From: JoshHoff@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 5:42 PM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort: parshas Acharei Mos- Kedoshim
Roots
By Rabbi Joshua (
admittedly known as The Hoffer) Hofman
Parshas Kedoshim, begins with God telling Moshe, "speak to the
entire assembly of the Children of Israel and say to them: 'You shall be holy,
for holy am I, God, your Lord.' "(Vayikra 19:2). Rashi, citing the
midrash, notes that from the fact that God told Moshe to address his remarks to
the entire assembly of the people, we learn that this parsha was said at a
gathering of the entire assembly of Israel, because most of the essentials of
the Torah depend upon it. Rav Yehonasan Eybushetz finds additional meaning in
the fact that this parsha was said to the collective of the Jewish people. He
writes that, in seeking ways to be holy, which entails, according to the
Ramban, going beyond the mere letter of the law, and adding restrictions
within one's mitzvah observance, one shoud choose things which can be
done while still remaining a part of the community, and not separating oneself
from others due to the extreme nature of his practices. Rav Shlomo Zevin, in hs
LaTorah Ve LaMoadim, finds yet another meaning in the plural form used here,
explaining it to mean that holiness applies to each member of the comunity,
each on his own level. each person needs to find those areas in which he can
add precaurtions to the bare obesrvance of themitzvah.Perhaps we can add that the
mitzvah of being holy is addressed to the nation because holiness constitutes
the collective character of the Jewish nation, as they were told on Mt. Sinai
before receiving the Torah, " and you shall be for me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation." The parsha of Kedosim, then, informs the nation of how
to go about the actualization of this national charge.
Within the context of viewing holiness as constituting the fulfillment of the
national character of the Jewish nation, it is intersting to note that the
first mitzvah referred to in reaching for this goal is that of fearing one's
parents. The Torah tells us that a person should fear his mother and father,
and observe the Shabbos. Rashi, citing Chazal, explains the juxtaposition of
these two command to indicate that if one's parent tells him to violate the
Shabbos, he should not listen to him, because shabbos overrides the mitzvha of
fearing parents. Why, then, is fear of one's parents the first miutzvah
mentioned in reference to being holy, and why is this mitzvah followed by
the rule that Shabos overrides obedience to one's parents? I believe that the
context of the mitzvah of holiness as being a guide to the realization of the
actualization of the Jewish collective character can help us answer these
questions.
In parshas Beshalach, as part of shiras hayam, the song that was sung when the
sea was split for the Jewish peole, they said, " The God of my
father, I will exalt Him" ( Shemos,15:6 ). Rashi there comments, on the
words ' the God of my father, ' I am not the first to hallow Him, but the
holiness has been possessed and remained by me, and his divinity has been upon
me from the days of my fathers." Thus, the pursuit of holiness, in
emulation of God, has a tradition, going back to our forefathers, and we must
use them as a model in our own pursuit of holiness. In this context, we can
understand why fear of one's parents is the first mitzvah mentioned in regard
to attaining holiness, since our parents, and our ancestors before them, are to
serve as our guides in pursuing our national goal of being a holy people. Our
ancestors forged our national character before us, and we are to continue in
their path.
However, while the path of our parents and their predecessors shoukd serve as
our guide, it is important not to take this approach too far, and indulge in
ancestrasl worship.Professor Gerald Blidestein, in his work "Honor Thy
Father and Mother: Filial Responsibility in Jewish Law," points out that
in ancinet Greesce, parent s were viewed as gods, because of their role in the
creation of human beings. Even today, there are societies that engage in
ancestor worship. Chazal tell us that each person has three partners in his
creation- his mother, hios father, and God, and that honor due to parents is
compared, in th etorah, to the honor of God. Because parents play such an
important role in the national pursuit of holiness, there is a need to remind
us that holiness can only be pursued within the confines of the Torah, and, if
our parents do not conform to the Torah standard, we are not allowed to follow
their example. While we need to recognize that, in pursuiong holiness, we are
continuing in the epaths of our fatehrs,we also need to acknowledge that our
ancestors, and our own parents, were human, and at times erred. That is why,
when we confess our sins on Yom Kippur and other times of supplication, we say,
" we and our fathers sinned." Precisely because we hold our
parents and ancestors in such high esteem, it is difficult for us to make this
admission, but it an essential element that we must include in our confession ,
in order to attain holiness in the proper way.
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