Rabbi Howard Morrison

Parshat Kedoshim is part of a trilogy known as the holiness code, combined with the portions of Acharei Mot (last week) and Emor (next week). Kedoshim is considered the mid-point of the entire Torah. Our Sages teach us that the majority of the Torah's fundamental principles are found in Kedoshim. They also teach us that the familiar Ten Commandments are restated in their entirety in this week's Parsha. The term Kedusha, holiness, pervades everything that we are and that we do: Our speech, our ritual interactions with God, our ethical interactions with people. Even the land of Israel is considered to be holy.

It is perhaps no accident that the centrality of the land is featured toward the end of the Parsha and toward the end of the Haftarah from the Prophet, Amos.

Given that we will observe Yom Ha'Zikaron on Monday and Yom Ha'Atzmaut on Tuesday, I am focusing on the significance of Israel today.

Given that 21members of our congregational family will be starting a solidarity mission in Israel this Tuesday, I am focusing on the significance of Israel today.

In 1973 at this season of the year, I celebrated my Bar Mitzvah at the Kotel in Jerusalem. Almost every single year since then, I have read my Bar Mitzvah Parsha in public. In 1984, during my Israel rabbinical school year, I read my Parsha at the Kotel for a second time, with my fellow students. My Parsha was not Kedoshim, but Bhar, for which I will be in Israel in two weeks' time. I hope to find a place in Israel to recite my Parsha.

Given the world in which we now live since October 7, I am focusing on the significance of Israel today. While many non-Jews may not care what our Torah has to say, we need to heed our own spiritual message.

In today's Parsha, we read: "You shall possess their land (the nation that God has thrown out), for I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey (Lev. 20:34)."

In today's Haftarah from the Prophet, Amos, we read: "I will restore my people, Israel . They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine; They shall till gardens and eat their fruit; And I will plant them upon their soil, nevermore to be uprooted from the soil I have given them- said the Lord your God. (Amos 9:14-15)."

The Prophet, Amos, lived in the 700's BCE. Clearly, our people were uprooted from our divinely gifted land many times since his prophecy. The last exile from Jewish sovereignty lasted from the Second Temple's destruction in 70CE until 1948, with the birth and creation of the modern State of Israel.

What is each and every Jew doing to help preserve Israel as the Jewish homeland? Much of the world at large has gone mad with its chants and rhetoric of: Death to Zionists, Gas the Jews, Go back to Poland, Go back to Brooklyn, From the river to the sea, and so on, and so forth.

Monday - Yom Ha'Zikaron - Take time to remember all who have given their lives for the State of Israel, from pre-1948 to young men and women sacrificing their lives right now, even as we sit safely in shul.

Tuesday - Yom Ha'Atzmaut - Take to appreciate and celebrate Israel Independence Day. Come to shul in the morning and recite Hallel and a special Al Hanisim, "for the miracles." Or, celebrate it in a way which is meaningful to you.

Today, we read about Kedushat Ha'Aretz, the holiness of our homeland. 3600 years later, it is our task to study it, cherish it, remember it, and celebrate it.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Howard Morrison