Lead Tidbit
Be Holy... How?
Although we are commanded to be holy in the beginning of Parshat K'doshim, we had already been promised to be a holy kingdom and a nation of kohanim back in Parshat Yitro.

We can say, that from the Sinai experience, the people might have wondered how G-d wanted us to become holy. Matan Torah certainly got us started on that path, and the involvement with building the Mishkan would seem to be part of the process too. And then we come to Vayikra.

Korbanot. Korbanot. And more Korbanot. Perhaps this is the method G-d wants us to employ in order to rise in holiness. Then we are taught about TAHARA and TUM'A, ritual purity and impurity. As it applies to animals we eat and don't eat. As it applies to the topic of TZORAAT and NEGA'IM.

Maybe this is the key to holiness - shunning all forms of impurity.
And then comes the beginning of this week's double-sedra. Kohein Gadol in the Beit HaMikdash. Holy person performing holy Divine service in the holiest place on Earth. This surely is the ultimate model of pursuit of holiness.

Then there is the list of prohibited sexual relationships. For sure, this and all that came before - what we mentioned and what we didn't mention - is part of the picture.

But it is significant to see what the Torah writes following the command to be holy. We can view the mitzvot in K'doshim as a statement by G-d: You shall be holy... and this is how:

Revere your parents and keep the Shabbat. Don't turn towards idolatry. Serve G-d properly in the Mikdash. Provide for the poor when you harvest your fields. Don't steal, cheat, lie, be just, don't gossip or slander, don't hate your fellow Jews... and on and on. Gluttony is as foreign to holiness as is idolatry. Having honest weights and measures is as much a part of being holy as is preserving the sanctity of the Beit HaMikdash. Of course the Kohein Gadol on Yom Kippur in the Holy of Holies is an amazing image of Kedusha. But so is the Jewish farmer who is careful to leave gleanings for the poor.

There are many paths to holiness. And we need to take most of them to fulfill G-d's desire that we become holy as individuals and that we develop into the holy people that He chose unto Him.