PARSHAT KEDOSHIM - HOLINESS - THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN (Part 1)

[TorahZionist]

BS"D

YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kreuser SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva

PARSHAT KEDOSHIM
28 Nisan 5768/2-3 May 2008


HOLINESS - THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN (Part 1)

"Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to the entire assembly of the
Children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for holy am I, Hashem
your G-d."

Our parsha is analogous to the entire Torah; it parallels all of the Ten
Commandments. But what is the nature of this Kedusha/Holiness?

On first thought, one might think that this holiness can only be
acquired though long fasting, rolling in snow, and isolation for long
periods of time from civilization, as we find in some other religions.

But here in our parsha, the Torah goes on to tell us: "Every man shall
revere his mother and his father, and you shall observe My Sabbaths".
Seemingly, just everyday commandments. Further on in the parsha, we learn
about consuming the sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem at the proper
time, leaving part of your field for the poor, not to steal, to pay your
workers on time, to give good advice to your fellow man, to judge him
favorably, not to take revenge or to hold a grudge, just to list a few.

Incredible as it seems for the Jew, he reaches greatness and holiness
not by some far-out, unattainable quest, but just by doing what a Jew does
daily - following the commandments. From how he ties his shoes in the
morning, to
giving a coin for charity, saying a nice hello to his neighbor - the
smallest of details take the Jew to the highest levels of holiness. This is
the greatness of Judaism.

As an added attraction to holiness, this year in Israel is the
Sabbatical/Shmitta year, enabling the Jews who live here a unique
opportunity to eat of its fruits and partake of extra holiness not available
in the regular years. As the Ramban/Nachmanides writes, one who eats the
fruits of the Land of Israel in the Shmitta year fulfills a positive
commandment. Just by having a cherry or an apple from the Golan, or a nice
orange from Jaffa, he fulfills a commandment and gains extra holiness - it's
that easy. The only halachic requirement is to place the peels in a bag for
a few days untill they start to rot, and then to dispose of them in the
garbage.

Imagine my surprise, then, when last week someone told me: We buy our
fruits from the "Badatz hechsher", which they only acquire from Arab
farmers, and which have absolutely no extra holiness of the seventh year in
them. Why do
we buy from them? Because we don’t know how to dispose of the peels... How
absurd it is to toss greatness and holiness away, just for the trouble of
placing a few peels in a bag! This is besides the fact that this year will
find millions of shekels going over to the Arab enemy from the "Badatz",
which the Arabs will be only too happy to use in their war against the
Jewish people. I, for one, find it hard to partake of the "Badatz" fruits
and veggies, for then I would have to kasher all my plates that came into
contact with the fruits, in order to get out the Jewish blood in which the
fruits grew.

While trying to be extra strict in this commandment, they miss out on
the added holiness of the fruits of the Land during this year and end up
weakening the hands of the Jewish people. This "small-mindedness" has
plagued the Jewish people for hundreds of years, keeping the Jewish people
from returning in force to their Land while stating: "How can we live in the
Land, with its many commandments which we do not know how to do properly?"

As with our other commandments that make up our daily lives and add
holiness to us, so does the Land and its produce add holiness to us. For
this reason, our Rabbis in the Talmud would kiss and roll on the ground of
the Land, and teach that "all who walk four amot in the Land will have a
place in the next world".

But one must realize that Holiness/Kedusha for the individual is not
alway the same law as for the whole Nation of Israel A Jew who was killed in
the Holocaust because he was a Jew, has reached the highest level of
Kedusha, making a Kiddush Hashem, but for the Nation there was no greater
Chilul Hashem than this. It is essential that we make this differentiation -
for it is this reason, and this reason alone, that Hashem in His great mercy
returned His people back to the Holy Land.

(To be continued)

With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen

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