Holiness, Meaning and Sprituality.pdf

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The Edah Journal 2:1 Edah, Eda h, Inc Inc.. © 2002 2002 Tevet 5762 

Holiness, Meaning and  Spirituality  Saul Sa ul J. Be Berma rman n

Biography: Rabbi Saul J. Berman is the Director of Edah,

 Associate Professor at Stern College and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University School of Law.

Holiness, Meaning Meaning and Spirituality  Saul Sa ul J. J. Be Berm rman an

 There are many words that we use repeatedly re peatedly,, such as “holiness” “holi ness” and “spiritual “spirituality”, ity”, that mean differen differentt things to different people depending on the sensibilities that underlie their understanding. understanding. This is well well illustrated by  by  the wonderful story about a shul in the Midw Midwest, est, built  with a huge dome in which the members intended to place a large chandelier chandelier.. As they built the shul , th they ey ra ran n out of money and were were unable to install install the chandelier chandelier.. So they lived lived without a chandelier for many many decades, but after aft er almos almostt half half a century century,, thr throug ough h no fault fault of of the their ir own, ow n, th thee shul came into some money.  At a meeting of the Board of Directors one of the members membe rs of the Board Board stood stood up up and said, “No “Now w that  we have the funds, I would like to make a motion that  we install a chandelier.” chandelier.” There seemed to be some consensus around the table that that should should be done. Yet in the midst midst of the convers conversation ation about about it, it, an elderly elderly gentlegentleman,, Mr man Mr.. Gol Goldbe dberg, rg, sto stood od up up and, and, red in the the face face,, pounded pound ed on the the table table and said, said, “No “No.. This is an Orthodox shul . It was built built as an Orthodo Orthodoxx shul , it wi will ll always remain an Orthodox shul , and there there will will be be no chandelier.” Nobody could quite understand why he was so upset, but out out of res respec pectt for Mr. Mr. Gol Goldbe dberg, rg, the theyy voted voted down down the inst install allati ation on of the chan chandel delier ier.. A numbe numberr of yea years rs passed and some younger people came onto the Board,  who couldn’t couldn’t understand why, why, with so much money in the ban bank, k, the shul  didn’ didn’tt install the chandelier. chandelier. They  renewed renew ed the motion motion to instal installl it, and again, again, in the midst midst of th thee discu discuss ssio ion, n, Mr Mr.. Go Gold ldbe berg rg,, re red d in the face face,, po poun undded on the table and and said, “This has always always been an Orthodox shul . As long as I’m alive alive it will remain remain an Orthodox shul . And there there will will be no no chandeli chandelier. er.”” The members membe rs of the Board Board sat sat around around stunn stunned, ed, but this this time,, despi time despite te Mr. Mr. Goldb Goldberg’ erg’ss objection objections, s, they voted voted to install insta ll the chandelier chandelier.. And after the vote vote was taken, taken, Mr Mr.. Goldbe Gol dberg, rg, bro broke ken, n, sto stood od at the the table, table, lea leaned ned ove over, r, and The Edah Journal 2.1 /  Tevet 5762 

said, “Oka “Okayy. You’l ou’lll have have your your chandeli chandelier er.. Now Now,, tell me. me.  Who is going to play it ?” ?” I often feel that that when people people talk about about issues of holiness and spirituality, spirituality, they act in the same manner as the people in that story. story. Somehow one person person is talking  about one thing and somebody else is talking about something somet hing else, else, and there’ there’ss never never a meeting meeting of the minds that makes it possible for people to move further and advance advance the fundamental agenda of the community community.. If the word word spiritualit spiritualityy calls to mind some some flaky new age figure, dressed in white and floating about two two feet off  the ground in some ascetic form, then its use will obviouslyy not encourage ousl encourage those those of us who tend tend to be relatively middle class and solidly grounded to want to movee in that direction mov direction.. Indeed Indeed,, it will tend tend to make make us avoid engaging with the idea altogether. altogether. Spirituality is generally genera lly understood understood as the opponent opponent of mater materialit ialityy and as therefore offering the remedy to the collapse of  meaning in Western Western materialism. We have been living  that materialism for the past forty years. Western culture has tried to persuade us that we are the automobile that  we are going to buy; that we are the kitchen that we are going to renovate renovate in our homes; homes; that somehow our material mater ial possessio possessions ns are really the essence essence of who we are. That proces process, s, one hopes hopes,, is begin beginning ning to wind wind down, but in doing so it is leaving large numbers numbers of  people who no longer seem to know where to discover meaning in their lives and yet are still searching for alternatives.. Even the Material Girl natives Girl thinks that she can import meaning into her life by occasionally engaging in meditation. medit ation. And within our own community community,, medit meditation ation and melody are also being used by some people in an effort to contend contend with with the absence absence of adequ adequate ate meanmeaning. I suggest that, at least as those approaches are commonly undertaken, they may simply simply be the latest steps in a long sequence sequence of failed attempts to invest invest meaning. meaning. Berman 2

