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Fatal holyness vs beneficial holiness some paths to holiness are fraught and discouraged, others are preferred. (The Torah mentions or outlines different paths to holiness, and the key phrase "you shall be holy for I am Holy" appears in several places, especially in this week's double-portion, Aharei Mot-Kedoshim)
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1. Danger!: According to some Traditional teachings, the two sons of Aharon who were killed in the "strange fire" incident (mentioned in the first passage) were attempting to achieve a higher degree of holiness via a novel and bold form of worship, but unfortunately this attempted shortcut to true holiness failed and led to their spectacular deaths (as described a few chapters earlier, in 'parshat shmini'). [Various Traditional interpretations of this account state that it is not necessarily meant as criticism of them but rather the torah is teaching US based on THEIR case via this story, what message it is that WE are meant to learn, to benefit from their tragic case, and in this way there is merit added to them.]
2. There is a safer path to holiness, risky but worthwhile: that of avoiding impure behavior while living in the Land of Israel (as described at the end of 'Aharei mot', and later in 'Kedoshim',[Lev 20.7]).: do not act with impurity lest you be expelled (or vomitted out of) the Land as were its previous inhabitants, and do not eat impure foods, "and you will be holy because I am Holy".
3. There's an even surer path: treating others appropriately; see the list in ch 19, culminating in the algorithm of "loving the other as oneself" (Kedoshim: Lev 19.18) and also specifically "loving converts as oneself" (19.34).
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However option 3 leaves us with a question: What's the connection between treating others appropriately and holiness?
The answer we'll propose here is also in this parsha, via the teaching: Ve'ahavta lereacha kamocha "love your fellow as yourself".
The way I interpret "Love your fellow as yourself" is that it means to "reduce your self-related concerns, and feel the needs of others as you would feel your own needs".
Our self-involvedness, our 'ego', is a shell over the divine spark that is our essence, and by lowering our ego we are eliminating this barrier, and thus allowing our essence to shine forth. In other words, since our essence is 'the breath/spirit of God', it follows that via selflessness we can immediately make manifest the presence of God (the 'shechinah'), which is pure Holiness. And so selflessness renders us holy!
And it is indeed true that we are holy then because God is holy, ie because of our essence which is of the divine.
So we would like to propose that the preferred path to holiness is not experimental exotic spiritual fire but rather to treat others properly.
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The Operational Meaning of the Torah law 'love your fellow as yourself' - the legally-binding aspect vs the extra-credit option:
Does the commandment to love the other as one loves oneself mean "doing to others what one would want done to oneself"? No, and yes.
No because Torah law cannot require that one constantly go around doing to others what one would want others to do for us. If the Torah had mandated this as a legal requirement in the Torah, it would mean that if you do not do it, you are subject to punishment by the court. So what is required is not to do to others what you would not want done to yourself. And if you violate this, you can indeed be punished by the court.
But, on the other hand, the answer is also 'yes' because in striving for holiness, indeed this is the pathway, to actively seek to do things to benefit others just as we would have wanted that others would help us (with some obvious wisdom attached to this ie don't assume others want exactly what YOU want, etc). So it is not required by law, but it is the path to greater spirituality and holiness.
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Summary:
1. in the close-to-literal positive-active sense of the words 'love your fellow as yourself', the passage is a rhetorical statement or fine moral point meant as a goal for self-development along the path of holiness, via ego-reduction to feel the pain of need of others above those of one's self.
2. in contrast, the Torah law, the legally-binding aspect of 'love your fellow as yourself' - whose violation could be punished by the courts - is the following algortihm: "do NOT do to others what you would NOT want done to you". See Rashi and sifsei chachamim re rebbe akiva and also Hilel etc, (and re this law of veahavta 'love your fellow' being 'klal gadol', a/the general rule of the Torah).
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So now we can return to the above and contrast the three paths to holiness:'strange fire' path, the path of pure-living in the Land and eating 'kosher', and of loving the other:
1) Danger: Avoid:
Ahron's two sons tried to reach a high level of holiness via a strong 'strange fire', but it burned them, they were consumed. Holiness can be dangerous, and there are no real shortcuts to it.
2) Risky but recommended: Eretz Yisrael *the Land of Israel): God says "don't do what the people there before you did, for the land spit them out, and it will spit YOU out as well if you do the same'; so it is a holy land, but holiness comes with a required standard of behavior. (including keeping the kosher laws).
3) The most difficult but holiest path: Become holy by following the maxim "do not do unto others what you would not want done to you' as the practical and legally-binding applicaiton of the general rubric "love others like yourself", and then working up to practicising the positive-active sense.
