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Apr 28/07 — Parashat Acharei Mot / Kedoshim Commentary by Rabbi Alan Green
“And the Lord spoke to
Moses, saying: ‘Speak to the entire congregation of the children of
Israel, and say to them: We have a difficult time understanding a passage like this today. The post-modern, technologically sophisticated world in which we live is one, long incessant attack on holiness. We who grow up in a secular society, who are educated in a secular school system, who live in a secular world, only have the vaguest idea of what holiness might really be. This is because of the nature of secularism itself. The word “secular” comes from the Latin “saeculum,” which means “time.” The word “cycle” comes from this same word, which connotes the mindless, repetitive nature of all things that occur in time. Secularism, therefore, is the world view that embraces all that occurs within time, and excludes all that which claims to be eternal, or spiritual—that which is outside of time. Small wonder then that we can no longer understand holiness today. The Hebrew word for holy, KADOSH, means “designated, set apart, separate.” For example, offerings dedicated to the Sanctuary were HEKDESH, “sanctified,” or “set apart” to be offered to God. Similarly holy times, such as Shabbat and the holidays, and holy places, such as the land of Israel or the city of Jerusalem, are set apart, and elevated above all other times and places. But secular reality seeks to render all times and places uniform, thoroughly predictable, and entirely uninteresting. Our science dictates this harsh truth: that reality is restricted to what can be measured, quantified, and controlled. Thus are the hidden secrets of life and the universe illuminated, and eliminated by the intrusive glare of scientific knowledge and technological application. Layer upon layer of beauty and mystery have been peeled away by our relentless pursuit of the latest frontiers of scientific knowledge. The benefits we have reaped from the ruthless, unsentimental application of the scientific method are mind-boggling in both their quantity and quality. Our great-grandparents could hardly conceive of the material comforts their descendants were destined to enjoy. No medieval king or queen could match the ease and comfort with which most people in North America live today. But we have paid a terrible price for our material success. In the words of one great Jewish teacher, “What does it profit a person if they gain the world, but lose their soul?” If all times and places are secular—which is to say, if they are the same, boring, completely explicable reality—then how do we live meaningful lives? Where are the possibilities for wonder, for mystery, for joy under such circumstances? How is it possible to nourish a soul when secular culture consistently serves up only the empty calories of pure sensory experience? Fortunately, the pendulum is starting to swing back the other way. Quantum physics, which has studied the inner workings of matter and energy for the past century, is now in the early stages of becoming a spiritual science. Unified field theory, which posits the existence of one super field from which gravitation, electro-magnetism, and the strong and weak interaction all derive, sometimes sounds like a kind of scientific theology. Are God and the Unified Field one and the same reality? Will science, the “enemy of religion”, in the end save the soul of religion? It’s too soon to say for sure. But we can say with some certainty that we can no longer go on the way we have been going. Without a sense of the sacred—without a sense of awe and respect for the universe in which we live—and without a strong sense of what we can and cannot do to our environment, to other human beings, and to ourselves—our future looks very bleak indeed. This week’s Parashah contains an electrifying message, not just for the Jewish people, but for all of humanity. God addresses the generations, and says: “Be holy beings! Don’t continue to live like robots, detached from the heart, soul, and spirit that I give for your benefit. Realize that you CAN do it. I know you can, because I create you from My very Self. Every moment of every day, I hold you in My embrace. I breathe My Self into you even as you breathe into Me, just like Adam in the Creation story. “You conveniently forget that I create you in My image, which means that you are hardwired for greatness. Each one of you is a miniature version of Me, creating your own little universes on My planet Earth. Nothing would make Me happier—in fact, nothing would make YOU happier—than if you could get with this Holiness program. So what’s stopping you? At this stage in your history, it could well mean the difference between a brilliant, ideal future, and no future at all.” Shabbat Shalom. |
