Parashat kedoshim
summary
In this portion God tells Moses to instruct
the entire Israelite community the laws of Kedoshim (Leviticus
19:1-20:27), the laws of holiness. God instructs Moses
to speak to the whole Israelite community and Moses shares many
of the precepts with the people including:
you are to be holy because God is holy
you are to revere your
mother and father
you shall keep the Sabbath
you shall not make or
worship idols
you shall not harvest
the edges of the fields nor pick up any fallen fruit
so that the poor and
the stranger may gather food for themselves
you are not to steal,
deal deceitfully or falsely with one another
you are not to swear
falsely using God's name
you shall not commit
robbery
you shall not insult
the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind
you shall be fair in
judgement
you shall not take vengeance
or bear a grudge
you are to love your
fellow as yourself
you are to respect the
elderly
you shall not eat anything
with its blood
you shall not make gashes
or marks on your body
you will maintain honest
weights and scales
ou shall treat the stranger who resides
among you fairly, like one of your own citizens; you are to
love the stranger as yourself for you were strangers in the
land of Egypt
God reminds the Israelites to observe
all the laws and regulations and warns that if they do not they
will lose possession of the Land.
commentary
This week marks many
events and so I offer a few thoughts on a number of them.
A thought
for the UK General Election - from Rabbi John
Rayner's "Principles of Jewish Ethics:"
"Seek the wellbeing of the city where I have exiled you and
pray to God on its behalf for in its wellbeing you will find
your wellbeing" (Jeremiah 29:7) It should be added: not
only out of enlightened self interest but because the wellbeing
of the society in which we live is a good in itself. Citizens
especially in a democracy, must accept a share of responsibility
for what is done in their name by their country. Therefore
if it commits a wrong, why have an obligation to protest against
it and to seek to rectify it. The principle, "You shall
not stand idly by..." (Leviticus 19:16 - in our Torah portion
this week) applies here. Likewise, they should seek to
make a positive contribution to the economic, social and cultural
life as well as the moral ethos of their country.
Yom ha’Shoah
begins on Wednesday night. You may like to consider lighting
a yahrtzeit candle, especially if you never have done before.
Zachor – remember
Lo tishkach –
do not forget
On this day we remember the most devastating episode of our
history. From year to year it recedes a little further into
the past, but the magnitude of it remains beyond our comprehension,
and the pain of it beyond consolation. All we know for certain
is that we have a duty to remember: for the sake of those who
perished, so that they may not be forgotten; for the sake of
those descendants who survived them, so that they may
know that they are not alone in their sorrow; for our own sakes,
so that we may not be blind to the evil of which human beings
are capable; and for the sake of future generations, so that
they may consider well what is needful to prevent such
a sho’ah – such a destruction – from
happening again, to our people, or to any people.
We pledge ourselves to remember.
Shabbat
Atzmaut
As this Shabbat precedes
Yom Ha’Atzmaut – Israel Independence Day –
there is a special Haftarah reading. The traditional portion
is Isaiah 60:1-22 but at this time, I find the following even
more inspiring.
Micah
4:1-7
In the days to come, The Mount of the
Eternal’s House shall stand firm above the mountains;
and it shall tower above the hills. The people shall gaze on
it with joy and the nations shall go and say: ‘Come, let
us go up to the Mount of the Eternal One, to the House of the
God of Jacob; that the God will instruct us in the ways of the
Eternal One and that we may follow that path.’ For instruction
shall come forth from Zion, the word of the Eternal One from
Jerusalem.
Thus, God will judge among the many peoples and arbitrate
for the multitude of nations however distant; and they shall
beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning
hooks. Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall
never know war again. But everyone shall sit beneath their vine
and fig tree, with no one to disturb them.
For it was the Eternal One of Hosts who spoke. Though all
the peoples walk each in the name of its gods, we will walk
in the name of the Eternal One our God, forever and ever.
In that day – declares the Eternal One – I will
assemble the lame sheep and will gather the outcast and those
I have treated harshly; and I will turn the lame into a remnant
and the expelled into a populous nation. And the Eternal One
will reign over them on Mount Zion, now and for evermore.
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