This was the path of Abraham who lowered his ego and felt the needs of others, of passing strangers, rather than his own needs, and this negation of ego leds to the revelation of the plains of mamre, and to holiness (see my commentary on parshat vayera) : the message of Abraham to his descendants therefore being being that however counterintuitive this may seem to the eager holiness-seeker wishing to learn the secrets of strange fires, it is in fact seeing in every human being the image of God, the respository of the divine breath/spirit, and helping human beings - even strangers - with their physical needs, which can make one holy.
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The relation between ego-less behavior, holiness and divine revelation: God's statement "You shall be holy, for I am Holy" (this week's portion, and others) is mentioned several times in the Torah, but it seems like a very counter-intuitive non-sequitar:
1. if God is Holy, why does that mean WE should be holy? And
2. how can we possibly be holy given our so-human state?
The answer is actually in the very beginning of the Torah, which opens with the great revelation (in the beginning of Genesis) that God created humanity in the divine image, and that our essence is the breath/spirit of God - and this is the answer to both questions, the key to understanding human holiness.
Our self-focus shields our inner-essence which is the divine spirit which was infues in us. When we act non-self-focussed, the shield is gone, and our divine essence shines forth, which is effectively divine revelation (or the state in which we can receive divine revelation).
Avraham, by fulfilling this egoless action to benefit others, was able to bring revelation of the divine presence, which led him to understand all the Torah laws between God and human, even before Sinai, "on his own" ,And also by running to the distant travellers, feeling THEIR needs as one would feel one's own needs, and thus revealing the divine presence, he was able to deduce all the Torah laws between people. Thus the one Torah rule 'veahavta' i(love your fellow....) is uniquely suited to being the core principle of Torah, ie from which all else can be deduces. as stated by Akiva/Hillel [and therefore it is 'clal gadol' 'the general rule'] and all can be learned via living it, not necessarily "learning from" it.]
So the best route to holiness is to combine method 2 & 3: According to Tradition, we were exiled from the Land due to strife between us, and it has been said that the path to overcoming the exile is via overcoming that which led to it, ie learning to live with each other in harmony despite our differences. So path 3 of loving the other will bring us to a high state spiritually, and if this is accomplished while following path 2 of living in the Land, and keeping the kosher laws (a key to purity/holiness), we can be primed to even accomplish goal 1 in the appriate manner. But there are no shortcuts.
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Note: I cannot claim to have followed the holiness-path, but I will share what I know: A good path to becoming holy is by following the step-by-step character-refinement exercises in the guide written by "Ramchal" Rabbi Luzatto a few hundred years ago: The reader is meant to self-develop as according to the method outlined in the first chapter, then if one has succeeded, to go on to the self-development outlined in the next chapter, and so on (though each chapter can by itself be a lifelong training-session): https://www.sefaria.org.il/Mesilat_Yesharim%2C_Introduction.1?ven=Path_of_the_Just._Trans._Rabbi_Yosef_Sebag&vhe=Shechem_Messilat_Yesharim&lang=en (I am still stuck on implementing chapter 1, maybe you will do better...)
May we be blessed to be able to feel the other's pain as we do our own, and to act on it not just feel it, and thereby to eliminate that which covers up our essence, and therefore to shine with our inner essence revealed, and thus "to be holy because God is Holy".
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"You shall be holy, for I am Holy":
God's statement in the Torah "You shall be holy, for I am Holy", mentioned several times, seems like a very counter-intuitive non-sequitar: if God is Holy, why does that mean WE should be holy? And how can we possibly be holy given our so-human state?
The answer is actually in the very beginning of the Torah, which opens with the great revelation (in the beginning of Genesis) that God created humanity in the divine image, and that our essence is the breath/spirit of God.
And this is the answer to both quesitons, the key to understanding human holiness.
[Note: Above and below are commentary for a combination of the two parshiyot: Acharei Mot & Kedoshim, which are sometimes combined: Israel and elsewhere are out of synch now due to Passover being on Shabbat outside Israel]
Fatal holyness vs beneficial holiness The Torah mentions or outlines different paths to holiness, and the key phrase "you shall be holy for I am Holy". This is especially true in this week's double-portion (Aharei Mot-Kedoshim), but some paths to holiness are fraught and discouraged, others are preferred.
According to some Traditional teachings, the two sons of Aharon who were killed in the "strange fire" incident mentioned in the first passage were attempting to achieve a higher degree of holiness via a novel and bold form of worship, but unfortunately this attempted shortcut to true holiness failed and led to their spectacular deaths (as described a few chapters earlier, in 'parshat shmini'). [The story is not necessarily meant as criticism of them but rather the torah is teaching US based on THEIR case and this story, what message WE are meant to learn, to benefit from their tragic case, and in this way there is merit added to them.
......
There is a safer path to holiness, risky but worthwhile: that of avoiding impure behavior while living in the Land of Israel (as described at the end of 'Aharei mot', and later in 'Kedoshim',[Lev 20.7]).
