There are many things that
people dream about, from fame and riches to far simpler things like a stable
job or even a juicy steak. But one dream
rarely inspires us- to be holy. To the
modern ear, the word holy is dry and heavy, even stifling. And what does it mean? Does it mean to pray a lot, to keep quiet a
lot, to fast a lot, and to wear a toga a lot?
Or is holy best used to describe a place where we talk in whispers and
don’t make any jokes?
From the Jewish perspective,
holiness should be at the top, or at least near it, for our list of ‘dreams’
because that is what is ultimately mandated to us, ‘you shall be holy’[1]. This directive begins the portion that stands
alone in the Torah as the only one where every single person was required to be
there to listen to it directly.[2] Other portions of the Torah were taught to
the elders and slowly trickled down to the rest of the people. So what is the Jewish vision of holiness and
why should it inspire us?
The common idea is that to be
holy means to be set apart. The image of
an isolated mountain peak with a solitary human sitting in contemplation fits. The problem with this conception is that the
word ‘holy’ in Hebrew is Kadosh, whose variation Kedushin, is the first step
towards marriage. At a Jewish wedding we
say the words, ‘behold you are ‘mekudeshet’ to me. If we understand that holiness means to be ‘set
apart’, then how could we say to our wife to be, ‘behold, you are set apart to
me’. The medieval commentators,
therefore, state that it means that a wife is separate apart only for
me. [3] In other words, holiness is
used to describe the most intense and fiery bond there is- between husband and wife
at the peak of inspiration, the wedding.
It takes a relationship and makes it exclusive, thereby, creating
passion. And that is just the beginning.
We find holiness every Friday
night when we take a cup of wine and call it Kiddush, or holiness. Why?
We are connecting all aspects of our self to an exclusive higher purpose,
the Sabbath. We intellectually think
about what the day is all about as we testify to the Sabbath, and then we bring
the connection to Sabbath into our emotions with the wine. And lastly, this Kiddush can only be done at
a place where we will eat a festive meal so that our body also connects to the
Sabbath. So not only is holiness a
passionate connection as we see by marriage, but it implies a complete
connection to a higher purpose.
Finally, the uniqueness of
Jewish holiness is best expressed by the first commandment given to the Jewish
nation, to sanctify time.[5] We determine when the new month begins. Why did this merit to be the first
commandment? Unlike the scientific conception that links time with movement,
Jewish time is linked with purpose and holiness. The word for time in Hebrew is ‘zman’, which at its
root means an invitation, as in a ‘zimmun’ or ‘hazmana’. Each moment of time is an invitation for
development- it demands of us something unique, namely, that we take the moment and connect it to purpose.
Now that we know what holiness
is all about, an unwavering, complete, and exclusive connection to a higher purpose, we need
to know how to get there. Holiness comes
about when we focus on a cause, or in other words, we separate from the trivial
in order that our connection to that which is purposeful is strengthened. Again, the separation is a tool, but not a
goal. And even then, it should be
temporary. Ultimately, our connection to purpose should
become so electric that, rather than separate from the mundane, our holiness should
transform the mundane into part of the connection. That is the ultimate in holiness,
and that is only achieved after much toil and after all behavior expresses
the purpose to some degree. When that
happens, the gift of holiness descends upon us along with the complete joy it
brings.
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