Let’s start with Rambam’s assumption about the purLet’s pose of Torah. Rambam has a relati relatively vely simpl simplee and eleelegant assertion to make in The Guide Guide of the Perplexed, Perplexed, Book III, III, Chapte Chapters rs 27 and and 28. Ramba Rambam m contends contends that that every  mitsvah of the Tora orah, h, wit withou houtt except exception ion,, has one of thr three ee pur purpos poses es at its cor core. e. Fir First, st, the mitsvah may be intended to teach us us some truth, enabling us to guide our lives in consonance with what is true in the world and to to avoid avoid falsi falsity ty.. Second Second,, the mitsvah may be designed to enable us to transform ourselves and achieve moral perfection perfec tion through through the integration integration of noble moral moral qualiqualities into our our identities identities and the avoidanc avoidancee of the correlacorrelative false and destructive qualities qualities.. Finally Finally,, says Rambam, a mitsvah  may be designed to help us achieve a just society and avoid the correlative injustices in human relationships. Rambam notes that some people see mitsvot that appear to serve none none of these purposes purposes and and conclude conclude that they  they  exist only to force our our obedience. Rambam disagrees, disagrees, denyin den yingg that that any any of the mitsvot are designed simply to inculcate incul cate obedie obedience. nce. In his his view view,, caref careful ul study study and and analysis will show that each mitsvah in the the Torah, Torah, not only those that improve society in obvious ways but ritual mitsvot as well, well, serv serves es one one or more more of the these se three three purposes, even when that is not immediately immediately obvious to us. It has long been recognized by our sages that people engaged in performing a mitzvah often fail to connect clearly and effectively with its underlying purpose. Hazal  regularly responded to that failing. failing. Perhaps the first first systematic response to that was the invention of  birkhot ha-  blessings ings ove overr the the performa performance nce of comma commandndmitsvah , bless ments.. The rabbis ments rabbis envisione envisioned, d, and regarded regarded as intoleraintolerable,, the prosp ble prospect ect of a person person taking taking the the etrog, luvav  and other species and simply waving them in all sorts of  directions direct ions,, perfo performing rming the mitsvah  with  with no identity-transforming thought whatsoever. whatsoever. To deal with that prospect, they came up with with a brilliant idea: idea: Before we pick up the etrog  and lulav, we stop for a moment and utter the following lowi ng words: words: “Bles “Blessed sed art Thou, Thou, O Lord our our God, God, King of of the Univ Universe erse,, who sanctif sanctified ied us us with his comcommandments.”” The blessing recognizes mandments. recognizes that the act about about to be done is a medium for for the achievem achievement ent of sancti sanctity  ty  in one’s one’s life. life. It not only links links us us to God, who is the  Author of this command, but it links us to this search for the sense sense of meani meaning ng in the act that that we are about about to do. “ Asher qiddeshanu be-mitsvotav ve-tsivvanu”—-- He He comThe Edah Journal 2.1 /  Tevet 5762 

