LEV274 Another approach to holiness is the one most people think of when asked to describe the concept. This is the view of Rashi, who describes holiness in his commentary to [this verse]. Rashi says abstain from illicit sexual activity. It seems from Rashi that one achieves holiness by abstaining from those things forbidden to the Jew. This is classic Christian definition of holiness as well. The more one denies the bodily pleasures, the more one becomes holy. Long before Christianity existed, this concept existed in Judaism. As noted earlier, the illicit sexual activity with a prostitute is associated philologically with the Hebrew term for holiness. Similarly, the Torah states that the purpose of the laws of kashrut are to attain holiness (See chapter "Food" for a further examination of this idea). Thus, abstention from the two basic physical drives of man, sex and food, leads a person to holiness, according to this idea of holiness.

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LEV289 Yet another approach is offered by Nachmanides in defining precisely what is meant in the commandment to "be holy" [this verse]. Rather than a specific action, Nachmanides says this commandment teaches the Jew an overall approach to life. There are numerous laws that a Jew might be able to observe meticulously within the letter of the law and yet still act in a disgusting manner. This Nachmanides calls "a disgusting person with the permission of the Torah." The general commandment of "Be Holy" commands the Jew that even when other Torah laws do not specifically prohibit behavior, it is forbidden under this commandment. An example given is the Jew who follows all the kosher laws strictly and pronounces a blessing over each food, but then proceeds to gorge himself in a disgusting, animalistic manner. Holiness, according to Nachmanides, forbids this practice, even though no specific law has been violated. Thus, a person is admonished not to go just by the letter of Jewish law, but to be cognizant of the spirit of the law as well. That is Jewish holiness. The analogy has been made to the physical Torah itself, which is made up of the letters of the Torah in black ink surrounded by the white parchment. The specific laws are delineated by the black ink in the words of the Torah, but the white surround is also part of the Torah. This symbolizes the spirit of the Torah, the context in which the black letters delineate the mitzvot. Thus, both a violation of the letter and the spirit of the law is a violation of the Torah and the commandment to be holy.

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LEV277 Judaism rules out the deification and all worship of saints. Holy men are witnesses unto God, but not gods. They are not divine, but pathfinders to the Divine life. Their virtues light up the dark avenues of human life. In some ages their examples make a stronger appeal than in others. Only in God can each generation, in accordance with its own needs and lights, find the embodiment of its supreme aspirations and ideals, in God not as reflected in the life of one outstanding personality, but in Himself, super–personal, infinite and holy. Hence the call of Judaism: [this verse]. To become Godlike is the highest aim of man. See M. Lazarus, The Ethics of Judaism, pp. 111ff.

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LEV273 [Continued from [[DEUT300]] Deuteronomy 6:18 right DORFFLAW 117-8] The underlying conviction that pushes Jewish law not to stop with defining justice in its procedural and substantive aspects but to insist instead that we must go beyond the letter of the law, if necessary, to achieve justice is the belief that God requires us to aspire to a moral and theological ideal. Specifically, justice in its fullest form is necessary for holiness. All Israelites are obligated to aspire to a life of holiness: “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19: 2) In the verses that follow this divine demand, the Torah specifies that holiness requires providing for the poor and the stranger; eschewing theft and fraud; rendering fair and impartial decisions in court; treating the blind, the death, and the stranger fairly; and ensuring honest weights and measures. These are all components of a society that has both procedural and substantive justice and even more-- namely, generosity and caring. We are to treat each other as members of one extended family. To the degree that we can at least in some areas, then, holiness requires that we go beyond insisting on our due and look instead at what seems to be good results for everyone concerned.

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LEV280 See [[DEUT300]] Deuteronomy 6:18 right DORFFLAW 117-8

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LEV282 See [[EXOD63]] Exodus 3:6 hid DORFFLOV 38

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LEV270 ... Jewish tradition provides a rationale for helping the poor that speaks to our own character: we would want to be the kind of people who aid those in need. Whereas non-Jews might help others for similar reasons of self-image and self-respect, the Torah put these considerations in theological terms: we should aspire to be not only decent and even noble human beings, but also Godlike. We should strive to be holy like God, and part of the way to do that is to provide for the poor as the following selections made clear. [Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-10; Deuteronomy 13:5; Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 14a.]

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LEV278 Nahmanides in his commentary on [this verse]: "The Torah exhorts us against sexual immorality and against eating forbidden foods, but permits sexual intercourse between husband and wife and eating meat and drinking wine. Hence, the licentious individual may thus permit himself all kinds of indulgences with his wife … and be among the imbibers of wine and the gluttons for meat, and speak profanities, since these are not specifically forbidden in the Torah. He could then conceivably be a disreputable individual without violating any laws of the Torah. Therefore, the Torah, after detailing the things completely forbidden us, commands us in these general terms to be restrained even in matters permitted to us." The ethical concept cannot define with exactitude just how far we may go in indulging in the legally permitted. It can only alert us to the truth that even the legally permissible becomes ethically repulsive at a certain point. The responsibility for fixing that point rests essentially with each individual, whose moral stature is largely molded by the boundaries he fixes for himself in his pursuit of the legally permissible.

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LEV286 The God of Judaism is neither aloof nor self-centered. He is very much involved in the world which He created. Heschel, Prophets, Ch. 11-18. The nature of their involvement, in so far as it bares upon the behavior of man, is subsumed under the concept of holiness. Because God is holy (Isaiah 6:3), and because man was created in His image, "the utmost virtue of man is to become like onto Him, may He be exalted, as far as he is able; which means that we should make our actions like unto His, as the Sages make clear when interpreting the verse "Ye shall be holy."

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LEV288 The starting point for understanding Mussar is the verse in the Torah that tells us: "You shall be holy" [this verse]. The Torah here reveals in no uncertain terms what a human being's job description is. In essence, we are here on earth for no other purpose than to grow and blossom spiritually--to become holy. Our potential and therefore our goal should be to become as spiritually refined as possible. It is interesting that when the rabbis combed through the Torah to seek out the commandments that are the backbone for living a Jewish life, none of the major commentators seized on "You shall be holy" as a commandment they told us we must follow. This omission is classically explained by saying that our spiritual pursuits are the overarching and all-encompassing goal of our lives, and so this injunction can't be brought down to the level of an ordinance on par with the other 613 commandments the rabbis identified in the Torah. (See, for example, Rambam's Sefer ha'Mitzvot [The Book of Mitzvot] (Shoresh 4), trans. Rabbi Shagra Silverstein (New York: Moznaim, 1993).

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