graduation, and have had the time to sit on this phrase - la'asok bdivrei Torah - I've had a recurrent question pop into my head: we left Egypt, then we became a free people, and then we are commanded to craft a civilization– a kehillah kedosha – a holy community. My question is, and I hope we can all spend some time over the next few days pondering this: how did our experiences in Egypt – yitziyat mitzrayim - affect our conception of holiness – of kedusha?
One way, is the focus that our religion puts on the least powerful, the least fortunate members of society. We learn that we must open our hands -פתח תפתח את ידך - to the poor, we learn how that is supposed to happen - various portions of our fields (we were once farmers) were portioned off for the poor, the stranger, the widow, the orphan – we give.
The word that's used to describe that giving – the portioning - saying: this is for the poor, that amount in Hebrew is Mukdash. And that, I believe that what is meantby this root - kadosh. I'm going to set aside some part of my heart, my resources, and energy – לבבי , נפשי , מאדי for the betterment of the world.
How do we do that 'marking' - we are not farmers. We can still open our hands and our hearts, we can use the rituals and the traditions we received – we can use prayers with family and community to spend our time on this earth bringing more kedusha– more holiness into a world desperately in need of it.
And so, what does it mean when we are told to : Be holy people?
It's the ultimate aspirational statement.
And it the aspirational quality of this sentence: “Be Holy” that really contains the power.
And what is holy? In this sentence, we get the definition:
God.
Us.
Us, like God when we follow that model. As the tradition teaches:
Mah hu rachum – af ata rachum
Just as God is merciful – you too be merciful.
Mah hu ma’achil re’evim, u’malbish arumim – af ata he’echel re’evim v’halbish arumim.
Just as God feeds the hungry, and clothes the naked – you too should feed the hungry, and clothe the naked.
And as the great rabbi, the Sfat Emet – Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, explained in his commentary on the phrase Kedoshim Tehiyu - it's only through minimizing oneself, and through putting the needs of the community first, and seeing oneself as part of the community and not separate from it, does one attain holiness. And as Rav Moshe Alshich said almost 500 years ago in his commentary on this same verse: the easiest thing in the world is to seclude yourself in your home, and be a holy hermit. What the Torah demands of us though, is to bepart and parcel of all the community of Israel AND be holy.
I'd like to end with a prayer:
May we have the strength to achieve our goals and the wisdom to know they are lofty. May we be passionate in our thinking and action, and forgiving and compassionate of ourselves and others in that path, and May we thus merit to see a better world brought about through our convictions and our energies. V'nomar Amen
Want to teach this? Here are some curricular materials. Just right click, and save the image, then print - Enjoy!
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