manded us to do this act. The rabbis hoped that by  by  pausing to utter these words before performing the act, the individual would be be stunned into thinking about  what the act means. What does it do to me when I do it? How does it transform me? How does it shape my  understanding of the reality? How does it shape my my values? How does it promote justice in society? But does the utterance really have have that effect? And if so, how? It was a valiant attempt by by the hakhamim , bu butt we we are a stiff-necked stiff-necked people, and in our stiff-neckedness stiff-neckedness we managed to learn to recite (or mutter) the berakhah itself   with as much rote as we brought to the act of the managed in our great capacity capacity to resis resistt the mitsvah . We managed struggle for meaning to totally routinize the berakhah .  Alternatively,, if we stop to think about it once in a  Alternatively  while, we say, say, “Oh, that’ that’ss nice.” Yet we still don’t allow  it to spark spark that inner inner search. search. The hakhamim eventually  recognized recog nized that, and tried again, adding adding,, befor beforee recita recita-tion ti on of th thee berakhah , an expli explicit cit stat stateme ement nt of int intent ention ion to fulfil God’s command (“Hineni mukhan u-mezuman ...”). ...”).  They hoped this statement, with its clarity, clarity, would really  spark that inner drive to understand what the mitsvah is. But we have managed to mumble mumble that off in even less time than it takes us to mumble the berakhah . So th thee Kabbalists added another layer, layer, specifying the recitation of “le-shem yihud qudesha...” (the act act about about to be performed is for the sake sake of uniti uniting ng the fragmented fragmented God), God), before bef ore the the recitat recitation ion of “Hineni mukhan u-mezuman.”  Let’s face it, there are not too many endeavors Let’s endeavors in life that could be of suc such h extraordinary extraordinary universal universal signifisignificance can ce as the mer mergin gingg of of the fra fragme gmente nted d God, God, of the repair of of the entire entire world, world, “with fear fear and with with awe. awe.””  The two halves of God’ God’ss name will be somehow  brought together in my doing this act. Nobody could possibly possi bly resist resist the power of that—e that—excep xceptt us. So we have have resisted, and that resistance is a major contributor tribu tor to the the bulk bulk of of the siddur. If we wer weree not not so resistant, we could have had a much shorter siddur , but because we keep muttering muttering what is there, there, the hakhamim , kept adding adding more more,, in the hope of catch catching ing us us by sursurprise and getting us to recognize that there is meaning  in this this.. I am afraid afraid that that the new new patte patterns rns of med medita itatio tion n and melody may simply be another step in this process of faile failed d attempts attempts and wind up merely merely producing producing a sid-  even en thic thicke kerr than than our curr current ent one one.. That is is, if the dur ev goal of of all of of thi thiss is to chan change ge the way way in whic which h we Berman  3

think about about the the elements elements of meani meaning ng in our our lives lives,, then somehow these preliminary preparations don’t seem to have worked worked all that well. well. I have some some particular feelings about why what commonly passes for spirituality may  not work. But I will come back back to that in a little while. while. Let me first pursue further the approach that Rambam laid out for us with respect to understanding the nature of meani meaning ng.. There is no no biblical biblical or even even rabbinic rabbinic word word for spiritual spirituality ity.. So what is the biblical, biblical, the Rabbinic Rabbinic understandi under standing ng of what it means means to be engaged engaged in a quest que st to link link to God? God? The term term,, of cou course rse,, is “qedushah,” hol holine iness ss.. Ram Rambam bam him himsel selff off offers ers us an explanation expla nation of why the the words words “ Qedoshim Tihyu” (Lev. 19:2), the divine command command to be holy is not counted as a separate mitsvah even though the Torah is here speaking in normative normative language: language: “Be holy. holy. Becom Becomee holy.” holy.” Rambam declines to count this as a separate mitsvah  because it is a global mitsvah ; it is th thee purpo purpose se of th thee entire Torah. The whole whole of the Torah Torah is desig designed ned to make us holy. How do we do that? Obviously through the mitsvot , but let’ss look more closely. let’ closely. What are the middot , the per person son-ality qualities that would make us holy? Rambam asserts that there is a fundamental mitsvah, which he lists as the eigh ei ghth th of of th thee mitsvot asei  (positive commandments) of  imit im itat atin ingg God God:: th thee mitsvah of  vehalakhta bi-derakhav  (“You (“Y ou shall shall walk walk in His His ways”). ways”). The imitation imitation of God, says Rambam, is the fundamental mechanism by by which  we achieve the goal of bringing God’s God’s values into the  world. That, of course, is what qedushah is about. holine iness ss,, is not not abou aboutt the pro proces cesss of tak taking  ing   Qedushah , hol oursel our selve vess out of the worl world; d; rat rather her,, it is all about the process   Wee do this through bringing God’s God’s values into the world.  W direct behavior and through symbolic representation of  those values within our lives. number of times that that the critical critical nature nature of  Hazal say a number the mitsvah of  imitateo dei , th thee imi imita tati tion on of of Go God, d, re requ quir ires es that we first first define what what qualities qualities of God we want want to imitate. Hazal tel telll us tha thatt not not all of the qual qualiti ities es of of God are appropriate for imitation by humans. humans. What qualities of God shoul should d we we imitate? imitate? Those qual qualities ities of God that are contained within the divine middot , the thi thirtee rteen n attributes by which God identifies his relational qualities.  They are set out in Exod. 24, immediately after the accoun acc ountt of of the sin of the gold golden en cal calf, f, whe when n God God instructs Moshe that the search for God’s presence in The Edah Journal 2.1 /  Tevet 5762 

