Shabbat Shalom with a Heart Healthy Dose of Torah – K’doshim

“Kedoshim tih’yu, ki kadosh Ani – Be holy, because I (God) am holy”
What does holy mean? When I was young, I learned stories about Prophet Elijah coming to do good work in the dress of a beggar. Naively, as a young child might, I saw a man dressed that way and asked my Grandma Bessie if that were Elijah. She looked at the man with his torn and tattered clothes and she smirked, “Such a holy man? I hope he is as holey as his clothes.” I remember that moment because I did not understand what she meant. Of course, I learned that it is a well-used stereotypical joke. Now older and wiser, Lori told me that I had socks that were religious. I needed new socks.

Holy – perhaps the “humor” happens because most people don’t know what to do with the concept of holiness. What does it mean to reach beyond what we think we know – our intellectual horizons – to take on faith that there is something more. How many of us know how to experience and appreciate the blessings that we have? How can look past what is directly in front of us, if we can’t see – what is directly in front of us?

Holy – perhaps the “humor” speaks a truth about people who claim to be “more righteous” than others but who behave in the most challenging ways?
Holy – perhaps the “humor” helps us avoid looking deep within and realizing that we have so much more to give and so much more to receive.

Our tradition teaches that one who describes God sins. How can any of us quantify the unquantifiable? We have no idea what’s all out there or how it works. We are incapable of defining what we don’t know.

Be holy because God is holy. Live without boundaries curtailing the blessings we can experience. If God’s being is without boundaries, perhaps, so should be ours. Be Holy. Bless without definable boundaries. Love beyond definable boundaries.

We know the saying, “Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Live like its heaven on Earth.” Stop choosing where to love – just love. Stop worrying about who to bless – just bless. Transcend what you know in order to grow to what you might become. And, in every case choose life.

Shabbat Shalom.