LEVITIC XIX – XX

WE CAN BE SAINTS

The Torah commands that we be “holy” because God is Holy. What does it mean that God is Holy? And how can we flesh-and-blood human beings with limited abilities imitate God?

The commentator Rashi states that to be holy means to be set apart. In the case of God, then, it would be that He is not part of the created universe. He is entirely different, totally removed from all that exists. Can we then deduce that, in the human case, holy means to be a hermit, to live apart, in a kind of monastery?

Jewish tradition teaches otherwise. In fact, God Himself ruled: Lo tov heyot haadam levado: “Is it not good for a man to be alone?” and therefore He created the woman, the partner of man, so that they would not be alone.

We find that many precepts require the presence of a Minyan, an aggregate of human beings. To recite Kaddish and Kedusha, the presence of at least 10 men is required. Loneliness apparently should not be the desideratum for the individual.

When we read our biblical text, we see that the following verses refer to the relationship with the parents, to certain sacrifices, to leaving some portions of the harvest for the poor: Leket, Shikcha, Pe’ah. Don’t steal, don’t lie, and don’t swear falsely, the text continues. You have to pay the same day for the work of the person who works by the day. Continuing with the reading of the text is the instruction not to curse the deaf and not to place a stumbling block in front of the blind, and perhaps above all to judge with truth, with what is really fair without taking into account the personal situation of the litigants. Do not hate your brother in your heart, advise him for good when he is about to make a mistake.

Apparently, being holy has to do with your behavior with the other, with your brother, with your friend, with your neighbor. It is a transitive quality that requires the presence of another human being. It is a relationship and not a self-improvement project.

One might speculate that holiness is attained perhaps through the denial of personal pleasures, or perhaps through study to deepen one’s understanding of the Mitsvot. But from the above, holiness is not obtained by directing one’s efforts upon oneself, perfecting and deepening one’s knowledge. These are not personal spiritual exercises.

Holiness is obtained when one relates in a fair and positive way to other human beings. By giving the right weight, we set ourselves on the path of holiness.

By complying with the laws regulating sexual activity, one obtains holiness. Our text contains a list of such relationships that are forbidden, such as relationships with siblings and other close relatives.

It is interesting to note that besides No’ah, the hero of the flood who is described by the Torah as Tsadik, holy, the only member of the Hebrew people to receive this appellation is Yosef, perhaps because he did not succumb to the advances of his master Potiphar’s wife.

Holiness is likely to be a characteristic that a person receives, the transformation of the individual because he practices and fulfills a healthy and just relationship with others.

Our text proclaims that one should not hold a grudge against another, but rather practice Veahavta lere’achakamocha: “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and Rabbi Akiva considered this to be the “great principle” of the Torah.

Rather, if you love your neighbor as yourself, your whole being will enter a process of growth and transformation to become a saint, or at least an aspirant to holiness.

What does it mean, then, according to this reflection, that God is Holy? We can speculate that the fact that God created a human being with whom He shares the awareness of the existence of the universe and what it contains, is a manifestation of God’s Holiness. God shares the universe with us and even asks us to perfect it. Because only the human being possesses the “Divine breath” that God infused into the first man, which gavehim the ability to appreciate what exists and which includes a moral compass to guide his life. “The human being is the only creature with whom God can play chess.”

And that compass of morality probably precedes the giving of the Torah, which in turn regulates and legislates how that morality should be expressed in different situations. 

From this point of view, ethics and morality have been part of the DNA of human beings since their creation.

MITZVAH: ORDINANCE OF THE TORAH IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS 13  POSITIVE MITSVOT AND 38 PROHIBITIONS

1. Leviticus 19:3 Fear father and mother.

2. Leviticus 19:4 Do not turn to idolatry in thought, nor verbalizing, or even witnessing.

3. Leviticus 19:4 Do not make an idol for personal use or for others.

4. Leviticus 19:6,8 Do not eat any remaining meat of offering after the prescribed time for it.

5. Leviticus 19:10 Leaving part of the sown field for the poor.

6. Leviticus 19:9 Do not reap to the edge of the field.

7. Leviticus 19:10 Leaving ears of grain for the poor.

8. Leviticus 19:9 Do not gather fallen ears of grain during harvest.

9. Leviticus 19:10 Leaving a vineyard boundary for the poor.

10. Leviticus 19:10 Do not harvest the boundaries of the vineyard.

11. Leviticus 19:10 Leave the fallen grapes in the vineyard on the ground for the poor.

12. Leviticus 19:10 Do not pick the grapes that have fallen from the vineyard.

13. Leviticus 19:11 Do not steal.

14. Leviticus 19:11 Do not deny possession of an object belonging to another person.

15. Leviticus 19:11 Do not swear falsely about a valuables.

16. Leviticus 19:12 Do not swear falsely.

17. Leviticus 19:13 Do not withhold another’s property.

18. Leviticus 19:13 Do not commit theft.

19. Leviticus 19:13 Do not put off the payment of a hired laborer.

20. Leviticus 19:14 Do not curse a Jew, male or female.

21. Leviticus 19:14 Do not lead an individual astray by giving him equivocal counsel.

22. Leviticus 19:15 Do not pervert justice in a civil judgment.

23. Leviticus 19:15 Do not give special honors at trial to an eminent individual.

24. Leviticus 19:15 The judge must make a correct judgment.

25. Leviticus 19:16 Do not slander (gossip).

26. Leviticus 19:16 Do not remain indifferent to the blood of another.

27. Leviticus 19:17 Do not hate another Jew.

28. Leviticus 19:17 Reproaching the Jew for not behaving properly.

29. Leviticus 19:17 Thou shalt not place another Jew in an awkward position..

30. Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not take vengeance.

31. Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not bear a grudge.

32. Leviticus 19:18 Loving another Jew.

33. Leviticus 19:19 Do not mate animals of different species.

34. Leviticus 19:19 Do not sow seeds of different species together in the Land of Israel, likewise with trees of different species.

35. Leviticus 19:23 Do not eat the fruit of the tree for the first 3 years.

36. Leviticus 19:23, 24 Laws concerning the fruit of the tree in the fourth year.

37. Leviticus 19:26 Do not eat or drink like a glutton.

38. Leviticus 19:26 Do not practice divination.

39. Leviticus 19:26 Thou shalt not conjure (magic).

40. Leviticus 19:27 Thou shalt not remove the hair from the sideburns of the face..

41. Leviticus 19:27 Thou shalt not destroy the ends of thy beard.

42. Leviticus 19:28 Thou shalt not make a tattoo upon thy flesh (skin).

43. Leviticus 19:30 Respecting the Temple.

44. Leviticus 19:31 Do not act like a spiritualist (kind of magic).

45. Leviticus 19:31 Do not practice Yiddon (a kind of magic).

46. Leviticus 19:32 Honoring Torah Scholars.

47. Leviticus 19:35 Do not deceive with measures.

48. Leviticus 19:36 Creating accurate scales, weights, and measures.

49. Leviticus 20:9 Do not curse either one’s father or mother.

50. Leviticus 20:14 Incinerate the person who has been sentenced to die by fire.

51. Leviticus 20:23 Not Following the Behavior of Idolaters.