Parashat HaShavua - Kedoshim

At one of the parent coffees last week, the meeting opened with a prompt: share something that has given you hope or inspiration amidst the darkness of this year.  I did not generate the prompt so I heard it for the first time at that moment.  Sadly and to my surprise, it was not easy for me to think of a response.

What do we do in times like these to cultivate hope, to find moments of joy?  In Hilkot Deah, Maimonides describes how to acquire desirable traits:

וְכֵיצַד יַרְגִּיל אָדָם עַצְמוֹ בְּדֵעוֹת אֵלּוּ עַד שֶׁיִּקָּבְעוּ בּוֹ. יַעֲשֶׂה וְיִשְׁנֶה וִישַׁלֵּשׁ בַּמַּעֲשִׂים שֶׁעוֹשֶׂה עַל פִּי הַדֵּעוֹת הָאֶמְצָעִיּוֹת וְיַחֲזֹר בָּהֶם תָּמִיד עַד שֶׁיִּהְיוּ מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם קַלִּים עָלָיו וְלֹא יִהְיֶה בָּהֶם טֹרַח עָלָיו וְיִקָּבְעוּ הַדֵּעוֹת בְּנַפְשׁוֹ.

How can we train ourselves to follow these traits to the extent that they become a permanent fixture of our personality?  We have to repeat these acts consistently until they become easy to do and do not present any difficulty. 

This is a classic formulation of the concept of הרגל which could be translated as habituation but really means more.  It is the process of cultivation of מדות (good qualities), of taking action to become the kind of people we want to be.

This week’s parasha contains the famous Holiness Code.  The name indicates an exalted set of laws that will create sanctity in the Israelite community.  But right now, I prefer to look at it as a guide for הרגל, for cultivating good qualities.  Its demands are profound but largely not difficult to do: Share your food with the poor.  Pay people their wages in a timely manner.  Keep Shabbat.  Stand up in the presence of elders.  Keep fair scales.

And so, as I wait for hope to find me, I act to cultivate goodness.  I say מודה אני in the morning and remind myself that my family is healthy.  I call my parents and tell them I love them.  I read voices about Israel that feel nuanced and helpful.   I visit a friend who had a loss in her family.  I join my community on Shabbat.

Rather than hope, what I can connect to at this moment is the goodness that I can see and create in the world as it is.  That’s not to say that I don’t also see what is ugly, scary and enraging – it is impossible to miss.  But just as Rabbi Heschel learned from his grandfather about the nitzotzot, the sparks of God’s holiness that inhere in the world, this week of Parashat Kedoshim, the parasha of holiness, I continue to search and, sometimes, to find.

Rabbi Anne Ebersman
Director of Jewish Programming N-5 and Director of Hesed (Community Engagement) and Tzedek (Social Responsibility)