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Our Torah reading for this week, parashat Kedoshim, begins: "The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 'Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy (קדשִׁים תִּהְיוּ), for I the LORD your God am holy'" (Lev. 19:1-2). Because we are chosen to be God's people, his redeemed children, we should be holy, just as God is holy (see 1 Pet. 1:15-16). Holiness, however, is not a matter of what you do (such as wrapping yourself in religious rituals) but is instead a matter of who you are. You are someone beloved who has been rescued and taken up from the "depths of Egypt" to be united with God. Holiness is something you receive within your heart; it is a gift of being "set apart" to be sacred and beloved by God. Genuine holiness (i.e., kedushah) is connected with love and grace. "Being holy" therefore means coming alive and looking away from that which deadens the spirit (Col. 3:1-4); it means accepting yourself as the Beloved of the LORD...
As I've said before, the word kedushah (קְדוּשָׁה) means sanctity or "set-apartness" (other Hebrew words that use this root include kadosh (holy), Kiddush (sanctifying the wine), Kaddish (sanctifying the Name), kiddushin (the ring ceremony at a marriage), and so on). Kadosh connotes the sphere of the sacred that is radically separate from all that is sinful and profane. As such, it is lofty and elevated (Isa. 57:15), beyond all comparison and utterly unique (Isa. 40:25), entirely righteous (Isa. 5:16), glorious and awesome (Psalm 99:3), full of light and power (Isa. 10:17), and is chosen and favored as God's own (Ezek. 22:26).
Hebrew Lesson
Song of Solomon 6:3 reading:
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