{"id":25163,"date":"2012-05-13T17:09:25","date_gmt":"2012-05-13T17:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=25163"},"modified":"2015-11-09T11:45:22","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T16:45:22","slug":"you-can-still-be-holy-steven-pruzansky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/you-can-still-be-holy-steven-pruzansky\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can Still Be Holy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Torah\u2019s sublime challenge to the Jewish people \u2013 Kedoshim tihiyu<\/em>, \u201cbe holy,\u201d \u2013 is a remarkable demand, compounded by the fact that the Torah does not give us any overt guidelines as to how a person becomes holy. We have some clues; Rashi comments that holiness is a byproduct of abstention from immorality and sin. But that is still not a definition. It is certainly possible for a person to abstain from immorality and sin and not be holy. So what is it that we are being asked \u2013 and clearly something at the very essence of Jewish life?<\/p>\n

The injunction, \u201cBe holy,\u201d for all its inscrutability, demands one thing of us that is in very short supply today, and at the heart of the moral malaise in society, the meanderings of our youth and to some extent all of us, and much of the discontent we feel: the obligation to create and nurture an inner world, an olam hapenimi<\/em>, where the soul is really expressed and our values are located \u2013 the point of connection between the human being and G-d. For much of society today, Jewish and non-Jewish, the inner world is dormant, or worse, dead, and we have to revive it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What does it mean to lack an inner world? Take the Secret Service scandal, for instance. The problem was not their desire to expand the definition of \u201cService,\u201d but their lack of understanding of \u201cSecret,\u201d the first word of their agency. This, and the rest of the shenanigans across the country, is a product of what Dan Henninger (WSJ) labeled our \u201cAge of Indiscretion.\u201d People are indiscreet not only in the sense that they don\u2019t cover their tracks well, but rather that many people today choose<\/em> to live their lives on public display. Many feel no need to cover their tracks, because their self-esteem is dependent on their public lives \u2013 on people reading about them and hearing about them, and knowing their every inconsequential thought and action.<\/p>\n

This refers not only to celebrities but to all of us and our children. It is easy to blame the technology, and undoubtedly technology has enabled greater access to private places than ever before. But technology is a tool \u2013 it\u2019s morally neutral \u2013 and the limits and effects of the technology are choices that we make. Personally, I think that Facebook and its offshoots are some of the most harmful phenomena in our world today, not that my disapproval will cause them to lose a nickel off their impending IPO. Facebook and friends breed indiscretion, induces bad behavior, propagates superficial and artificial relationships \u2013 and, worst of all, they rob people of their inner world, their inner sanctum of thoughts, feelings, emotions \u2013 of the capacity to think, to be private, to look before you leap, to be a real person, and especially to connect to G-d.<\/p>\n

Do we wonder why davening <\/em>(praying) is so difficult \u2013 for all of us, but especially for young people? Because we have no inner worlds. Kavanah<\/em> (concentration, focus, intention) is all about an inner world, and without cultivating an inner world, kavanah<\/em> is impossible. Without an inner world, davening becomes all about \u201csaying words,\u201d and \u201csaying words\u201d will have a diminishing impact on people over time, especially saying the same words again and again. That is why people get easily distracted in prayer, seek comfort in inane conversation, and simply congregate in the halls. There are no \u201cactions\u201d in prayer, nothing to post about or tweet about; it is function of our inner world, and so it is rapidly being lost. Too often, our outside shakes, while our inside is inert.<\/p>\n

In another realm, what is tzniut<\/em>, in a modern term, but discretion? \u2013 judgment, reticence, the yearning to keep private what is private. Tzniut<\/em> recognizes the dignity of every person; it is the veneer that shields our inner world, our holy of holies, from the prying world. So tzniut<\/em> can nurture a real relationship of real people \u2013 i.e., people who relate and interact appropriately, not through texts and emails, but through actual conversation, not with flamboyance or braggadocio, but with humility. The extent to which people choose to communicate indirectly, through technology, and thereby avoid human contact, is astonishing, and debilitating to the nurturing of real human relationships.<\/p>\n

And what a disease is a lack of tzniut<\/em> \u2013 indiscretion \u2013 whether it is found in adults who act like children and broadcast it, or in young people who know no limits and bare their deepest secrets (and more) to a world of strangers.<\/p>\n

Rashi continues that \u201cwherever you find boundaries against indecency, you find holiness.\u201d I.e., wherever you find boundaries, period, you will find holiness, maturity, and responsibility. And wherever there are no boundaries, human beings can descend to great depths.<\/p>\n

The Rambam wrote (Shoresh 4, Sefer HaMitzvot) that \u201cBe holy\u201d is not one of the 613 commandments, because we don\u2019t count the \u201ccommandments that subsume the entire Torah.\u201d \u00a0\u201cBe holy\u201d is not something to do, but something to be. It is that something that defines our lives as individuals, separates us from the nations, and is the hallmark of our people \u2013 to build an inner world that can connect directly to G-d. It is that uniqueness that can fortify our lives and give it depth and substance, as assuredly as it will render us worthy of the rebuilt Holy Temple, speedily and in our days.<\/p>\n

\n

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky<\/strong>\u00a0is the spiritual leader of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun, a synagogue consisting of nearly 600 families located in Teaneck, New Jersey. He is a member of the New York and Federal Bars and<\/em>\u00a0is a trustee of the RCA on the Board of the Beth Din of America, as well as a dayan on the Beth Din itself.<\/em>\u00a0He also is a member of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, and served as the American co-spokesman for the International Rabbinic Coalition for Israel.<\/em>\u00a0He presently is on the Board of Directors of Pro Israel and the One Israel Fund.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the age of Facebook, indiscretion and Secret Service scandals, there’s one key to following this challenging command.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":745,"featured_media":25165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nYou Can Still Be Holy - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the age of Facebook, indiscretion & Secret Service scandals, there's 1 key to following the command of being holy: creating & nurturing an inner world\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/you-can-still-be-holy-steven-pruzansky\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You Can Still Be Holy - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the age of Facebook, indiscretion & Secret Service scandals, there's 1 key to following the command of being holy: creating & nurturing an inner world\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/you-can-still-be-holy-steven-pruzansky\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-13T17:09:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-09T16:45:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Secret-Service-Man-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"849\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"565\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Steven Pruzansky\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rabbi Steven Pruzansky\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/you-can-still-be-holy-steven-pruzansky\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/you-can-still-be-holy-steven-pruzansky\/\",\"name\":\"You Can Still Be Holy - 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He is a trustee of the RCA on the Board of the Beth Din of America, as well as a dayan on the Beth Din itself. He also is a member of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, and served as the American co-spokesman for the International Rabbinic Coalition for Israel. Rabbi Pruzansky served on the Board of Directors of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, and received their Rabbinic Leadership Award at their 1995 Jerusalem Day banquet. He presently is on the Board of Directors of Pro Israel and the One Israel Fund, and received the latter\u2019s Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook Rabbinic Leadership Award at their 1997 Unity Dinner. He has also been honored by the Orthodox Union, the Bet El Yeshiva Center located in Bet El, Israel, Ezras Torah, the Destiny Foundation, and several other Jewish and community organizations. He has served since 2005 on Teaneck\u2019s Civilian Complaint Review Board. He writes extensively on topics of Jewish interest and has lectured in more than 20 countries. 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