life is possible and identifies identifies God’s God’s qualities. qualities. Those are the qualities that we need to imitate.  What are those qualities? They seem opaque in the text of the Torah. They are are contai contained ned in in two two verses verses,, eight of  them in the first and five in the second. They are the subjec sub jectt of a host host of dif differ ferent ent inte interpre rpretat tation ions. s. Let me me present prese nt an outlin outlinee of what those those quali qualities ties are, are, based on the various midrashim that deal deal with them, them, many of   which are quoted by Rashi. first qual quality ity,, is the the quali quality ty of produ productiv ctivity ity,,  A-donai , the first the dri drive ve to add add to the the good good of the worl world. d. Whe When n God God created create d the world, world, He left it incomplete incomplete,, so that our our contribution could continue to be felt. It’ It’ss not accidental that the rabbis discussed this when commenting on the exemptions to military service in discretionary wars ( mil-  mil-   ). The Torah lists a series of exempt men: hemot reshut  one who has built a house but has not yet dedicated it; one who has has planted planted a vineyard vineyard and not yet eaten eaten of it; one who has betrothed a woman but has not yet consummat sum mated ed the marria marriage ge (Duet. (Duet. 20: 20:5-7 5-7). ). To all of the these se the Torah Torah says: says: Stay home and continue continue the productive productive endeavor endea vor you you were engaged engaged in. The gemara  asks why are they in this particular order and answers that the Torah is teaching us normalcy. normalcy. The Torah Torah teaches us the nornormal conduct conduct that God expects expects of huma humanity— nity—to to build homes,, to plant vineyards homes vineyards,, to marry and build a family family.  These are fundamental components of human productivity that are essential to any human being. being. It’ It’ss not accidental that Rambam levels so extraordinary a critique against those who who would would say, say, “No, I don’t don’t have have to engage in anything having to do with real productivity in the worl world. d. I can secr secrete ete myse myself lf in the the back back of the cav cavee and there there meditat meditatee on the nature nature of God, not engaging  engaging  in the world’s world’s responsibilities, responsibilities, and the world will support me”. Such an attitude constitutes a failure failure in the imitaimitation of of God, that is is to lead lead a life life which which contains contains the qualities qual ities of produ productiv ctivity ity,, of God’ God’ss own creati creativity vity,, brought into the world.  The second A-donai is the attribu attribute te of inter interdepende dependence. nce. It is the structure that the Torah puts into place by   which we Jews live live interdependent lives. We live interdependently penden tly with with the rest of human humanity ity and and with natur nature. e. In sacrifices ces of the entire entire comm community unity,, qorbanot tsibbur , the sacrifi communal interdependence is affirmed. Hazal insist that the gorban tamid  cannot be the offerin offeringg of a single single person. It has to to be the offerin offeringg of the total total community community,, Berman  4

