Parshiyyot Acharei Mot – Kedoshim 5780 — 05/02/2020
Acharei Mot: Vayikra 16:1-18:30
Kedoshim: Vayikra 19:1-20:27
Or haChaim Talks about Sex!
Now that I have your attention, I’ll remind you that our double portion this week contains the two chapters in Leviticus (18 and 20) that list the sexual relationships that Torah forbids. Or haChaim takes a fairly ascetic view of the matter:
Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: I am Hashem your Gd. Do not act according to the ways of the land of Egypt in which you dwelt, and according to the ways of the land of Canaan into which I am bringing you do not do, nor act according to their traditions (Lev. 18:2-3)
Consider: It is well known that all the mitzvot that Hashem issued to His holy nation are mitzvot whose challenges a person can withstand, by directing himself to his will, which is to fulfill the mitzvot – with the exception of the mitzvah to abstain from immoral acts, for it is something that man’s nature craves, and this craving practically compels him to engage in them. The only way is by making effort to distance the two means of approach to immorality: 1) he must avoid the sense of sight (looking at inappropriate things) and 2) he must avoid the component of thought. If one does not do both of these things one cannot rule over this impulse and rid himself of it. For as long as he does not distance his sight from immoral things, even if he avoids the component of thought, he will not be able to control himself to rid himself of the compelling desire.
Or haChaim distinguishes here between desire and will. Desire is taken to mean desire for physical pleasures, while will is taken to mean the striving for spirituality, to come closer to and to connect with Gd. He takes these two to be working at cross-purposes, and, in particular, he takes desire as the force that pulls us towards the material world and away from Gd.
This is the meaning of the statement of the Sages of blessed memory, who said: The righteous are in control of their hearts, but the wicked are controlled by their hearts (e.g. Bereishit Rabbah 34:10). The idea of this is: Desire and craving exist in a person’s heart, and will in his mind. Now [these] are two opposing levels of influence that Hashem instilled in people. When a person encounters immorality [e.g. through sight] his heart desires it. However, this desire is not the deciding factor, for the will, which is associated with the mind, can restrain him from [doing that] which he desires, so that despite his desire, he will not do it.
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Now the righteous always proceed in this way and [thus] “they are in control of their hearts”; although they experience desire in their hearts, the mind, which is the neshamah, chooses [whether to follow their desire]. If the act is prohibited by Hashem or is repulsive, their will rejects it and restrains the craving… The wicked, however, are controlled by their hearts, so that whenever a desire enters their hearts their will does not have the ability to restrain it.
Eventually, through a process of refinement, the nature of desire in the person is transformed so that even his desire is to cling to Gd, and by one’s transformed nature, even the nature of desire gets reversed, taking one higher instead of lower:
This is what David haMelech, may he rest in peace, referred to when he said: To fulfill Your Will, my Gd, do I desire, and Your Torah is in my innards (Ps 40:9).
I would like to analyze this situation from a slightly less severe perspective. We know that creation is structured in layers. There is a surface layer, the level of material creation, and there are deeper, more subtle and abstract layers. At the basis of all creation is a transcendental field from which all these layers progressively manifest. An analogy from modern physics to this transcendental field is the Unified Field, whose patterns of vibrations are the various levels we know about – the level of subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, and material creation made up of combinations of molecules. All the laws of nature are structured in this transcendental field. And, as we have discussed in previous essays, Torah is structured in the transcendental field as well, as it is a projection into the sounds of human speech of these very laws of nature.
Again, by analogy with modern physics, we know that the deeper, more abstract layers are more charming and more powerful. The more concrete layers correspond to the “outer” direction of the mind. The mind is generally projected outward through the senses and through the organs of action, because it is through these bodily functions that we interact with the outside world, the world of objective creation. The body is the interface between our subjective world, the world of the mind, and the objective world.
All this is well and good, except when the body takes charge and makes the mind serve it, rather than it’s serving the mind. When this happens the mind is forced into constant activity, which leads to fatigue, stress, and eventual breakdown. What is necessary is to give the mind a break and let it turn inwards, towards the deeper, more subtle, quieter levels of thought, until the entire thinking process is transcended, and the mind directly experiences the transcendent. This process happens automatically, because it is the nature of the mind to go to where it will find more power, more charm, more happiness. (We experience this all the time – the mind is constantly distracted from what it is doing because it is always moving in search of more enjoyment.)
With repeated experience of the transcendental field, the mind develops the ability to maintain this transcendental awareness while engaged in outer activity. The blemishes in the structure of the mind and the nervous system (which supports the functioning of the mind) are rectified, and thoughts are now projected from the transcendental field, where they are in accord with and are supported by all the laws of nature.
