Parshas Acharei Mos-Kedoshim 5785

As the facts on the ground (and, perhaps, in the ground) change not infrequently, I try to stay abreast of the latest recommendations on how to properly wash and check vegetables. For a while now, I’ve been cutting the crowns off the tops of bell peppers, following the CRC’s guidelines since discovering high levels of infestation. But I’ve scaled back a bit on my former regimen for checking cabbage, following the guidelines given by the same organization that simply removing the outer leaves and then thoroughly washing the remaining ones has been found sufficient to deal with possible bugs that may be lurking within.
I’ve been bummed about my peppers. But celebrated over my cabbage.
Because that’s how we are. Dedicated though we may be to doing what’s right, recognizing the merit and meaning in fulfilling the Torah’s precepts and following halacha to a T, we prefer less work to more work. We welcome being let off the hook and bemoan being handed more responsibilities, even as we recognize those same responsibilities as providing our lives with purpose.
So when reading between the lines of Parshas Kedoshim we uncover a secret trove of regulations we are obligated to uphold, we’d be forgiven if we let out a sigh. But we shouldn’t. We should actually rejoice.
In its very first instruction, Parshas Kedoshim seems simply to double-down on what we’ve already been told. “Kedoshim tihyu,” the pasuk reads, “You shall be holy.”
Why, of course. After all, in presenting its 613 mitzvos, the Torah has provided us with a roadmap to guide us precisely to the destination of holiness. Perform those mitzvos, and we’ll undoubtedly emerge holy. What, then, is the Torah driving at in reiterating this point? Why the added emphasis that we do exactly what we’ve already been told to do elsewhere?
The Ramban famously explains that the Torah is making another point altogether. In reality, he asserts, one who simply performs all the other mitzvos incumbent on him may actually land far from the goal of holiness. He may become a “Naval b’rshus haTorah—A despicable person, albeit with the Torah’s permission.”
Such a person, explains the Ramban, may technically check off all the boxes. He may assiduously perform every mitzvah and deftly skirt every aveirah. And yet be a despicable person. Become someone with no class, no nobility, lacking every impulse for sensitivity and consideration the Torah attempts to inculcate within him by means of the commandments placed upon him, but that he’s managed to wholly avoid, even as those mitzvos go fulfilled.
To this, the Torah makes a new demand, “Kedoshim tihyu—you shall be holy.” Not just compliant. Not just observant. Holy. Become a G-d conscious, morally driven, ethically anchored, holy person. See the mitzvos not only as an end point, but a beginning point. Yes, perform these mitzvos, but do more. Do the work necessary to become holy, even if that means taking new steps and adopting new measures within the realm of what is strictly speaking permissible to you.
It’s a beautiful vision, but one that begs an obvious question. If we are to become something even more than what the Torah directly transforms us into, why not demand those behaviors outright? Why not formally incorporate those items into the cannon of mitzvos? If Kedoshim tihyu casts a net far wider than 613 mitzvos, why not just make it 650 mitzvos, or 700 mitzvos, or more, with each behavior necessary for holiness delineated as clearly as the first 613?
The Chasam Sofer offers an insightful explanation. He suggests that the sorts of behaviors suggested by the Torah here aren’t included in the formal list of mitzvos simply because they can’t be. Mitzvos are one-size-fits-all demands items that are necessary for the religious portfolio of every single Jew.
Kedusha, on the other hand, is a deeply personal enterprise, calling for us to first understand ourselves, what makes us tick, and then creating a tailor-made plan of action to bring us to a state of holiness. Everyone must arrive at kedusha, and while the 613 point us in that direction, they won’t get us over the finish line. What will is a regimen that is uniquely suited to our own personalities and predilections and that we must devise ourselves.
It is a lot to ask. And being faced with such an imposing task—to construct a system of moral guardrails and religious practices to hold ourselves to that only first pick up where the 613 leave off—is enough to make anyone groan. Because we far prefer to be told that we don’t need to agitate and scrub the cabbage than that we do need to lop off 25% of the fully usable pepper meat. We prefer being let off the hook than being told that the hook is far larger than previously assumed.
But that’s a mistake. Because in being instructed in Kedoshim tihyu we are being told that Torah is a deeply personal experience. That our attachment with Hashem isn’t cookie-cutter, it’s unique, as all meaningful relationships are. We are told that the vision Hashem has for us—that we be holy and elevated and ennobled—is something that interfaces with each of our distinctive profiles.
It is an area that, to be sure, demands many additional responsibilities and obligations. But is also the greatest vote of confidence imaginable. Hashem is asking that you work harder than you thought necessary. But that you perform work that only you can accomplish.