Oh no, you misunderstand! “From the River to the Sea '' has to do with the Mississippi River to either the Pacific or Atlantic oceans. From the river to sea (you choose what direction) we are in the midst, as we know, of a serious problem on our college campuses. Imagine with me for just a moment a place where people of different religious and political views would sit down together on those same campuses to seek a mutual outcome of goodness as they listen and understand each other. Okay, I guess you can see me as optimistic, delusional or simply just naive? I see myself as optimistic because I believe that love is greater than hate, mutual benefit is greater than selfishness, and the answer always begins with loving our fellow person even when others turn their back on that same love.
In this week's parasha, Kedoshim, we read the well known verse that says, kedoshim t’yu ki kadosh ani adonai elohaychem, “You shall be holy, for I, your God, am holy.” Case and point, the Torah does not call us to be good, honorable or worthy - although that is implied in the mitzvot - but to be holy. In Acharei Mot it concluded with Laws about sexual relationships and the collective sins of Israel in what became the Yom Kippur service today. As such Rabbi Ayeh ben David writes that while Acharei Mot established “the essential minimal boundaries for acceptable social behavior … Kedoshim will attempt to advance this standard (of behavior) to higher and more profound levels.” This happens when an act of holiness emerges from our soul-based traits, or middot, which manifests in behavior. But “holiness” is not a theological word like the Christian word “sanctification,” where a person is sealed by the Holy Spirit, more so than holiness is a sought after level of humanity that is consistent with the ways of Torah to reflect our inner holy spark in connection to God.
One of those key behaviors of Kedoshim is love. We read in Leviticus 19:17, “You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart,” followed by the words in 19:18, “Love your neighbor [here fellow Jew in context] as yourself.” Still, the Torah makes it clear in 19:34 that such love expands to all humans (Jew and non-Jew alike) outside of our community circles (different religions, etc), teaching “The strangers who reside with you shall be to you as your citizens; you shall love each one as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” In Judaism we have another tradition of love called “Ahavat Yisrael,” which means “love for another Jew” but also means the support of the state of Israel. The middah (soul-trait) of love toward others begins with the middah of Ohev et HaMakom, or loving God. This type of love is found in the “One who loves God occupies themselves with the Divine's most valuable treasure. Diligent study of Torah is therefore an expression of a love for God. Through study, one learns to recognize the Godly path and express one's love of God by emulating God's ways." Simply put, love for God is love for the ways of God (think V'ahavta) that underscores how we love, and therefore, treat others.
Being Holy, per Rashi, is to adhere to the commands regarding eating or personal behaviors (see Acharei Mot) whereas for Nachmanides even doing those things (per Rashi) can not stop someone from loathsome behavior. Again, in response Rabbi Ayeh ben David writes that “the challenge of becoming holy is reflected is the exertion of self-control precisely within the guidelines of Torah.” Notice the word exertion, a word that means effort not only physically but mentally. This reminds me of the question in Pirkei Avot “Who is mighty? He who subdues his [evil] inclination.” Subduing what is wrong takes physical and mental exertion, but doing what is right, thus loving others we are in conflict with, takes even more physical and mental exertion.
In closing I’d like to share a thought from Rabbi Elisha Wolfin. When it is said in Kedoshim, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Rabbi Wolfin takes issue with the translation “your neighbor” because it is to narrow and misleading, Here לרעך (l’ray’ah’cha) is the root רע (rah) that can also mean wicked or bad. For Wolfin the one who receives love or hate is not just a neighbor or a friend but is the “ultimate other who is everything that is not I,” whereas the one who loves, or hates, “is actually a projection (of self) onto another.” If the students on our college campuses, in particular those who directly or indirectly engage in Anti-semitism or Islamophobia, projected love - which is holy - on “the other” as opposed to hate, then maybe we might see a shared mutual outcome from the river to the sea. Naive, maybe, hopeful, absolutely - I'll take that everyday.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
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