My Uncle Mark works in the Party industry. For over 30 years he has owned and operated a company that does party planning, entertainment and decoration, and his specialty is with balloons. He does all sorts of balloon structures and balloon designs. He has organized thousands of balloons dropping from arena ceilings on New Year’s eve, and he spends the day before Thanksgiving blowing up tens of thousands of small balloons to hand out along the parade route during the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. He has even decorated the white house on a few occasions. I remember my Aunt telling the story of the first time they were at the white house during Bill Clinton’s presidency. She describes how the feeling in the room changed the second President Clinton entered, she didn’t even see him yet, but the way everyone responded and even subconsciously gravitated towards him made it clear to everyone present that there was someone important in the room.
There are individuals in the world whose very presence seems to inspire emotions in the people around them. Some people just seem to occupy more space, exude some kind of influential charisma that affects the people around them simply by their presence. This is a power that influential people have which can be used to inspire people to do great things, but can also, unfortunately, be harnessed to do great evil. There is no question that our actions make us who we are and our personalities have the potential to motivate others.
There is a tradition starting this Shabbat of reading Pirkei Avot, a tractate of the Mishna which deals with ethical teachings, on the Shabbats between Pesach and Shavuot. In the first chapter of Pirkei Avot there is a Mishna which teaches us this lesson.
Antigonus of Socho received the Tradition from Shimon hatzadik. He used to say: Do not be like servants who serve their master for the sake of receiving a reward, but be rather like servants who serve their master without the express intention of receiving a reward; and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.
In the Book Ethics from Sinai, Rabi Irving Bunim gives an interpretation of the Mishna which connects the teaching of being a servant who serves their master without the express intention of receiving a reward to the end of the Mishna which says, “and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.” Rabbi Bunim explains that serving the master without the express intention of receiving a reward is like serving God-l’shem shamayim- serving God for its own sake, not for our own benefit. When a person can reach the level where their entire outlook on life is to be a servant of God for God’s sake, then they can become the type of person whose very presence can even invoke the feeling of awe of heaven in others. By focusing our way of serving God as a pure and holy service, we can inspire others to see God in the world.
I believe that this is a message which the beginning of the Parsha this week is teaching us. In the beginning of this week’s Parsha, God instructs Moses to tell the Jewish people to be Holy because God your God is Holy.
How does one be holy? Nachmanides in his commentary on this verse begins by rejecting Rashi’s interpretation. Rashi explains that in context with the previous section of the Torah, when the verse says you should be holy, it is merely referring to abstaining from participating in sexual immorality. Being holy, according to Nachmanides, is much more than simply abstaining from doing something wrong. Nachmanides agrees that holiness begins with separating oneself, but it is not merely being seperate which makes a person holy and separating from one thing is too limited. Rather, Nachmanides argues, that this statement is referring to everything that the Torah is trying to teach. Kedoshim tihiyu is a framing concept for all of Jewish life. Holiness is about distinguishing ourselves through our actions and our personality.
We don’t achieve holiness just by separating ourselves from anything bad; it really begins with an effort to do good. Keeping the commandments is how we begin to be holy. But according to Nachmanides just keeping the commandments as if they are a checklist to check off every day is not enough. According to Nachmanides, without holiness as guiding principle of a larger goal for our lives, there is room to still be a disgusting person who keeps the commandments. For example, Even though keeping kosher limits what I eat and drink, the kashrut laws alone do not keep someone from becoming a glutton or an alcoholic.
Nachmanides’ point about the command, kedoshim tihiyu, is that it is a guiding principle to frame the particular laws of the torah. Just like the torah gives specific rules regarding interactions between human beings, like don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t kidnap, don’t cover, etc. The torah then relates a general principle which should guide the way we think of these behaviors. That principle is, veasita hatov vehayashar, do what is right and what is good.
We need to make sure that when we are keeping the torah we are doing what is right and what is good. Following the Torah isn’t simply a list of actions that we need accomplish and nothing more, it is a way of life which should effect who we are and how we interact with the world. This means that sometimes halachah is a only minimal standard of acceptable behavior, but in order to be Holy in our religious observance we need to act above and beyond the minimum standard.
Nachmanides concludes his commentary on this verse commanding us to be holy with an explanation of why the verse ends with the words, “I am your God”. These words are the very same words which begin the ten commandments. They are a reminder to act Godly, not to just simply do mitzvoth but to do them in way that is holy by acting above and beyond what is expected of us.
Rabbi Chayim of Volozhin in his book the Nefesh Hachayim writes, “That when a person stands before the Heavenly tribunal, God, who is the Master of all powers, will judge that person not only for each of his/her individual actions, but also for the impact their actions had on the entire world – for good and for evil.
Rabbi Chayim is adding something to our understanding so far. He is saying that when we come before God after 120 years, God is not going to judge us on each of our individual actions, rather it is also the impact our actions had on this world which is how we will be judged. It’s not simply what we do; it’s how we do it. I believe he is teaching us that the purpose of mitzvoth is not simply for our own personal benefit. It is to be like God in a way, God impacts the world so we need to mindful of the way in which our actions, even the way in which we do mitzvoth impact the world.
Whether we like it or not, everything we do has an effect on other people and our environment. We can either live in such a way that we inspire others to see the value of God and our lifestyle, or we can unfortunately make these beautiful things irrelevant. We need to make sure that the way in which we live our lives doesn’t give the torah or Judaism a bad name.
Going back to the mishna in Pirkei Avot that I spoke about earlier, we can see how its advice can help us consider how to be holy in the way we live. Again, the advice given in the mishna is that you should not be like servant who serves their for the purpose of receiving a reward. Meaning, serving God should not be motivated by a desire for personal meaning and gratification. Rather, be like a servant who does not act for the express intention of receiving a reward. In other words, our behaviors should be motivated for God’s sake not our own, our religious observance has to be for the purpose of being holy, not merely for the purpose of feeling good or personal reward. The mishna concludes with making the point that when we are acting for God’s sake and not our own, then our very presence through the way that we do the things we do, has the potential to impact in a deep and profound way.
If we live our lives as an example of holiness it will impact our children, family members, colleagues, and neighbors. Being holy, going above and beyond what is expected in Judaism, is about expanding the worldwide respect for God in this world; it’s not about our own personal religious satisfaction.
We can all think of people whose very presence has the capacity to inspire. The Torah’s command in this week’s Parsha to be holy is to be mindful of the way in which our actions and our very presence can impact others. When we think about the way in which we find religion meaningful we need to ask ourselves, how can we make sure that we’re not just doing this for ourselves, that our religious observance in some way is having a positive impact on others? May we all be worthy of achieving a holiness that inspires the people whose lives we touch to be good people and inspire others themselves, so that one day we will touch the entire world and bring about a full redemption.
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