Newsletter Weekly Guest Statement
Daniel Pedroso
UPJ Board Member
Student Rabbi
Temple Shalom Gold Coast
Holiness in the Ordinary – Parshat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim
This year – as with most years – Kedoshim falls right alongside Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzma’ut. This is by design. And the timing teaches us some important lessons.
Yom HaZikaron flows directly into Yom HaAtzma’ut. There is no pause between them, no buffer between mourning and celebration. The message is very clear: independence is not abstract. It has a cost. And it’s not simply about sovereignty, but about the kind of society we choose to build with it.
So, what kind of society does the Torah envision?
Kedoshim answers that very question. And, at first glance, the answer is surprisingly mundane.
A Constitution of the Everyday
קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י יְיָ אֱלֹקֵיכֶֽם
“You shall be holy, for I, the Eternal your G-d, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2)
Rashi notes that this declaration was made in b’hakhel, in full assembly. In fact, the verse starts with “Speak to the whole Israelite community(…)”. Everyone. Not just the priests or prophets – the whole community. And immediately following this declaration, the Torah does not ascend into mystical or deeply theological topics. It moves into details of daily life.
Leave the corner of your fields, as well as the fallen grain, to the poor. Do not pick your vineyards bare, leave the small clusters on the vine (19:9-10). Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not swear falsely (19:11). Pay your workers on time, do not hold their wages until the morning (19:13). Do not curse the deaf, and do not place a stumbling block before the blind (19:14). Judge fairly (19:15). Do not eat offerings that have spoiled; dispose of them properly (19:5-8).
This is daily civic life. It is food safety and labour laws, welfare policy and fair courts. It is not grand theology. And that is precisely the point.
The Ramban commented on “You shall be holy”, and offered one of the best insights in Jewish ethics. He warned against naval birshut haTorah, the person who is technically observant but remains morally hollow. Holiness, Ramban teaches, is going beyond simple technical compliance with the letter of the law. It is both technical compliance and morally upholding the spirit of the law.
Mindfulness of Daily Life
There is something else that happens in Kedoshim and is often overlooked or underestimated. So many of these mitzvot are about paying attention.
Leave the corners of your field and the fallen grain. That means you’ve noticed not only the physical dimensions of the field, but that you’ve also kept in mind the people who need what you are leaving behind in order to sustain themselves. And the Torah doesn’t tell us to harvest that grain, mill the flour, bake the bread and then deliver it as food parcels – it tells us to build a system where those in need can feed themselves with dignity. It isn’t simply charity as a handout, but a system where welfare and dignity is architected into the very foundations of society.
This is what Judaism does. It takes the ordinary, the things we tend to do on autopilot every day, and insists that we notice it. We say a brachah before we eat – and that is not because the words are magical, but because the pause is sacred. We wash our hands before a meal, not only for hygiene, but because the act of preparation is itself a way of setting intention. When we stand on a doorway and touch the mezuzah, we don’t do it because the parchment will provide magical protection – but because the threshold, the transition between the outdoors and indoors, is a moment worth marking.
All of these practices are, at their core, about mindfulness. Not the kind you get from a wellness app, where someone with a soft voice will tell you to pay attention to your breathing. It is something significantly more demanding. It asks us to find holiness in bread, in wages, in the fact that we woke up, in how we speak about our neighbours, in what we leave at the edges of our plenty.
The Society Worth Building
And this all brings us full circle to Yom HaAtzma’ut.
The dream of a Jewish state was never about a flag and a seat at the UN. It was about building a society shaped by these values. The real measure of that project is not in the declaration of independence. It is found in whether or not workers are paid before sunset. Whether there is enough left for those who have less. Whether the stranger living amongst you is being treated as the native-born, “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (19:33-34).
Kedoshim does not place holiness in the Temple. It places it in the field, the marketplace, the courtroom, and the home. It says: this, right here, is where it counts. Not in a different place, time, or dimension. Right here, in the ordinary moments of your life.
Kedoshim tihyu. Be holy. Not by retreating from the world, but by engaging with it so thoughtfully, so attentively, that every act becomes an opportunity for sanctity. That creates a society worth building.
Be holy.
