Acharei Mot-Kedoshim
Reflection by Naomi Shifrin, Or HaLev Teacher
What does it mean to be holy?
קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם
"Be holy, for I, your God, am holy”, implores this week's parasha. (Leviticus 19:2)
How do we embody holiness?
Perhaps it begins with sitting, and resting into sitting in the presence of the Divine. I'd like to invite you to close your eyes and sense into that for a moment, that sense of `shiviti Hashem le`negdi tamid` – I place the Divine before me always, I sit before the face of the Shechinah, of the King, of Hashem, always.
When we remember that – as we sit in this very moment, and in the next, and in the one after that, and in every moment after that, within every breath we take, for as long as we are living and breathing – then how do we act?
How do we speak?
How do we treat others and ourselves?
How do we live in this world?
When we really know and trust, in the deepest embodied sense, that we sit before the Divine always, and we understand that the Divine and we are holy – then we can choose to mirror this holiness. We can choose to live and breathe and act in ways that are holy, again and again.
I bless us with that: with resting into our inherent goodness, and holiness, and light, and the holy light of the Divine, as we sit before her, this Shabbos and always. Shabbat shalom.