When I was in sixth grade, my yeshiva took us to a Yankee game. I remember sitting way up high in the upper deck. Suddenly, one of the players hit the ball and it flew right near our section. I was so excited—I might get a real professional baseball! I ran down a few rows and down the aisle where the ball had just landed. As I bent down to pick it up, I noticed something huge from the corner of my eye. I looked up and saw a man flying towards me. He had lunged from the walkway six rows above!! The man scooped up the ball from in front of me, and with his momentum, began to roll down the rows of the upper deck. He attempted multiple times to stop his roll but couldn’t. He managed to stop his roll just one row shy of the end of the upper deck! I couldn’t believe how this person snatched the ball away from an 11-year-old boy. And the man risked his life and could have died…just to obtain a baseball!
One of the last mitzvos of Parshas Kedoshim is not to follow the ways of the nations of the world. The Sifra explains that this means we should not get involved in the culture of the nations of the world refraining, for example, from going to theaters, circuses and stadiums. Some Rishonim explain that this is rooted in a general prohibition to not engage in activities of the nations of the world that are connected to idol worship or illicit relations. Others explain it’s a subsidiary of “moshav leitzim”—sitting among scoffers who waste time instead of learning Torah. Certainly, the Torah doesn’t want one to risk his life to pick up a baseball!
Nonetheless, even regarding permissible activities, Parshas Kedoshim opens with the mitzvah of “Kedoshim tihyu—You shall be holy.” The Ramban explains that the Torah is instructing a person to be holy and limit himself even regarding things which are permitted. One should not be a glutton “within the letter of the law.” How is it possible that something is permissible and yet one should refrain from it? Is it allowed or is it not?
I believe the answer lies in the bookends of Parshas Kedoshim. The parsha opens with a charge to be holy— to incorporate a high level of kedushah by abstaining even from areas that are technically permissible. The parsha closes with a warning to refrain from various abominable acts and behaviors in which the nations of the world engage. These two charges are polar opposites. If someone must refrain even from certain permissible activities, then certainly he is prohibited from engaging in abominable acts and behaviors. What’s the point?
The range from what is permitted to what is prohibited is actually quite wide. A Jew is charged to “live with Hashem.” This prescribes a personal relationship which is different for each person. Anyone involved in a relationship knows that there are certain things they must never do, or else they will damage the relationship. There are certain other things that they must do in order to keep the relationship alive and vibrant. Somewhere in the middle there’s a whole gamut of things they should or shouldn’t do, depending on the situation, time and place.
The positive and negative mitzvos are the do’s and don’ts of the relationship. But there are a lot of unwritten rules that are also pivotal which depend on where the person is situated. The mitzvah of “Kedoshim tihyu” changes our entire perspective of the Torah laws. They are not just laws of how one must live life in order to be rewarded or avoid punishment. Hashem wants an actual relationship with us. This explains why even certain permissible activities should be avoided or limited. We want to go out of our way to maintain the best possible relationship with Hashem.
The closing mitzvah of Parshas Kedoshim— to refrain from detestable actions— also has a range. If a person slips and gives into temptation, he should still make a boundary for himself beyond which he won’t go. The undesirable activity that snares him in the moment…it too has limits. In this way, a person is still living with Hashem and creating a level of kedushah even within his temporary defilement.
We thus see that Parshas Kedoshim is truly a roadmap for establishing and maintaining a close relationship with Hashem.
Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim is the Rosh Yeshiva of Passaic Torah Institute (PTI)/Yeshiva Ner Boruch. Rabbi Bodenheim can be reached at [email protected]. For more info about PTI and its Torah classes, visit www.pti.shulcloud.com
