The Holiness of Holding Back | Kedoshim 5783

קדשים תהיו YE SHALL BE HOLY — This means, keep aloof from the forbidden sexual relations just mentioned and from sinful thoughts. [It is evident that this is the meaning of קדשים תהיו because] wherever you find in the Torah a command to fence yourself in against such relations you also find mention of “holiness". Examples are: (Leviticus 21:7) “[They shall not take] a wife that is a harlot, or a profane etc.", and in the next verse "for I, the Lord, who sanctifieth you, [am holy]"; (Leviticus 21:15) “Neither shall he profane his seed (by the forbidden unions mentioned in the preceding verses) for I the Lord do sanctify him"; (Leviticus 21:6) "They shall be holy… followed by (v. 7) "[they shall not take] a wife that is a harlot or a profane" (cf. Vayikra Rabbah 24:4-6).

YE SHALL BE HOLY. “Abstain from the forbidden sexual relationships [mentioned in the preceding section] and from [other] sin, because wherever you find [in the Torah] a warning to guard against immorality, you find the mention of ‘holiness.’” This is Rashi’s language. But in the Torath Kohanim I have seen it mentioned without any qualification [i.e., without any particular reference to immorality, as Rashi expressed it], saying: “Be self-restraining.” Similarly, the Rabbis taught there: “And ye shall sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, for I am Holy. Just as I am Holy, so be you holy. Just as I am Pure, so be you pure.” And in my opinion, this abstinence does not refer only to restraint from acts of immorality, as the Rabbi [Rashi] wrote, but it is rather the self-control mentioned throughout the Talmud, which confers upon those who practice it the name of P’rushim (Pharisees), [literally: “those who are separated” from self-indulgence, as will be explained, or those who practice self-restraint]. The meaning thereof is as follows: The Torah has admonished us against immorality and forbidden foods, but permitted sexual intercourse between man and his wife, and the eating of [certain] meat and wine. If so, a man of desire could consider this to be a permission to be passionately addicted to sexual intercourse with his wife or many wives, and be among winebibbers, among gluttonous eaters of flesh, and speak freely all profanities, since this prohibition has not been [expressly] mentioned in the Torah, and thus he will become a sordid person within the permissible realm of the Torah! Therefore, after having listed the matters which He prohibited altogether, Scripture followed them up by a general command that we practice moderation even in matters which are permitted, [such as in the following]: One should minimize sexual intercourse, similar to that which the Rabbis have said, “So that the disciples of the Sages should not be found together with their wives as often as the hens,” and he should not engage in it except as required in fulfillment of the commandment thereof. He should also sanctify himself [to self-restraint] by using wine in small amounts, just as Scripture calls a Nazirite “holy” [for abstaining from wine and strong drink], and he should remember the evils which the Torah mentioned as following from [drinking wine] in the cases of Noah and Lot. Similarly, he should keep himself away from impurity [in his ordinary daily activity], even though we have not been admonished against it in the Torah, similar to that which the Rabbis have said: “For the P’rushim (Pharisees), the clothes of the unlearned are considered as if trodden upon by a zav” [or zavah — a man or woman having suffered a flux], and just as the Nazirite is called “holy” because of guarding himself from the impurity of the dead. Likewise he should guard his mouth and tongue from being defiled by excessive food and by lewd talk, similar to what Scripture states, and every mouth speaketh wantonness, and he should purify himself in this respect until he reaches the degree known as [complete] “self-restraint,” as the Rabbis said concerning Rabbi Chiya, that never in his life did he engage in unnecessary talk. It is with reference to these and similar matters that this general commandment [Ye shall be holy] is concerned, after He had enumerated all individual deeds which are strictly forbidden, so that cleanliness of hands and body, are also included in this precept, just like the Rabbis have said: “And ye shall sanctify yourselves. This refers to the washing of hands before meals. And be ye holy. This refers to the washing of hands after meals [before the reciting of grace]. For I am holy — this alludes to the spiced oil” [with which they used to rub their hands after a meal]. For although these [washings and perfuming of the hands] are commandments of Rabbinic origin, yet Scripture’s main intention is to warn us of such matters, that we should be [physically] clean and [ritually] pure, and separated from the common people who soil themselves with luxuries and unseemly things. And such is the way of the Torah, that after it lists certain specific prohibitions, it includes them all in a general precept. Thus after warning with detailed laws regarding all business dealings between people, such as not to steal or rob or to wrong one another, and other similar prohibitions, He said in general, And thou shalt do that which is right and good, thus including under a positive commandment the duty of doing that which is right and of agreeing to a compromise [when not to do so would be inequitable]; as well as all requirements to act “beyond” the line of justice [i.e., to be generous in not insisting upon one’s rights as defined by the strict letter of the law, but to agree to act “beyond” that line of the strict law] for the sake of pleasing one’s fellowman, as I will explain when I reach there [that verse], with the will of the Holy One, blessed be He. Similarly in the case of the Sabbath, He prohibited doing certain classes of work by means of a negative commandment, and painstaking labors [not categorized as “work,” such as transferring heavy loads in one’s yard from one place to another, etc.] He included under a general positive commandment, as it is said, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest. I will yet explain this with the help of G-d.