because we all have to understand that we cannot act as individuals in bringing an offering of ourselves to God. No one can do it for himself; we are totally interdpendent.  The third is  E-l , whi which ch is is the loy loyalt altyy of lov lovee and the the capacity to both give give and receive receive love. love. The fourth is which h is the qual quality ity of respo responsibi nsibility—  lity— arevut. rahum , whic arevut. It is that whole network of  mitsvot through which the Torah demands that we assume assume responsibility, responsibility, not merely for oursel our selve ves, s, but also also for the the well-be well-being ing of oth others ers.. The inculcatio incul cation n of that value value and the understandin understandingg that we need to live with that value deep in ourselves are essential eleme elements nts of our imitat imitation ion of of God’ God’ss charact character er and relational qualities qualities..  The fifth quality is hanun , from hein , ref referri erring ng to the the processs of shari proces sharing ng joy joy and pleasur pleasure. e. We are not comcomplete as human beings unless we have the capacity not only to experience joy and pleasure but to share them as  well. That is the quality that Hazal understood was present in God’s hein toward us—that God shared in our joy, that, to use anthrop anthropomorph omorphic ic language, language, God himself  himself  experiences joy joy in our our joy. joy. Similarly Similarly,, we need to experience joy in each other’s joy. obviou ious: s: It is is the the quali quality ty of of pat patien ience ce,, of   Erekh apayim  is obv tolerance. It is the recognition recognition that we need to be tolerant of div diversit ersityy up up to, to, but not inclu including, ding, compl complete ete evil.  Wee need to be intolerant of evil, but that is a different  W issue that we we must address at another time. time. In all other contex con texts ts,, tha thatt quality quality of pat patien ience, ce, the capaci capacity ty to wait wait out the the process process,, the ability ability to be tolerant tolerant of of other otherss and of the their ir imper imperfec fectio tions ns,, as well well as as of our oursel selve vess and our our own imperfections, imperfections, is an essential Godly quality that we need to imitate in our lives.  The seventh quality is hesed , th thee qual qualit ityy of me merc rcyy, extended to every individual. individual. Why is God’ God’ss hesed called ”rav ”(great)? ”(great)? It is because God has different hesed for each person person.. That is the quality quality of mercy that we we need to have, have, one that that is capabl capablee of being differ different ent for each person, recognizing what what that individual individual needs and how   we can shape ourselves, our communities, communities, our structures, and our institutions institutions in a way way that ensures the extension extens ion of that qual quality ity of of mercy to each each indi individua vidual.l.  The eighth quality—the last in the first verse is the quality of  emet , of trut truthfu hfulne lness ss and hon honest estyy. This is the The Edah Journal 2.1 /  Tevet 5762 

fundamental source for the Torah’ orah’ss demand that we imitate God by distancing ourselves from falsehood and deception and by not engaging in activities that undermine the capacit capacityy of others to to understand understand what what is true and what is real in the world.  The second set of attributes begins with notseir hesed,  which is the quality of gratitude, of loyalty loyalty.. It is manifested feste d throughout throughout the Torah: Torah: God’ God’ss quality quality of gratitu gratitude, de, God’ss loyalty to the patriarchs, God’ patriarchs, and God’s God’s loyalty to the  Jewish people. This quality needs to be echoed in our own loyalty and in our capacity to offer gratitude when  we are the beneficiaries of the good of others. Next is nosei avon , the capaci capacity ty for for forgi forgivene veness ss.. The  Torah  T orah mandates us, repeatedly repeatedly,, lo tiqom ; not to tak takee  vengeance, lo titor , not to harbour harbour grudges—not grudges—not to harharbour that that sense of hatred toward toward others others in your your heart—  but, rathe rather, r, to possess possess the capacity for forgive forgiveness ness..  Then comes, pesha , God’ God’ss capacity to bear our rebellion. On our part, it demands the courage courage to see the world world go in directions that we did not expect, to see things that appear to to be in a state of rebel rebellion lion against against everything  everything  that we value value,, eve everything rything that that we think think ought to be. be. It is preciselyy in such moments that we need to have God’s precisel God’s quality qual ity of coura courage ge to be capabl capablee of confro confronting nting that reality reali ty and, ultim ultimately ately,, deali dealing ng with with it. Next there is ve-hata’ah , th thee qual qualit ityy of pe pers rsis iste tenc nce. e. Go God d is persis persistent tent in in the face of all of of the indicat indications ions that we  will never quite submit fully to what He wants. Neverth Nev erthele eless ss,, God is is persis persisten tent, t, and we, we, too too,, nee need d to be persistent. Finally, Ve-naqeh , stri striving ving for justice justice.. In Rambam’ Rambam’ss scheme sche me of thing things, s, stri striving ving for for justice justice accounts accounts for fully  fully  two-t tw o-thir hirds ds of the mitsvot of th thee Tor Torah ah.. Al Alll thes thesee mitsvot  are addressed to the attempt to create justice in the  world. But the foregoing qualities—productivity, qualities—productivity, interdependence, depende nce, lov love, e, resp responsib onsibility ility,, share shared d pleas pleasure ure,, toler toler-ance, anc e, mer mercy cy,, hon honest estyy, lo loyal yalty ty,, for forgi give venes ness, s, cou courage rage,, per per-sistence and justice—are reflected not only in the mitsvot  that concretize them in the reality of people’ people’ss lives lives but also als o in all all of the symb symboli olic, c, rit ritual ual mitsvot . They are at the the coree of all of the man cor manife ifesta statio tions ns of  of  qedushah in the  Torah.  T orah.  Where does qedushah exist in the Torah? What is qadosh  Berman  5

