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KEDOSHIM
Leviticus
19:1-20:27
Amos 9:7-15 (Ashkenazi
Reading)
Ezekiel
20:2-20,22:1-19 (Sephardic Reading)
1 Peter 1:13-16
This week’s Parasha begins with the command to
the B’nei Israel (Children of Israel) to be “Holy, for I the Lord Am
Holy.”
In the short of it, this Parasha deals with
Holiness, parents, Shabbat, and idols. In the long of it, G-d's command
for His people “to be holy” applies to us today (1 Peter1:16-to be holy).
This section of scripture deals with just about every area of our lives:
home, time, food, labor/business, neighbors.
Ephesians 5:1, tells us to be imitators of
G-d. We are to walk in love, as Messiah loved us and gave Himself for us,
as an offering and a sacrifice. The letter to the Ephesians basically
describes spiritual blessings and the responsibilities of His sons and
daughters to G-d.
The blessing is that we were chosen and taken
into G-d's family, having forgiveness, eternal inheritance, and given the
power to remove even mountains if we have the faith of a mustered seed.
Our responsibilities are to keep unity so we
can benefit all people in the congregation of Messiah in strengthening,
growth and maturing. Thus all can be holy and walk in purity, imitating
G-d's holiness as He commands. With this unity we can stand strong
against evil forces and be the light or beacon that like a city set on a
hill cannot be hidden.
This week, beginning Wednesday, April 30, 2008,
in the evening, begin Holocaust Memorial events to recall and never forget
the murder of six million of our Jewish people. A million and a half of
those were children. How could this happen? How could a civilized nation
afflict such cruelty? Where did this hatred begin?
For those who want more information there are
many books, films, and articles on what happened. In the past couple of
years, Dr. Michael Brown wrote the book “Our Hand are Stained with His
Blood.”
Also an article written by Rabbi Jonathan
Sacks, Chief Rabbi of England states that anti-Semitism is not an ideology
or a coherent set of beliefs, it is an endless stream of contradictions.
He states that the best way to describe these ways of thinking is to see
them as a virus. Like a virus, anti-Semitism attacks the body, mutates
and defeats the immune system of the cultures to protect against hatred.
This “new anti-Semitism, first took place with the birth of the church
after the death of the apostles. It spread thru the rise of Islam, the
crusaders, thru the middle ages and now emerging against Jews as a nation,
the country of Israel.
G-d's people who have been grafted in (Romans
11:17), and are now a part of the Commonwealth of Israel, are to be like
Him, to provoke the natural branches (Jewish people) to jealousy so that
they could see that Messiah has come to bring reconciliation between men
and G-d. The Hope of Israel has come and has removed all sin.
Instead of taking on the mission of
reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-19) they, the “church” during the time of
greatest need, set up a barrier, so that they showed hatred instead of
love. Instead of showing love and compassion, the middle wall of
partition was reinserted. Peace was no longer spoken. Instead, the sword
was used, walls put up in whatever country the Jewish people went.
During this week, the events of the recent (20th
Century) past are remembered. They culminate with the 60th
anniversary of the birth of Israel. G-d’s people are back in their land,
just as G-d ordained (Isaiah 66, Ezekiel 37, Amos 9, etc.).
G-d loved His people then and still loves His
people, “who are loved for the sake of the fathers.” We all need to
remember well what happened during the dark days of the holocaust so that
we will not keep silent when such atrocities rear their heads again, as
history proves they will. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil
is that good men do nothing. Do not sit by and do nothing (Edmund
Burke). Stand up and be counted.
Shavua Tov
Rabbi Z.
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