Similarly, they said (Bava Metzia 49a): "[What is taught by the verse (Vayikra 19:36):] 'A just Hin [shall you have', surely 'Hin' is included in 'Ephah'?] [Answer] it is to teach you that your 'yes' [hen] should be just and your 'no' should be just! [Abaye said: That means that one must not speak one thing with the mouth and another with the heart]".

So his brothers were wrought up at him, and his father kept the matter in mind.

Once we have appreciated this, we will also understand the ‎opinion of Nachmanides who writes that it is a commandment to ‎mention the Sabbath on each of the days preceding it. This is the ‎reason why when we recite the daily psalm at the end of our daily ‎morning prayers we commence with mentioning what day of the ‎week it is by linking it to the Sabbath, i.e. “today is the first day ‎of the Sabbath.” [We do not say: “this is the first day of ‎the week,” for instance. Ed.] According to Nachmanides ‎this is the reason that the Torah writes ‎זכור את יום השבת לקדשו‎, ‎‎“remember the day of the Sabbath to sanctify it,” instead of ‎merely writing: “remember the Sabbath to sanctify it.” (Exodus ‎‎20,8). The message is that we are to remember the Sabbath every ‎day of the week, the word ‎זכור‎ not being in the imperative mode ‎but in the infinitive mode. By doing so we indicate how we look ‎forward to keeping the Sabbath at the end of the week. Having ‎looked forward to the Sabbath in such a fashion ensures that ‎when the day arrives we will honour it with all our heart and will ‎not, G’d forbid, commit any act which would desecrate its ‎holiness. From all the above it follows that if Moses had ‎announced the fact that the manna would not descend on the ‎Sabbath as soon as He had been told about this by G’d, the people ‎could have prepared themselves for this day until Friday and the ‎desecration by some people of the Sabbath might well have been ‎avoided. The sudden announcement shortly before the onset of ‎the Sabbath took everyone by surprise and resulted in some ‎people not treating the Sabbath with the respect due to it.
The word ‎לשמור‎ in our verse need not be understood as “to ‎observe,” but may equally well be understood as “to await,” as it ‎is understood in Genesis 37,11 where it describes Yaakov’s ‎reaction to Joseph’s dream in which he saw sun and moon bowing ‎down to him. It means that Yaakov awaited further developments ‎before deciding if there was any substance to Joseph’s dream. This ‎is also how Rashi understands the word ‎לשמור‎ in our verse, ‎when he writes that Moses was punished by G’d not excluding ‎him from the accusation leveled at the community at large. He ‎was the indirect cause of the desecration of the Sabbath by the ‎people, as he had failed to prepare the people for the advent of ‎the Sabbath. They should have eagerly awaited that day, i.e. have ‎looked forward to it with great expectations.‎