in the Torah? Qedushah is found in time. Shabbat is qadosh  and the mo`adim , the festi festiva vals ls,, are defin defined ed as qadosh . Places also are deemed qadosh in the Tora orah. h. Har ha-bayit , the temple temple mount, mount, is the locus of God’ God’ss presence presence.. Erets  thee ent entir iree of of la land nd of Is Isra rael el is ho holy ly.. Per erso sons ns,, su such ch  yisra’el , th the kohanim , als also o manife manifest st qedushah.  Also Israel is characterized as goi qadosh , a holy holy nati nation. on.  Where else can we find qedushah in the Torah? Obviously, qedushah resid resides es in God Himself Himself.. God repeats, more often than any other claim about about himself, “I, the Lor Lord d your your God God,, am qadosh .” .” God is the the source source of  all qedushah in the the worl world. d. Fin Finall allyy, qedushah can reside in objects, object s, such as the the ritual objects objects in the sanctuary sanctuary.. And it is noteworthy noteworthy that that God makes none none of those objects objects..  Wee make them, and we do so precisely because we have  W to understand that we are the ones whose productivity  needs to bring qedushah into the world. world. Eve Even n in the processs of maki proces making ng and shapi shaping ng objects objects,, the challen challenge ge  we confront is bringing  qedushah into that process. My wife and I are about to have an extraordinary  opportunity opportu nity in the the lives lives of any Jews Jews in this world: world: We are about to renovate renovate a kitchen after a small small fire. Doing  so has raised extraordinary challenges for us. What does it mean to renovate a kitchen with qedushah ? You might say,, “No say “No,, you don’ don’tt have have to think think about about that.” that.” But of  course you have to think about that! That’s exactly what you have have to be thinking about: the objects and the process and what it does to you and to everyone else.  That’s a process in which qedushah is engaged.  This qedushah in objects objects is one of the vehicle vehicless through through  which the Torah attempts on a symbolic level to inculcate in us the deep awareness that holiness resides here , in this world, world, rathe ratherr than out there . Holin Holiness ess resid resides es in the objects objects that that we live live with with on a daily daily basis. basis. All of the categories categori es of holin holiness ess in in Torah Torah are the the categories categories of real life. lif e. They are are the the categori categories es of our time time.. Ther Theree is nothnothing more more real in our lives lives than than our time time.. If you decide decide to use time productively productively and creatively, creatively, then you can invest inv est meaning meaning in in your your life. life. If you decide decide to kill kill time, time, then you you kill kill meaning meaning in your your life. life. Simil Similarly arly,, holin holiness ess of  place is an issue for our our homes. homes. What makes our homes homes holy? What is it that we do there? What in the nature of  our relationships, relationships, in the way in which which we conduct those relationships, makes for holiness in our homes? Rambam’ss answer to this is very simple: It is our imitaRambam’ tion tio n of God God’’s attribu attributes tes on on all of the these se plane planes, s, in relarelaThe Edah Journal 2.1 /  Tevet 5762 

