Be Holy!

Be Holy

Of all the ways that we can define Jewish identity, from birthright to good feelings, from pursuing justice to devoted ritual practice, being Jewish is the most elusive. I have to laugh when, over the years, I have heard many say to me, “Funny, you don’t look Jewish!” (I have blond-ish hair and blue-ish eyes. Apparently, this is not very Jew-ish.) Yes, this kind of thinking, that looking is like being, has been challenging us inside our community and sadly from the outside throughout history.

Admittedly, being anything is not easily expressed. It’s like a parent telling a child to ”Be a mensch!” on the play yard or it’s like your friend telling you to be fair before passing judgment on someone else.  Simply put, being is the embodiment of doing something. To be is to act as one would expect. Yes, when it comes to being Jewish, it is almost as easy to identify this as one would a blond haired, blue eyed rabbi.

Yet, we do have some core ideas that help us define what being Jewish is and can be. This week, we’ll read the mountain-moving words, “Kedoshim Tihiyu.” ”You will be holy” These words form a fundamental tenet of Jewish life. Be holy. That is why this central part of the entire Torah, called the ‘Holiness Code,’ is filled with instructions one after the other for how to do holiness. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” “Don’t insult the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind,” “Leave the corners of your field for the poor and needy among us.”  To be holy, it seems, is to do holy, and for many of us that is good enough.

These commands aren’t merely for Jews alone. We pray all humanity is loving of their neighbors, considerate of the vulnerable, compassionate to the needy.  The French have a term that has been taken into the English lexicon to illustrate this further. Noblesse oblige refers to people with good fortune who assume the obligation to kindly provide for the needs of others. Literally it means, “Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly.” Or, figuratively, it means that, “One must act in a fashion that conforms to one's position and with the reputation that one has earned.”

Sadly, noblesse oblige isn’t a term that is conventionally or universally expressed today. Today, we’re more apt to ask if we’re commanded to do holy work and don’t live up to the obligation, what are the consequences?  It’s why noblesse oblige can’t be what ’Kedoshim Tihiyu’ means. There must be more than mitzvot. What makes a Jew a Jew is the ineffable striving of being, “Kedoshim Tihiyu” is the embodiment of God, contained in the sacred actions of the Torah commandments and in the ineffable expression of being; the results from a life filled with these immeasurable acts of kindness, concern, responsibility and dignity.

Focus back on the command itself as given. ”Be holy! because I, your God, am holy.” ”Tihiyu.”  To be like God is more than doing what God commands. Being like God is like God’s name,’Yod Hay Vav Heh.’  Just as God’s name is ineffable, a string of consonants that has no fully pronounceable articulation of sound, so too should we be indescribable beings of holiness beyond speech.  Our being is the ineffable expression of God.

Doing Jewish enables us to be Jewish when each and every act of kindness has a purpose beyond words.  Maybe it is a connection with other human beings. Maybe it is noblesse oblige. Whatever the purpose of care for others motivating one’s actions toward holiness, a Jew is identified by the profoundly unspeakable expression of being like God.  A Jew expresses commitment to the celebration of being each and every day. That sounds pretty holy to me.

- Rabbi Joshua Hoffman