I believe this is what Or haChaim is describing when he analyzes the passage in Psalms: Such a person’s desire comes from the transcendental level, and his action from that level is spontaneously in accord with Gd’s Will. Why? Because Torah is in his innermost Self, the transcendental field with which his mind has become identified. Such a person is completely satisfied, for his mind is unbounded, he has no craving to go in the outward direction, his mind no longer has to wander in a fruitless search for fulfillment. He has found his fulfillment in himself, in Gd’s loving embrace.
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parshiyyot Acharei Mot-Kedoshim
In Parashat Acharei Mot, Gd commands that only the High Priest may enter the Holy of Holies and he may only do that once a year, on Yom Kippur.
This raises the question: May only the High Priest experience the Full Presence of Gd? And may he only experience that once a year?
Compare this commandment with the commandment in the next parashah, Kedoshim, in which Gd says, “Be thou Holy, for I Am Holy.”
This commandment says that we, all of us, must always be Holy, not just the High Priest and not just once a year.
Looking at the commandment in Acharei Mot from this point of view, we can see that, although the Tabernacle and all its details, including the Holy of Holies and the actions of the priests and the High Priest, were specifically designed by Gd to assist us in being aware of His Presence, it is possible for us to be fully aware of His Presence wherever we are and whoever we are.
The 10 Commandments/Statements/Utterances/Words give us very clear guidance for our behavior so that we can act and be Holy. Particularly, the commandment/ statement/utterance, “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy Gd, with all thy heart, all thy soul, and all thy might” and, very close to it, the commandment which appears in Parashat Kedoshim, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
To me and to probably all of our congregation the guidance to love Gd has resulted in our doing our best to live our life routinely and moment-to-moment in an innocent, non-straining way that allows our Nature, which is Joy and Love, to be more and more deeply experienced and more and more deeply expressed in every feeling, thought and action.
Living this way we are becoming increasingly aware of Gd -Totality – as all there is and therefore our love becomes more and more, Love, the same Love that Gd Is; and Joy, the same Joy that Gd is. Thus our love is naturally directed to Gd, without our having to think about it, no matter where our attention may be: the love is not a mood, it is a natural experience of Gd as Love within Whom our individuality is a flow of Gd’s Love, flowing within Gd, naturally experiencing more and more of the Wholeness and Uniting with Gd, fully remembering, fully experiencing, that we are an Expression of Gd — Gd is all there is.
The guidance to love our neighbor as our selves, naturally results in our doing our best to know our selves more and more fully as Self, the One Self and thus, to love our selves more and more fully, to increase in our love for every aspect of existence, every individual expression of Gd, flowing within Gd, including our neighbors.
Although it will be nice, great, wonderful! when the Temple is rebuilt and we have its assistance in being aware of Gd’s Presence, Kedoshim commands us all that we should be Holy, in and out of the Temple, whatever our status in the community.
Through our desires to love Gd, love our neighbor, be Holy and through the actions we take to fulfill these desires we in our community are becoming increasingly aware of Gd’s Presence as Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omni-Joyful, Omni-Loving and our behavior becomes increasingly naturally loving and Loving, Holy, Holy, Holy!, more and more completely united with Gd, One.
Thank You, Gd!
Parashat Kedoshim presents two of the six major statements of Torah:
“Be thou Holy, for I Am Holy.”
“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
The others are:
“I Was, I Am and I Will Be”: Gd’s answer to Moses when Moses asks Gd “What shall I tell the people when they ask ‘Who You Are?'”
“Listen [not just “Hear”: Listen!], Oh Israel: The Lrd, thy Gd, is One.”
“Be Still and Know that I Am Gd.”
“Thou shalt love the Lrd, thy Gd, with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy might.”
How to be Holy!
Gd commands: honor thy parents, don’t worship idols, contribute to the poor, be honest and not greedy. Overall, to be holy we need to orient ourselves toward Wholeness, respecting everyone and everything as an expression of Wholeness, not getting lost in a part.
How to love our neighbor as our selves?
First, we need to know ourselves and to love the self we know. This gets easier as we behave in the moral way the first statement tells us — we begin to know ourselves as Wholeness, Pure Love, Single Self, not just our limited individuality.
And our neighbor is also this Single Self, All There Is.
We experience our neighbor as our Self and so our love is Love, Self-Referral, automatic.
We see evidence of this success in the stories told of the great Tzaddiks, the righteous people, including the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well as Joseph, Moses, David and the Kabbalah Masters.
What a Blessing!
Baruch HaShem