By Nadav Danieli

Shabbat separates us from our nature, and connects us to another part of our being. It forces us to be something else than what we might have chosen otherwise.

*What’s between that and the fear of parents? I leave that for you to think :)

“And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.”

Some people have a lot of compassion towards the other, some people don’t have any, and usually this feature of us is what shapes our interactions with each other, our experience with other human beings, and our character, usually with some basic rules that government/society/religion give us, like “don’t kill” “don’t steal”, things that by human nature-are not obvious at all.

But a rule that makes humans give up their “rights” on their territory and lets the poor get inside their land, and collect for themselves-I think it’s a different kind of rule, it determines a very simple “fact” that not everyone will agree on- you have the obligation to help others. Your personal property gives you a collective responsibility and obligation (someone said “with great power comes great responsibility??),

How does that make us holy? I think it separates us from our ego-self. It doesn’t leave compassion to our own judgment/choice- it means that we need to follow something that might be against our nature. We’re demanded to get farther from our nature and find our identity in solidarity, rather than in territory.

And one last, very important rule, that demands of us to overcome our most personal thing- our emotions.

“Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.”

I think that this is what stands behind the idea of “being holy”- don’t let yourself be a result of the circumstances of your life, or of the character that you have. You can be more than it - human beings have the choice of overcoming their nature and of choosing not by interest only, but by morality.

So simple, but still- not obvious at all, even at the 21st century.

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