tion to the objects that fill our lives lives,, in regard to the relationships in which we exist as persons, persons, in regard to the places in which we reside, and in relation to time and the way in which which we utilize it. Investing those those moments, momen ts, perso persons, ns, object objectss and places places with with qedushah  depends upon our ability to achieve these values in them and through through them. them. If we use use our our time and our our persons persons  with responsibility and productivity, productivity, if we engage in relationships in which the sense of individualized mercy mercy,, of lo loyal yalty ty,, is pow powerf erful, ul, the then n we we bring  bring qedushah into the reality reali ty of of our wor worlds lds..  The locus of holiness is in the material world, not in the transcendent realm. The Torah Torah records that we we were created with bodies because God understood and desired that we use our bodies as the vehicle for achieving qedushah. W  Wee achieve qedushah, not by escaping our bodiess but throu bodie through gh our our bodies bodies and throu through gh all of the material existence in which which we live live as human beings. beings. If  God wanted another category of  mal’akhim (an (angel gels), s), He  would have have created another category categ ory of  mal’akhim . He  would have have created another category categ ory of disembodied souls that would would have been able able to sing to Him, all day  long lo ng,, “ Qadosh , Qadosh , Qadosh.” But He He obvio obvious usly ly didn didn’t ’t  want that for us, for He created us with bodies surrounded by material goods so that we could learn from his relational relational qualit qualities ies how to conduct conduct all of these aspects aspec ts of of our exis existence tence with a sense sense of holin holiness ess..  The world is where meaning resides. If spirituality  drives driv es us away away from from the real world, world, if our approac approach h to this notion of spirituality involv involves es the mystical merger  with God and drives us away from the awareness of the need to govern govern the reality reality of our bodily bodily and material material existence exis tence,, then it will will do no more more than, than, “Heneni mukhan  .” It will will bring us no closer closer to God. God. To u-mezuman .” achieve holiness holiness requires work, work, and there are no quick  quick  solutions solu tions in notion notionss of Jew Jewish ish spir spiritual ituality ity.. Eve Every ry time you pick up the luluv you must think about what it means and what it does. Every time you do a mitsvah , be it putting on tefillin or going to the miqvah, you must havee a deep consciousne hav consciousness ss of the transformativ transformativee qualitiess of the act tie act.. Doe Doess the the act act link link me to truth? truth? How  does it inform my personality personality,, shape who I am, strengthen and affirm my noble qualities? What does it do to help me think about justice and how justice is to be achieved? achieved? There is no cheap way out, no short path. Holiness Holin ess requires requires work. work. It requires requires effort. It requires requires study.. It requires study requires consciousness. consciousness. It requires requires attentiveness. attentiveness. Berman  6

