Do not be imitators: Be genuine!
An important element in this double parashah, Achare Mot-Kedoshim, which will be developed later, is Yom Hakippurim, called the Day of Atonement. I prefer to call it the Day of God’s covering, when we approach God to make things right with Him. The second part is Kedoshim, which means sanctification or being set apart.
We tend to end one parashah and begin the next, separating them and losing the context of the previous one. These are man-made separations. Leviticus 18 begins with 1 “Adonai spoke to Moses and said: ‘Speak to the Israelites and say: “I am Adonai, your God: You must not behave as they do in Egypt where you used to live; ( We can already see how the Creator was telling Israel that they were carrying a lot of things from Egypt)… you must not behave as they do in Canaan where I am taking you, nor must you follow their statutes. 4 You must observe my customs and keep my Torah, following them. “I, the LORD, am your God; from this time forth, you will keep my statutes and my customs. Whoever obeys them will find life in them. “I am the LORD.”
In other words, do not imitate others who will lead you on the wrong path. Follow God’s teachings, and we will be ok. Most of us have lost our own identity, preferring to imitate others… we dress according to fashion rather than expressing our own personality. But we have been placed here to follow the Creator, not man. Remember what our prophet Jeremiah said: “Cursed be the man who follows man and blessed be the man who follows GOD.”
At the end of chapter 18, He says: 26 “You, however, must keep my Torah and customs and not do any of these hateful things: none of your citizens, none of your (Ger) the stranger among you.” There is only one Creator, and He is the God of all peoples. Many of you were not born into a Jewish family and are not circumcised, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
“For all these hateful things were done by the people who lived in the country before you, and the country became unclean.28 If you make it unclean, will it not vomit you out as it vomited out the nations there before you? 29 Yes, anyone who does any of these hateful things, whatever it may be, any person doing so, will be cut off from his people;30 so keep my rules and do not observe any of the hateful practices which were in force before you came; then you will not be made unclean by them. I am Adonai, your God.” The phrase,” I am Adonai, your God,” will be repeated many times.
We love our beloved country, Israel, but many of us are crying over what is happening there today. The problem is that hyper-religious people are pushing the people to do things that the Creator has not asked us to do. The religious factions that think they are better than others look down upon everyone. This alienates the people who then run away from God and His Torah, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Israel has lost its identity and has returned to the days of the prophet Samuel when the people cried out, “Give us a king”. Samuel was so upset, but the Creator told him not to worry; they were not rejecting him, they were rejecting Him because they preferred to be like the other nations. Whenever Israel chooses to be like the other nations, they are rejecting the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel was formed to be unique, not to be like the other nations, but to be a light to them.
Next, we read in chapter 19… 1“The LORD spoke to Moses and said:2 ‘Speak to the whole community of Israelites and say: “You shall be holy, for I, Adonai your God, am holy.” The various translations emphasize the fact the Creator’s state of holiness depends on us being holy. Others use the word “perfect” (as in Matthew 5:48) instead of holy but it has nothing to do with perfection.
The emphasis has been placed on the word kadosh – קָדוֹשׁ – “holy” by theologians, BUT it is only an adjective and depends entirely upon the noun to which it is attached for meaning. Holy means separated or set apart…to what? Do you know that you can be holy to evil? Let’s go to Deuternomy 23:18 “There must be no prostitute (kedasha) among the women of Israel, and no prostitute (kadesh) among the men of Israel.”(See also in Gen. 38:21) The word prostitute (female) is kedasha – קְדֵשָׁה – and the male prostitute is kadesh – קָדֵשׁ -from the same root, kadosh. They are identified with the behavior of the noun to which they are attached. To whom or what are we holy (separated to, set apart for)? It can even be understood as “wholly” in English. It has nothing to do with wearing a halo! When we belong to the God of Israel, our behaviour is attached to integrity and morality. We are called to have integrity and moral character – to do what is right in His sight! The closer we are to the Creator, the more our conduct changes; we are set apart from the rest, and He shows us the areas within us that need to change.
He begins with the Ten Commandments, the basic constitution of Israel. Leviticus 19:3 continues with: “Each of you will respect mother and father; and you will keep my Sabbaths; I am Adonai your God.” These directly refer to the fourth and fifth Commandments and are for our own health and well-being, and that of our family. He continues with the things we are not to do which imitate the behavior of the nations around us. His message is clear and simple. The first three Commandments are about “Who He is,” and the middle two are about loving ourselves. He is warning us about imitating the Egyptians, the Canaanites or the world today.
Morality has lost all its meaning today. We teach, “I’m OK, you’re OK, we are all OK!” We have lost the right to judge immoral behaviour. We are not allowed to speak up against special interest groups that hold society captive. We are living in an amoral society today, which is worse than being immoral. At least if you are immoral, you know you are doing something wrong, but if you are amoral, you have a complete lack of knowledge of right and wrong. We in Israel were called to be a nation set apart to reflect right behavior to the world. When we cease to do that, we lose our identity. Israel has the most moral army in the world, and they do the most good when there is a need, yet within the state of Israel, we have accepted behavior that is destructive to our society, calling it being open-minded. We compare ourselves with Western nations, as if their behavior is what we need to imitate! That is imitating wrong.
Being holy is parallel to being chosen. If we belong to the Creator, there is behavior that needs to be prohibited. We are not to be like the others. The differentiation is not about what we eat or how we dress. It is about what comes out of our hearts and out of our mouths. It is about our behavior. That is what Rabbi Yeshua tried to teach us. He taught us not to worry about the uniform, but about what comes out of our mouths, that “holiness” – kadosh has to do with ‘tzedek, tzedek tirdof” – צֶדֶק צֶדֶק, תִּרְדֹּף – Justice Justice you shall pursue. That is what sets us apart; this is what the Creator is teaching us today about holiness.
Let us not play at religion or try to appear holier than thou. Our teshuva is to be genuine, and we are to understand that the Creator is asking us to choose life and to imitate what is good. When we are truly walking with God, we will be humble, as our teachers, Moshe and Yeshua, were. The closer we get to the Creator, the more we realize the distance there is between Him and us. When we are full ourselves, we enthrone ourselves. That is what religion does…it makes us believe that we are better than the others. When we truly follow GoD, we recognize our shortcomings and the areas we need to work on, and we realize our success is genuine. It is so easy to be holier than thou! We need to eat our humble pie and to understand that we need to imitate what is good, not follow man but God.
We just left Egypt and are entering Canaan. It says not to follow Moloch. What does Moloch mean? The killing of babies by offering them to their gods. Today, abortion is in demand. If you kill a woman who is pregnant, you are charged with two murders, but it is all right just to kill the baby in her womb. The Creator created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. If you dare to speak up against the latter, I am punished. I have the right to believe what I want as long as I do not harm others, but that works both ways. People have the right to practice any immoral behavior they want, but they have no right to impose it on me. This is why the world has become a swamp, a sewer. That is what makes us different… we don’t want to be part of the sewer.
We are all holding things from the past which we can leave behind with His help and those around us. His gift of “free will” allows us to be responsible for our choices. The Creator said: I am the God who set you ‘free’. The only way we can be responsible is when we are free. “I am Adonai your God” is repeated about 15 times in this portion. Remember, we will be judged by what we do and the intention of our hearts. It is a simple message! Do not imitate others who will lead us down the wrong path! We are fine when we follow His teachings. Let me ask you this: Whose values do you imitate, the Creator’s or the world’s?
Shabbat Shalom