The parsha that we read this week is called Kedushim which is plural for the verb, “To separate,” or, “To make/be holy.”

The parsha begins with haShem (god) speaking to Moshe (Moses) and telling him to speak to the entire nation of the children of Yisrael and tell them that they will be holy because, “I, haShem, your god/powers, is holy.”  We then read that we should be in awe/fear of our father and mother and observe the shabbats – “I am haShem your god/power”, that we should not turn to other gods – “I am haShem your god/power”, and a bit on the shlamim (peace) sacrifice and that when we harvest from the land, we should leave a corner of the field for the poor and the stranger – “I am haShem your god/power”, not to steal or lie, or profane the name of your god/power – “I am haShem”, not to withhold paying workers, not to rob, not to curse a deaf person or to put a stumbling block before the blind, and to be in fear/awe of your god/power – “I am haShem.”

The parsha continues by saying not to be unjust in judgement, not in favor of a poor person or to honor a great person, not to gossip, not to stand over a companion’s blood – “I am haShem,” not to hate your brother in your heart, to rebuke your follow, and not to carry a sin on account of him, not to take revenge or bear a grudge against the children of your people, you should love your companion as yourself – “I am haShem.”  You shall observe my rules, not crossbreeding of animals or plants…

Forgive me, I do not want to write out the whole parsha, but I think you get the idea that there are a lot of rules here.  I will leave it to you to read and learn what all these rules are.

Instead I am going to jump ahead, past all these rules to where haShem again says that we should observe all these rules so that the land we are to settle will not vomit us out.

We should not follow the laws of the nations that are being sent off the land, for they did these things and haShem became disgusted with them.  Inherit the land, that I will give you and settle it, a land flowing with milk and honey, I am haShem, your god/power that separated you from the other nations.  You should separate between tahor (pure) and tamae (mixed) animals and birds and not abominate your soul with animals, etc. that I have separated for you as tamae.  You will be holy to me because I, haShem, am holy and I separated you from the nations to be mine.   Anyone that has with them an Ohv or yidoni, will be stoned to death, their blood is with them.

So what is going on with all of these rules? Hashem seems to be making life a real drag for us. I don’t know how much detail to go into because I have heard some really good things about some of these rules, but if I talk about each rule, I could write a book just on this parsha.  So, let’s start from a more general place and then maybe hit a few rules.

It seems that after every few rules, we get this phrase, “I am haShem.”  What is up with that?  If it happened just once, I would say that god is trying to tell us that this is his game and so we should play by her rules.

However, it is repeated several times, as if to hammer home some point.

To understand this, let me explain what I mean by this being god’s game.  Way, way back, back to the beginning of time (and the Torah), we read that god created everything.  It is nice to know, but what does it mean for us?

What it means is that he created all the rules and laws that govern how everything works.  This is what I mean by it being his game.

It is just like the guy who created the game of chess (what was his name again???):  he made the board and the pieces.  He decided how the pieces were to move and what the purpose of the game is.  So, too, did god create the world and all the things in it, and determined how each thing moves and interacts with all the other things.  God even put in a purpose for each thing in this world (if only this creator would actually tell us what our purpose is!).

Now what does this have to do with this week’s parsha?

Well, god is giving us a bunch of rules – the rules of the game!  And by telling us over and over again, “I am ‘what was/is/and will be’ (the four letter name is really the verb to be),” god is emphasizing that he, the creator, is beyond the world/game, and hence, can, does, and did make the rules of the world/game.

It is very nice for him to give us some instruction on how the game works, don’t you think? 🙂

One thing to remember is that these rules are not for everybody.  These rules are for those who are to be separate/holy.  Why?  Because god made the rules and chose these people (us) to be separate/holy.  Why?  For the same reason that each side in chess has two bishops.  It wouldn’t be the world/game if we/the bishops was not part of it.  And just as the bishops can only move in diagonals, so too are we restricted.

Now some of the rules seem pretty straightforward and reasonable.  Things like leaving the corners of your fields unharvested for the poor and not to judge the rich and the poor differently for 2 examples.

Some of the rules are just plain magical.  Like not eating the fruit of a new tree for 3 years, bring the fruit of the 4th year to the temple, and then eating the fruit of the 5th year in order to increase the amount of fruit you will get in the future.

Why does this work?

Because, “I am haShem, your god/powers.”

This is the verse right after.  In our family tradition (the family of Yisrael), we do have/do magic.  But we have to do it the way god wants us to, or our powers won’t work correctly.  This is why, right after we are told the magic of getting fruit from our trees, we are told not to do certain kinds of divination.

Why?  Again, because god said so, and god made the rules.

But the rules are not only what this parsha is about.  It is also about learning something of god.

God is really beyond our comprehension.  How can one grasp the infinite?  One can’t.

But one can glimpse a small portion of the infinite.  For example, the number of stars in the universe seems to be infinite (those of you who are scientifically minded, just accept this for argument’s sake.  You don’t know that it isn’t true because you don’t know how big the universe really is!), but we still can see and measure and experience some of those stars.

So too with god.

The question is how can we get a glimpse of something about god?

By understanding and following the rules he set up for his game.  By understanding as much as we can of the game/world, we can get a glimpse/hint at the maker of the game/world.

Read a book, and you learn a little bit about the author.  Look at a painting and you get an idea about the painter.  Create a game and I bet that the people who play your game will be able to tell you something about yourself.  So too, with this game/world and the laws of nature, and these laws for us who are created to be kodesh/holy/separate; they tell you something about our creator.

So now let us take a look at one or two of these laws.  We have a rule to treat everybody justly, even if they are rich or poor.  It would seem from this that our creator is not into favoritism, but judging people strictly on the actions.

We also are not to curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind.  Perhaps our game-maker does not believe in taking advantage of a person’s misfortunes.

Do not hate your brother in your heart.  God is not into hating what it has created.

At worst, god wants to promote indifference.  However, if you add in the other rules, it appears that god is into honoring and loving and assisting others.

If we take the Baal Shem Tov’s punctuation of the line, “Love your neighbor as yourself, I am haShem,” it would read, “Love your neighbor!  As yourself, I am haShem.”

This reading definitely gives us the impression that we have a loving creator, as well as an idea that the divine will mirror back to you how you look at the world.  How else would you interpret, “As yourself, I am haShem?”

One last thing.  God seems to spend a lot of time talking about tahor and tamae.  Don’t eat tomae animals, don’t do things to make you tamae.  What can we learn about god from all this?

That she is into purity of essence, that maybe she is purity of essence.  Hence, to be like god, it is imperative that we keep our essence unmixed, pure and separate (kodesh)/holy.

I want tell you, the ideas for this parsha have been swirling around my head for a few days now, but they have been so hard to bring down into this world.  I hope they make sense to you and help you see god a little better in your every day life.

If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.