What is Holiness?

PIKESVILLE, Maryland — The biblical portion Kedoshim, 19:1-20:26, is read together with the prior portion of Aharei Mot during non-leap years, as happens during the week beginning May 4, 2025. It contains many significant laws dealing with holiness. What is holiness?

Many think “Holiness” is an other-worldly, mystical concept, or a way of acquiring something divine. This is not true. This false notion does not help people improve. It supports people who prefer to be passive and depend on outside help. We should not be passive. We should act to improve ourselves and everything in this world.

The true definition of “Holiness” is rational and practical. It means being separate or set apart. God, for example, is holy because God is different and set apart from everything that is not God, and people are holy when they set themselves apart from improper behaviors. Another example is Shabbat, which is sacred because it is a day set apart to teach many lessons.

Verse 20:26 makes this definition clear. The Torah states: “You must be holy for Me, for I the Lord have set you apart from other people that you should be for Me.” Midrash Sifra explains that this means you should separate yourself from what is wrong.

The portion Kedodhim lists many acts that require holiness. We are told to “fear” our mothers and fathers. The decalogue mentions “honoring” fathers and mothers. There is no need to talk about fearing a father because, as Midrash Sifra and Talmud Kedushin 31a state, most children fear their dads, but do not fear their moms. The Torah tells us here to set ourselves apart from others who fail to do so and fear our moms as well.

Perhaps it is mentioned first because family is the core of society, and children living in one-parent homes frequently, but of course not always, stray from what is proper. We can and should learn how to behave with others from a good family setting.

Then comes Shabbat, undoubtedly because of what my Dad taught me when I went on my first military assignment, “Israel. Be sure to observe the Shabbat. More than you keep the Shabbat, the Shabbat will keep you.” He was right.

Next comes the prohibition against worshiping idols. Even today, many waste time and idolize improper things. We must learn to respect time, which is more important than objects. It is one of the lessons of the Shabbat.

These laws are followed by rules requiring not doing good things in the wrong way, giving charity even to strangers, prohibiting theft, lying, swearing falsely, not paying workers on time for which Talmud Bava Metzia 111a states, one who does not pay workers on time violates five prohibitions, one of which is theft, cursing even those who cannot hear the curse, and placing stumbling blocks before those who are blind, which includes non-blind people who do not see what you are doing.

We are warned to make proper judgments, not slander others, not stand idly when a neighbor’s blood is spilt, and not to hate other people, a rule that controls not only acts but also encourages us to train ourselves to think correctly. The Decalogue command not to covet what belongs to others is similar.

The list goes on, including many rules that should set us apart from those who violate them, such as 19:33 and 34 – one of Judaism’s favorites, certainly mine: “If a stranger lives with you in your land, do not wrong him. Treat him like a citizen…you must love him as yourself.” This is holiness.

Shadal reminds us that our ancestors also saw a prohibition against revenge implied in 19:33 and 34 and similar verses. Many people recognize that misbehavior against other people is wrong, but think revenge is an exception because it’s proper justice. Therefore, the Torah tells us to love others as we love ourselves. Just as we would not want others to take revenge against us, we should not take revenge on others, even when the revenge seems justified.

Shadal also tells us what Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) saw in the verse: The love of the other should be both in quantity and quality. Mendelssohn valued reason and was the first Jew to bring secular culture to Orthodox Jews. He set himself apart from those who thought rational thinking was wrong and performed a holy act by doing so.

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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps and the author of more than 50 books.