Acharei Mot - Kedoshim 5773

By Rabino Gustavo Kraselnik

Kol Shearith Israel - Panamá

Which is the most important verse in the entire Torah?

Sounds challenging, right?  How do you choose between its 5845 verses?  Without even thinking, at least a dozen possibilities come up.  Perhaps it would be worthwhile to stop reading at this point, and make an attempt to answer the question.

I enjoy doing this exercise.  Whenever I have the chance, I present it to my audience and listen attentively to their choices.  Although it is true that there are no correct answers, they tell us much about their religious world view.

In Midrash Bereshit Rabba (24:7) we find opinion on the subject of two well-known rabbis from the second half of the 2nd century C.E.: Rabbi Akiva and Shimon Ben Azai.  The first chooses the famous verse that appears in Parashat Kedoshim, “Love your fellow as yourself: I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:17), whereas the second one leans toward a less known verse, “This is the record of Adam's line. — When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God…” (Gen. 5:1).

Did these choices surprise you?  When I quote this text, the first reaction I see is suspicion mixed with a bit of disappointment.  “Bets” tended towards the side of the faith or of specific mitzvot.  The audience expected a more “religious” answer from these two great teachers, whether on the belief in God or on the keeping of certain ritual commandments.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, on his introduction to the book called A code of Jewish Ethics, attracts our attention to this same phenomenon.  He affirms that, in our times, when 2 Jews talk about the religiousness of a third party, they are clearly referring to his/her observance of ritual aspects.  They are religious if they are Shomer Shabbat, or if they eat Kosher.

However, despite their differences, both Rabbi Akiva and Shimon Ben Azai understand that the essence of the Torah deals fundamentally with human dignity, the respect for every creature.  The choice of these two verses constitutes an affirmation of their being men of faith, by stating our responsibility and our commitment toward every person, whether because of faith (Rabbi Akiva) or because of equality (Ben Azai).

In this same direction, we could mention the famous Talmudic story (Shabbat 31a) of the gentile who wishes to convert if someone explains Judaism to him in just one sentence (“while standing on one leg”).  “That which is hateful to you, do not unto another:  this is the whole Torah.  The rest is commentary — [and now] go study.”  Hillel, one of the greatest teachers of our people, who lived at the beginning of the Common Era, answered the question with those words.

And do not believe for a moment that Hillel was a poorly observant Jew.  To the contrary.  He was a man of faith and mitzvot.  But nevertheless, for Hillel, Judaism was, in essence, fundamentally ethical.  Serious and deep study of the Jewish texts (“now go and study”) should aspire to develop and put into practice a way of life that supports that guiding principle.

What we need to understand is that for Jewish tradition, the contemporary phenomenon of separating ethics from religion never existed.  This is proved not only by the rabbinical texts quoted above (and there are many more), but also by the beginning of Parashat Kedoshim, chapter 19 of Va-yikra (Leviticus), known as the Holiness Code.

There, the call to “be holy” (which appears, by the way in plural, reminding us that it is impossible to achieve sanctity in solitude) includes an eclectic combination, where purely ritual elements coexist together with matters of faith, of conduct in our personal and business relationships, and our responsibility towards society and all its members.

To limit our Jewish experience only to “religious” issues constitutes a distortion of its original meaning, as well as an affront to our beliefs as people of faith.

In the words of Martin Buber (The Silent Question), notable Jewish philosopher of the 20th century: “An intimate relationship with God cannot be achieved if ‘human’ relationships with the world and with humanity are not present.  Love of the creator and of that which He has created are ultimately one and the same.”

May our lives bear witness of that.

Shabbat shalom,

Gustavo