2000
Holiness: Something You Are, or Something You Do?
Parshat Kedoshim begins with the following verse:
"Speak to the entire community of the Children of Israel, and say to them: Holy are you to be Israel" (Leviticus 19:1)
The Midrash in Leviticus Rabba makes a connection between the opening verses of the Parsha with the Ten Commandments. It sees these verses as an expansion of the Ten Commandments.
What prompted this Parsha to be expressed to the entire community? Why didn't it just say "speak to the children of Israel" like the other portions?
The entire community of Israel is included because all the Ten Commandments are included in this portion. How so?
In the Ten Commandments it is written: "I am YHWH your God." In our portion it is written, "I am YHWH your God."
In the Ten Commandments it is written: "You will not have any other gods before you." Here it is written: "Do not turn-your-faces to no-gods, and molten gods you are not to make yourselves."
In the Ten Commandments it is written: "Do not take YHWH's Name in vain." Here it is written, "You are not to swear by my name falsely, thus profaning the name of your God."
In the Ten Commandments it is written: "Keep the Sabbath." Here it is written, "My Sabbaths you are to keep..."
In the Ten Commandments it is written, "Honor your father and mother." Here it is written, "Each-man his mother and his father you are to hold-in-awe."
In the Ten Commandments it is written, "You shall not murder" and here it is written: "You are not to stand by the blood of your neighbor."
In the Ten Commandments it is written, "Do not commit adultery." Here it is written, "yes death to the adulterer and the adulteress..." (This verse appears in Leviticus 20:10)
In the Ten Commandments it is written, "Do not steal" and here it is written, "You are not to steal."
In the Ten Commandments it is written, "You are not to testify against your fellow falsely" and here it is written, "You are not to traffic in slander among your kinspeople."
In the Ten Commandments it is written, "Do not covet." Here it is written, "You are not to withhold property from your neighbor, you are not to commit robbery."
So you see that all Ten Commandments are included in this portion, and that is why it is written that "the entire community of Israel" must hear this.
Your Midrash Navigator
1. Why is it necessary for the Midrash to make this connection between the Ten Commandments and these verses?
2. How do these verses embellish the Ten Commandments?
A Word
Many commentators say the reason the Ten Commandments are singled out is that they embody the whole Torah. Somehow, the whole Torah is connected in the connections made between these two sections of the Torah. It introduces the notion that the Ten Commandments are a code that requires interpretation. The rabbis see that interpretation begin late in the Torah itself, modeling how they too must seize meaning by looking for clues from the words themselves.
It also implies that the whole Torah is subsumed under the scriptural exhortation, "You shall be holy."