Torah for now

Archive for April, 2026

What does it Mean to Aspire to Holiness?

This week’s Torah reading is a double one, Acharei Mot/ Kedoshim: After the Death/Holiness. After the death refers to the deaths of Aaron’s two eldest sons, Nadav and Avihu. As discussed previously I disagree with the interpretation that they were punished for some minor deviation from the rules. Rather they were holy men who died before their time. Their alien fire, aish zarah, was not choosing life, but choosing a pathway of union with G8d that led to their death. Sometimes these two Torah portions are read separately, sometimes together, depending upon the year (if there’s a leap month they are separated) This year they are read together. When I worked my clinical Pastoral work in hospice and when my mother recently passed, I wondered if there is any connection between “after the death” of someone and Holiness. There is an intense and mind-raising awareness about accompanying someone on the brink of life. We are more aware, of time and mortality and what lies beyond. The work for Holy in Hebrew is Kadosh, what what does “Holy” mean? and what does it mean to aspire to become holy? Leviticus 19 urges us to do exactly this: Kedoshim t’hyu ki kadosh ani YHVH You shall be holy because I, G8d am holy. There are many uses of this word in the Bible, including in the deaths of Aaron’s two sons (Sources here) Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what G8D meant by saying: Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, And gain glory before all the people. What can that mean – is it possible that the deaths of these two makes G8d holy! Spoiler alert: this is a pathway that is not endorsed, so their passion is termed an aish zara an “alien fire”.

The word Kadosh is used for the dedication of spouses during a wedding – Kiddushin, a blessing to do a mitzvah asher kiddishanu b’mitzvotav, and even for Temple cult prostitutes k’deshah (which is forbidden in Deuteronomy) We are in the period between Passover and Shavuot when we count the days of the omer, Each day can be used for self reflection, for self improvement. But in the mystical tradition it’s far more intense than this. I discovered a text by Hayyim Vital, a student of R’ Isaac Luria in the 17th century called “Sha’arei Kedushah” meaning Gates of Holiness. Each of these days he spent in isolation, just him and G8d, each was a gateway to connection or union with the One if he were repentant enough, denied his ego enough. In mystical tradition only Moses was able to enter all 50 gates. (there are 7 weeks of 7 days, and then the Holiday of Shavuot). When you are on the verge of fainting, wrote Vital, you then offer this prayer:

“Master of all worlds, to you it is revealed and known that I am not engaged in this for my own glory, but rather for the glory of Your name, for the glory of the oneness of your being, so that I will know You, how to serve You and bless Your name. Enlighten my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death. Create a pure heart within me”

…Sanctify your limbs and adorn them with Mitzvot (good deeds) making yourself into a throne for the Divine Presence, your body an ark for the Shechinah! (from p 122-3 Essential Kabbalah by Daniel Matt)

After this section of Aspiring to be Holy the text details many of these deeds to adorn yourself “into a throne for the Divine Presence” including the great Golden Rule of the Torah, “Love your near one as you love yourself” This is the core around which all Torah hinges. These things are what it means to be holy.

This is the fourth level – the sod or mystery – the ultimate aim of aspiring for holiness is those flashes of inspiration and knowledge that all is one, it’s all G8d. This is why kedoshim t’hyu is the same as v’ahavta l’re-acha kamocha in being central pillars around which the rest of Torah and our lives can be arranged and given direction! I suggest that the “ani Adonai which follows some of these commands are to, on this level dissolve the barriers between Ani and Adonai

From William Wordsworth (great name!) Tinturn Abby, quoted in Rabbi Aviva Gottleib Zornberg’s Hidden Order of Intimacy commentary on Leviticus

-with an eye made quiet by the power

of harmony, and the deep power of joy

we see into the life of things

note the synesthesia of the “eye” quieted by “harmony” reminiscent of seeing Sinai’s thunder!

April 22nd is Earth Day this year. This Archive Post for more on Earth Day and Kedoshim from 2021

Photo by Marcello Socket on Pexels.com

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Empathy: Not just “Nice”, Crucial!

