Kedoshim: It's Time to Think

Mordy Blau

As we observe college campuses today, we witness camp-ins and building takeovers from Columbia to Harvard to UCLA to Cleveland—events everywhere. Just this past Thursday, my little brother participated in a counter-protest in downtown Cleveland, where students had been camping out the previous week.

What should we be thinking? Do we just stand by, watch our phones, and debate if this is a real problem around our Shabbat tables? Do we go to the campus and counter-protest? Or do we simply ignore it? How should we react?

In this week's Parsha, Bnei Yisrael are asked to be holy because Hashem is holy. What does this mean? Rashi understands this commandment based on the context of the pesukim. We've just discussed forbidden sexual relationships, and we're about to discuss more in the next perek. However, the Ramban takes a different approach. Being holy means not being a “naval bireshut HaTorah”—practicing self-restraint even when things are permitted.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Z”L writes that being Jewish means “Having the courage to be different.” As Jews, we have to realize that we are the chosen nation and different from those around us. Rav Lamm Z”L explains that this idea is highlighted in last week’s Parsha.

Following the description of the avodah of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, there is a very puzzling opening to the 18th perek of Vayikra. Before speaking about the different times of illicit relationships, Hashem tells Moshe to remind Bnei Yisrael that He is their God. At this point in the Torah, I would assume that Bnei Yisrael know who God is, so we're off to an interesting start.

Then, Hashem says that we should not follow the practices of the people of Mitzrayim or the people who live in Canaan, the place that we are going. Why does Hashem have to specify Mitzrayim and Canaan? Can’t He just say like the other nations? Moreover, they haven’t seen the people of Canaan yet, so what are they being warned about?

Rav Lamm explains that the answer lies in one single word: חק. The Torah makes an emphasis after telling us not to follow their ways to also not follow וּבְחֻקֹּתֵיהֶ֖ם. Then in the two pesukim telling us how we should live, the word חֻקֹּתַי֙ is used twice.

Rashi explains that the difference חקים are laws that Hashem gave us which at first glance don’t make sense and we may never know the reason we are doing them, such as the parah aduma and shatnez. משפטים, on the other hand, are laws which we would have logically thought to do them such as Kibbud Av V’em or not to kill.

Rav Shlomo Wolbe explains that it is not a coincidence. The commandment not to follow the traditions of the other nations is couched in terms of חקותיהם, literally their decrees, the same term that is used to describe the commandments of the Torah that defy human logic.

It is common for people to think that a nation's culture is predicated upon a set of rational norms, and that any "civilized" person must accept them unless he is demented. The truth is, however, that culture is an accumulation of practices, many of which are not in the least logical. The difference between Judaism's "decrees" and the "decrees" of other societies is simply that the former are God-given, while the latter are devised by man and canonized by his habits. Therefore, the Torah cautions us to avoid falling into the habit-forming, mind-molding trap of imitating the practice of alien societies.

When we look around the world, it is easy to conform to what those around us are doing. If we look around and everyone is doing the same thing, why don’t we do it? Because we think differently. As Jewish people, we are meant to be different.

I think the reason why these nations are mentioned is that it reflects our past and our future. This is not the first time we have seen this happen. How many unfortunate stories do we hear about those who joined the Nazi regime because that is what everyone was doing? But if they just took a step back and really thought about what they were doing, they might have acted differently.

Hashem is telling us to look back at their experience in Mitzrayim and say there will be other instances where this will happen. We will be surrounded by other nations and people in the future. The Canaan that we read about could, therefore, be a reference to what we see on college campuses and the world at large. The world is against us and we are commanded to be holy, together. 

Hashem has to constantly remind us that at first glance, this may not make sense and the world may look so different than it should, and being a Jew is hard. If everyone is doing something, then why should we be different? But He is our God. We have to have faith that His laws are what are truly right and normal even if we never understand the reason behind all of our commandments.

So what should our response be? We need to take a step back and think. Think about what makes sense. It's not my place to tell you what your conclusions should be about the situations, that is up to you. All that I ask you to recalibrate why we do what we do and why we think what we think. Take a second to consider what the Jewish ideals and values are. So should you go and protest? Maybe. But the first step should be to take this opportunity to recalibrate our ideals and who we are. Don’t let this time period go by without thinking. Hopefully through this introspection, we can understand what a Jew should do moving forward.

“Every individual on earth has an ethnicity. But only one people was ever asked collectively to be holy. That, to me, is what it is to be a Jew” (Rabbi Sacks).