Holiness and Withdrawal
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5767
The very first time that I can remember hearing the phrase “holy cow!” was during a Yankee TV broadcast and it was spoken by none other than the Yankee great Phil Rizzuto.
The dictionaries define the term as “an exclamation of surprise or astonishment” and while they are uncertain as to its origins they give two different possibilities:
- From the Dictionary of American Slang (1960):
Holy cow!” Equiv. to “Holy cats!” or “Holy Mike!” both being euphemisms for “Holy Christ!”. It is, however, the common oath and popular …It was first popularized by the “Corliss Archer” series of publications and shows.
- Paul Beale (1985), however, in revising Eric Partridge’s “Dictionary of Catch Phrases American and British” cites a different origin:
“The prefix ‘holy’ to any exclamation was particularly the province of Batman and [his boy assistant] Robin…
Sadly enough this is probably the context that people most associate with holiness. The connotation of holy is that which is more exciting, over the top, bigger and better than most other things, be it the home run for Rizzuto or the caper for Batman. That is very far from the Jewish definition of holiness.
At the beginning of parshat Kedoshim we read:
(ב) דַּבֵּר אֶל כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי יְקֹוָק אֱלֹהֵיכֶם:
God instructs Moshe to tell the people of Israel- you shall be holy for I your God am holy.
How does one achieve holiness? It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what it means. Luckily, the commentators help to fill in the picture and here we find a fascinating debate between Rashi and Ramban. Rashi maintains that the command relates to the main topic of the previous chapter, namely illicit and prohibited sexual relationships and thus writes that to be holy means to be PERUSHIM MIN HA”ARAYOT- to separate yourself from those relationships that the Torah categorizes as arayot and to separate yourself from sin in general. To be holy all you have to do is abstain from sin. Easy enough!
Ramban argues and believes that the command relates not to prohibited activities but to permitted ones. Certainly you must avoid sin, argues the Ramban, but that is not enough to achieve holiness; there are also certain permitted activities that you refrain from. Says the Ramban – you could avoid sin and still spend your day indulging yourself in mindless excess. You could overstuff yourself with kosher food, drink yourself into a stupor with kosher spirits and marry many, many wives and spend all day with them. That would not make you a holy person; rather you must regulate those activities as well if you are to be holy.
The common denominator between the two is man’s ability to withdraw and thus Ramban quotes the Midrash who defines kedoshim tehiyu as “perushim tihyu”- you shall be able to separate, to withdraw. While they might argue about the specifics of what to withdraw from both Rashi and Ramban understand that the key to holiness is man’s ability to be separate and to withdraw from certain activities.
In order to better understand why that should be I want to look at 3 verses in the last chapter of acharei mot:
ג כְּמַֽעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ־מִצְרַיִם אֲשֶׁר יְשַׁבְתֶּם־בָּהּ לֹא תַֽעֲשׂוּ וּכְמַֽעֲשֵׂה אֶֽרֶץ־כְּנַעַן אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מֵבִיא אֶתְכֶם שָׁמָּה לֹא תַֽעֲשׂוּ וּבְחֻקֹּֽתֵיהֶם לֹא תֵלֵֽכוּ: ד אֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַי תַּֽעֲשׂוּ וְאֶת־חֻקֹּתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ לָלֶכֶת בָּהֶם אֲנִי יְהוָֹה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶֽם: ה וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת־חֻקֹּתַי וְאֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַי אֲשֶׁר יַֽעֲשֶׂה אֹתָם הָֽאָדָם וָחַי בָּהֶם אֲנִי יְהוָֹֽה:
3. After the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, shall you not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, shall you not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances.
- You shall do my judgments, and keep my ordinances, to walk with them; I am the Lord your God.
- You shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments; which if a man does, he shall live in them; I am the Lord.
It seems at first glance that the first verse is unnecessary. All God should have told us is “follow my commands” and we would have known that the Egyptian and Canaanite lifestyles that are anti-torah are no good.
Why does the Torah add the verse specifically warning us against those lifestyles? The answer to the question is contained in the verses themselves. It doesn’t just say avoid that type of behavior; it is the behavior in Egypt from where you came and the behavior of the Canaanites who reside in the land that I am bringing you to. This is a specific warning against the culture that you lived in and the one that you are going to live in. The Torah is well aware that the environment in which you find yourself has the potential to exert a profound influence upon your attitudes and behavior. It is said that two of the most powerful influences in the development of man are heredity and environment. There is certainly a fair amount of truth to that statement and to it I would add that often the two are at odds with one another and often we find ourselves caught between the two in a state of conflict. Thus there was a need for a specific warning against the environments of Egypt and Canaan. The Torah understood the powerful influence of the host society, and the Torah understood the conflict that existed between them and God’s commands. That is why the Torah first gave us the warning- beware of the negative influence, and then gave us the way to combat it- follow the Torah and Mitzvoth. By juxtaposing the two the Torah is also telling us that there is very little room for neutral ground; it is going to be one or the other. You will follow the ways of the host country or you will follow the ways of the Torah. The two are pitted against each other in a battle for your soul. In essence the Torah is teaching us that to achieve holiness we need to be able to control our emotions and desires and demonstrate an ability to separate ourselves from the foreign culture in which we are immersed. We need to withdraw from the hedonistic and sexually charged culture in which we live and focus upon and inculcate within ourselves Torah Values. That is not only the key to our continuity but to our achieving holiness as well. Some segments of the Orthodox community have taken this idea to its extreme. They have separated themselves totally from the host society and its culture. That is not the approach of our community- we believe that there is value in some integration into American society but let us make no mistake about it. That does not in any way absolve us of our obligation towards holiness and the necessary separation that comes with it. If anything it makes our choices more complex and at some level more difficult because we first have to discern and identify the negative elements within society and then we must find the conviction and courage to withdraw from them and separate ourselves from them in order to live the holy life that we are commanded to live.