And there's an even surer path: treating others appropriately; see the list in ch 19, culminating in the algorithm of "loving the other as oneself" (Kedoshim: Lev 19.18) and also specifically "loving converts as oneself" (19.34).
...... .
What's the connection between treating others appropriately and holiness?
The answer is in this parsha also, via the teaching: Ve'ahavta lereacha kamocha "love your fellow as yourself".
.
"love your fellow as yourself" means to reduce one's ego and feeling the needs of others reduces as you would feel your own needs. In this way, by eliminating the barrier to our essence - ie reducing our ego which is the barrier - we allow our essence to shine forth, our essence being 'the breath/spirit of God', and in this way we can immediately make manifest the presence of God (the 'shechinah'), which is pure Holiness:
This would be the way I interpret the key passage in these portions to the effect that if you keep these laws "you will be holy, for I am Holy".
So it may be that the preferred path to holiness is to treat others properly. And we have seen above how keeping this faithfully leads to holiness.
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Note: Torah law requires not "doing to others what one would not want done to oneself" which is a rhetorical statement or fine moral point, put rather there is a Torah law, the legally-binding aspect of 'love your fellow as yourself' - whose violation could be punished by the courts - do NOT do to others what you would NOT want done to you. .
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The end of the parsha describes the other paths to holiness: do not act with impurity lest you be expelled (or vomitted out of) the Land as were its previous inhabitants, and do not eat impure foods, "and you will be holy because I am Holy" (see my commentary to the portions of the last few weeks).
Contrasting the three paths:
'strange fire' path, the path of pure-living in the Land, and of loving the other
1) Danger: Avoid:
Ahron's two sons tried to reach a high level of holiness via a strong 'strange fire', but it burned them, they were consumed. Holiness can be dangerous, and there are n real shortcuts to it.
2) Risky but recommended: Eretz Yisrael *the Land of Israel): God says "don't do what the people there before you did, for the land spit them out, and it will spit YOU out as well if you do the same'; so it is a holy land, but holiness comes with a required standard of behavior.
3) The most difficult but holiest path (do along with 2): Become holy by following the maxim "do not do unto others what you would not want done to you' as the practical and legally-binding applicaiton of the geenral rubric "love others like yourself". .
This was the path of Abraham who lowered his eg and felt the needs of others, of passing strangers, rather than his own needs, and this negation of ego leds to the revelation of mamre, and to holiness (see my commentary on parshat vayera) : the message of Abraham to his descendants therefore being being that however counterintuitive this may seem to the eager holiness-seeker wishing to learn the secrets of strange fires, it is in fact seeing in every human being the image of God, the respository of the divine breath/spirit, and helping human beings - even strangers - with their physical needs, which can make one holy.
...
Note: A good guide to becoming holy (I cannot say that I have done this) is the step-by-step guide written by "Ramchal" Rabbi Luzatto a few hundred years ago: The reader is meant to self-develop as according to the first chapter, then if one has succeeded, to go on to the next and so on (though each chapter can be a lifelong training-session): https://www.sefaria.org.il/Mesilat_Yesharim%2C_Introduction.1?ven=Path_of_the_Just._Trans._Rabbi_Yosef_Sebag&vhe=Shechem_Messilat_Yesharim&lang=en.
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see reactions to FB post: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#advanced-search/from=air1%40nyu.edu&to=air1%40nyu.edu&subject=post&subset=all&within=1y&sizeoperator=s_sl&sizeunit=s_smb&date=2022%2F05%2F05&query=from%3A(air1%40nyu.edu)+to%3A(air1%40nyu.edu)+subject%3Apost+after%3A2021%2F5%2F5+before%3A2023%2F5%2F6/QgrcJHsThjDWRRPtxMdszwXPTCqRCvhDTZL
B: Ve'ahavta lereacha kamocha ("love your fellow as yourself"): Avraham Avinu's path to knowing all the Torah on his own
[rashi and sifsei hachamim say r akiva and also hilel etc, but maybe only ben adam lechavero is in it.]
See mydiscussion of Avraham Avinu in Parshas Vayera, to show why it is reaosnable that by doing veahavta fully, A A was able to bring gilui shchinah which led him to understand all ben adam lamakim, "on his own" (ie with helo of his tzelem elokim/vayipach.., and also by applying the same algorithm as led him to run tohe the guests, feeling THEIR needs, he was able to deduce all ben adam lecahvero, so veahavta is uniquely suited to the task and therefore it is clal gadol and all can be learned via living it, not necessarily "learning from" it.
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END: speaking to myself: to remember at the moment someone is pressing my buttons, not to be angry, that idiot is tzelem elokim etc. if can remeber at that moment, that is veahavta, and kedusha
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C: Holiness: see vort for Shimini.