It requires awareness at a deeper level, level, perhaps deeper than we have ever tried to experience it before.  Torah requires such consciousness—and  Torah consciousness—and not only in regard to the ritual mitsvot. One of of the great great traged tragedies ies is that we have arrived at the point where even the behavioral mitsvot that bear these meanings explicitly,  which hazal assumed did not require a berakhah , ha hav ve come to be performed meaninglessly meaninglessly.. A person today  today  can actually give tsedaqah  without  without understanding what that means to his or her personality and to the production of justi justice ce in the the world. world. Can you you imagine imagine someon someonee returning returni ng a lost piece of prope property rty without without deeply underunderstanding standi ng the meaning meaning and the value value of that assumptio assumption n of responsibility? We spend a year teaching teaching our children the talm talmudic udic chap chapter ter of “ Eilu Metsi’ot”  (BT Bava Metsi’a   ) relating to lost property property,, yet we fail to encourage them to think about what that means for their holiness and how they achieve achieve holiness in the world. world. Yet that is the  work we must be doing—in our learning, in our symbolic mitsvot and in our practical mitsvot . Whe When n we beg begin in to focus that way, way, we will begin to think differently  about ourselv ourselves, es, about the world world at large, large, and about our our  Jewish world. world. Moreover, when we begin to think that way about jusMoreover, justice we may be able to stop thinking about why other people are not producing producing justice justice.. We would ask, ask, rather rather,,  what we ourselves are doing to produce justice. For exampl exa mple, e, the agunah problem is not just a problem of  justice for our community or for our communal leaders and rabbis rabbis who need to resolve resolve instance instancess of that injusinjustice. tic e. Onl Onlyy some some 3% of us are mem member berss of of con congrega grega-tions in which the rabbi will refuse to perform a wedding unless unless the couple couple agrees to the use use of a pre-nuptial pre-nuptial agreement. agreeme nt. Where are are the rest of of us? In In our assu assumptio mption n of res respon ponsib sibili ility ty for for justi justice, ce, how man manyy of us are are memmembers of congrega congregations tions that actually actually have have and implement implement sanctions against spouses who are recalcitrant in regard to the the iss issuan uance ce of of a get ? Perhaps Perhaps a few few more, more, but not many.. This is not nearly many nearly enough. enough. Where are are the rest of  us? Is justice only for Rabbi Rackman to achieve? Rabbi Rackman may have done extraordinary things. There are many of of us who who may disagre disagreee with him, but it is not not his responsibility alone to produce justice. justice. It is our responsibility sibil ity,, every one of us us.. We have have the capacity capacity to proproduce justice justice if we assume assume responsibility responsibility and understand understand

The Edah Journal 2.1 /  Tevet 5762 

that this this is part of our holines holiness. s.  Without that assumption of responsibility responsibility,, my holiness is incompl incomplete. ete. When we we think think about about the qualit qualityy of interdependence and we think about what that means in regard to living with all other Jews Jews,, we realize that we we cannot survive survive as Jews Jews if we are isolated isolated and fragmentfragmented. We have to think differently about what it means  when, for example, loyalty comes into conflict with justice. We have all been reading about that a lot recently. recently.  What happens when loyalty and gratitude g ratitude comes into conflict with a sense of justice? Some say say it’s it’s a simple quest qu estion ion.. You go for justi justice, ce, and if the resu result lt will will be injustice then you walk walk away from it. It does not seem to me to be quite that simple, simple, that you should walk walk away  from fro m loyal loyalty ty and and from from a sense sense of of grat gratitu itude. de. If it were were,, then why why are all those who are are critical critical of the Squarer Squarer similarly critical critical of honor honoring ing tobacco tobacco merhasidim not similarly chantss who serve as heads chant heads of federa federations tions?? Those merchants are certainly responsible for more deaths and disabilities abili ties than than any any particular particular group group of Jew Jews. s. But those those critical voices are not raised because everybody understands that the balance between loyalty and justice is a  very complex matter. One cannot condemn people on the basis of ove over-s r-simpli implificat fication ion of the issu issue. e.  We know that there is enor mous richness available  We available to us in the quest for qedushah . The cha challe llenge nge of hol holine iness ss is a great challenge that lies before us as individuals and as a community comm unity.. The challenge challenge is to develop develop,, on both a cognitive niti ve and an emotiona emotionall level, level, an awarenes awarenesss of God’ God’ss  values that we want to integrate into our lives as tools for the transf transformation ormation of our daily daily lives lives.. The fact is is that holiness does not only exist in the synagogue and it does not only exist on har ha-bayit . It exists exists in the daily  daily  live li vess of ev every ery one of of us us,, and our our inve investm stment ent in in creatin creating  g  holiness holin ess can create create a depth of meani meaning ng that we may  may  neverr previous neve previously ly have have experi experienced, enced, a depth of of meani meaning  ng  in our daily existence that is powerful. It keeps us conscious sci ous of who God God is, is, who we we are, are, and what what our our mismission is is in the world. world. It is the the shaping shaping of real holines holinesss in every ev ery aspec aspectt of our mate materia riall existe existence nce.. If we mere merely ly will will it, it will will not hap happen pen.. But if we wo work rk at it, it, it migh mightt haphappen—for us as individuals and for us as a community. Ken yehi ratson .

Berman  7