Love

 Kedoshim

Lev. 19:1-20:27

 

Précis:  The opening words of Kedoshim are “You shall be holy” (kedoshim tihyu), and it continues with various descriptions of how the People are to strive for holiness. Included are fundamental laws, such as fearing one’s parents and observing Shabbat. Consideration of the poor through the commandments to leave the corners of fields for gleaners is included, as are mandates which complement the ethical principles of the Ten Commandments (being honest, avoiding vengeance). Specific bans against magicians, soothsaying, witchcraft and defiling the dead follow, as are reminders to avoid human sacrifice. This parasha is often viewed as the very core of moral teaching for the Jewish People.

 

Lev. 19:18 “Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord”

Lev. 19:34 “The stranger living among you must be treated as your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt. I am the Lord your God”

 

Rabbi Sacks, (Covenant and Conversation, 4/29/20) notes that this week’s reading includes what he calls “the two great love commands of the Torah.” Rabbi Akiva called 19:18 “the great principle of the Torah​.” ​ Sacks notes that the second verse may be more challenging.
            While many cultures have similar variations to the “Golden Rule,” these are rules of reciprocity, not love. We observe them because bad things will happen to us if we don’t. They are essentially quid-pro-quo’s.
            The Jewish view is based on love. While there has been much commentary about what is “love,” who is one’s “neighbor,” and who is a “stranger,” we can ask yet another question. Why do these verses appear in the heart of Kedoshim, the “holiness code?” This is the only place in the entire Bible where we are commanded to love our neighbor, and one of only two places where we are commanded to love the “stranger” (the other in Deut 10:19). Why do these “love” commandments appear in the midst of a host of other commands, from treating animals and servants properly, to refraining from mixing seeds in a field.

            Sacks suggests that there are three different Jewish answers to this question.

            First, the prophetic voice is about how people conduct themselves in society. Are they faithful to God and to one another? Are we acting morally, with concern for the least among us? Moral societies will flourish, immoral societies fail. The Prophets did not make the demand that people love one another. Society requires justice, not love.
            Second, we have a voice of reason, which we see best expressed in Psalms: if we act well, things will go well for us. This is the Jewish version of the quid pro quo, and neither does this voice speak of love.
            Third, and most importantly, we have the Priestly vision of love, which is based on holiness: someone or something that is set apart, distinctive, different. While holiness was initially within the province of the Priests, there were hints in Torah that holiness would extend to all of the People – a nation of priests (​Ex. 19:6).

            We as a People are held to this higher standard. As we read again and again in Leviticus, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy,” we are reminded that because God loves humanity, we must love humanity as well.