The Way to Holiness – D’var Torah Acharei Mot/K’doshim – Leviticus 19

Exalted One –

You call us to holiness,

To climb the ladder,

Higher and higher,

To reach as far as we might,

But never to rise above the angels.

You call us to purity,

To be as priests,

In this world,

Separate and apart,

As intermediaries  

Between our flawed humanness

And Your Transcendent Oneness.

How do we come near

To You Who dwells on High?

How do we discover

You, enthroned beyond stars?

How can we reach

You, larger than thought?

How can we know

You, Ineffable Truth?

What is the way to holiness

If we be so bound to earth,

And driven by need,

And broken by grief?

You call us to rise up

and bow low to You,

At Your holy footstool ,

To be enveloped in Your Glory,

To transcend our senses

Where sapphires glisten,

And angels praise,

And Torah letters shimmer,

And souls sing.

You say that Your teaching is not so distant,

Not across the seas beyond our reach,

Nor in the heavens above

Making it unattainable.

It is rather, close,

So very close,

In our hearts,

In our breath,

And upon our lips.

Almighty One –

You brought us out from Egypt

To renew us,

Redeem, free, heal, and restore us,

To ready us

As Your treasured people.

You led us into the wilderness,

Into silence and nothingness,

Into a blank slate,

And you painted a picture of our lives

And commanded us to be

Like paint upon a landscape,

Parent respecting,

Shabbat observing,

Torah learning,

Vengeance eschewing,

Righteousness doing,

Kindness performing,

Neighbor assisting,

Senior revering,

And stranger loving.

If this is what You intend for us

And if this is the way to be holy,

It is so very hard!

But those who seek You

Will continuously strive,

And we will teach this to our children.