This week’s Torah saga is about empathy for the outcast, when you delve past the surface. On the surface it seems to be a medical handbook, perhaps about microbial control. Tamei is a word that has been translated as “impure” but actually means prohibited from offering sacrifices at the Temple. Giving birth, contact with a dead body, skin ailments that spread, and bodily discharges make a person tamei. Houses and garments can be infected too. It is not the doctor, but the kohen (priest) who inspects and decides whether or not the person’s skin ailment has progressed or regressed enough to perform the ritual to re-enter society. I have written about the contagion before, check it out here; returning following childbirth; and about how this is no ordinary illness, but one of the spirit which becomes visible on the skin. Psoriasis, for example as well as alopecia, lupus are all autoimmune diseases very much affected by anxiety, and stress. The Hebrew word for this skin disease, falsely translated as leprosy is metzorah. Midrash interprets this as evil talk, or gossip. “Therefore, Moses cautions Israel and says: “This shall be the law of the metzorah” the law of the defamer [hamotzi shem ra].” There is a famous Hassidic tale of a town gossip whose tales ruin the reputation and therefore the business of a new arrival in town. When he learns that his words have so wounded, he feels remorse, and goes to the town Rabbi. “How can I set things right?”, he asks. The Rabbi instructs the man to bring him his feather pillow. When he does, the Rabbi opens the window, opens and shakes the feathers loose. “Now go and gather every last feather back”, he instructs. “It’s impossible!” replies the gossip! “Just as your words, true or not, are out of your control once you let them loose.” is the lesson. (sources here)

There is a disturbing verse which snagged my attention. Leviticus 13:45

As for the person with tzaarat (scaly skin infection): their clothes shall be rent, their head shall be left bare, and their upper lip shall be covered over; and they shall call out, “tamei, tamei!”

It sounds pretty awful, I can’t imagine it being me – how humiliating! I would much rather be silent, to hide. If I had a scaly skin infection, that was thought to be contagious, would my crying out keep them away more than my wanting to hide under a rock? I don’t think so! The call of “tamei, tamei” however, can arouse empathy, and prayers for my healing, according to Talmud

On the other hand, what if I am outcast for the sin of gossip? Perhaps now, the public outcry is for the purpose of apology! I learned from Talmud (sources here) overcoming the silence and hiding just might be the reason for this calling out. Calling out in the night can arouse tears of empathy. We are commanded in Leviticus to love your near one as yourself. Silent suffering or silent apologies can both get in the way of that connection between people that is needed in community.

When I walk through the streets of Manhattan, I see forgotten folks. The unhoused are treated as invisible. Their hair is unkempt, their clothes are torn, they are banished from normal activities of life, and unlike in the biblical verses, there is no prescribed way back in to society. Their skin may be broken, or unsightly and people are repelled, perhaps afraid of contagion, or of irrational behavior. And if they cry out in their pain, the police are called. I make it a point to see, to give, to honor them as human beings, each with a spark of the Divine. It’s required in Torah – it’s the foundation of empathy and community. Empathy simply is our hope for a better world.

Recently “Empathy” has been in the news in a way that shocked me. Some were calling it a sin, a weakness Emanuel Levinas wrote in 1934 about ‘Hittlerism” and was inspired to write his argument: that seeing the face of another must arouse within us a sense of responsibility to care for them, no matter what. (source 1) He predicted what would become the Holocaust from an inability to respond with caring and apologies when we err. It is interesting that the crying of the defamer serves both as an apology and a plea to not be left alone forever. When we silence our own or others suffering, we are denied the mitzvah of praying for another, of crying with them, of the possibility of healing.

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Taking Mysticism too far? The deaths of Nadav and Avihu.

As I write, this very night, I begin teaching a series of sessions on Kabbalah, Jewish Mysticism. A Pathway to open up heart space to connect with G8d, and by doing so, to return to your true essence. Further this practice is said to open a flow of loving kindness, and actually change the trajectory of the people around you, and ultimately things on earth. The death of two of Aaron’s children before G8d teaches me that anything beautiful can be taken too far, and anyone.

When the Presence and the Fire of G8d descended upon the newly completed Mishkan, Aaron’s two older sons, Nadav and Avihu grabbed their incense offerings and ran into danger, into the Mishkan. They were consumed by G8d’s fire for offering their own “strange fire” aish zarah in Hebrew. Midrash says they were intoxicated, and death their punishment. Perhaps they were intoxicated with a spiritual fervor that made them rush headlong into danger.  Rashi says only their insides were burned. Just maybe they sought death as a union with the Holy One. Suicide not due to mental illness, is a death one is forbidden to mourn. Could that be why Aaron and the two remaining sons were forbidden to mourn?

We are, as a human race playing with fire, with powerful dangerous forces of the universe.

There is a reality beyond human games and machinations, and a Unity that we resonate with. We are stardust, we are light, each moment is eternal, each heartbeat a miracle, and our faith reinforces this with the exhortation to “choose life, vacharta BaChayim, I imagine the Holy One saying to Nadav and Avihu, or to the survivors of tragedy “don’t come in now, it’s too dangerous, just choose life, that you and your children might live, and when you need a lifeline you can become leaders that channel My light down. I will be with you.” LINK to sources.

Torah’s true message of life is the true fire, the one commanded, and death is the strange fire, never commanded. So choose life that you and your children can live.

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