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Is God Always Holy? Are We?
Yom Kippur Afternoon 2007
Book and article titles are often designed to pique our interest. I want to share with you two articles that provoked my interest by their title alone. The first is entitled “Holy Cow”. As I was preparing for the high Holy days, I was intrigued by the title.
The story goes like this: “Earlier this year, the dazed crew of a Japanese trawler were recovered off the Sea of Japan clinging to the wreckage of their ship. Shortly after their rescue, however, they were thrown in jail once authorities questioned the sailors and got the story on what happened to their ship. The sailors claimed that a cow, falling out of the clear blue sky, had struck the the middle of the boat, shattering it's hull and consequently sinking the vessel within minutes.
They remained in prison for several weeks, until the Russian Air Force reluctantly informed Japanese authorities that the crew of one of its cargo planes had apparently stolen a cow wandering at the edge of a Siberian airfield. They forced the cow into the plane's hold and hastily departed for home. Unprepared for live cargo, the Russian crew was ill-equipped to manage a rampaging cow within its hold. To save the aircraft and themselves, they shoved the animal out of the cargo hold as they crossed the Sea of Japan at an altitude of 30,000 feet.”
Hence the title of the article – Holy Cow!
The second title that caught my eye this summer was a bit different, and much more serious. It was a 4-word title in a magazine sent out by the Hebrew Union College. It drew me in like a magnet. The title read “Is God Always Holy?” I was hooked...
At first glance, the answer to that question seemed obvious. Is God Always Holy? Yes. In fact, one of the definitions that Webster's dictionary gives for “holy” is “Divine.” God, in the Jewish tradition, is sometimes referred to as: HaKadosh Baruch Hu – the Holy One, Blessed be He. Kadosh, similar to the word Kiddush and Kaddish, is the Hebrew word for 'holy.'
We can question if a person, a place or even a book is Kadosh, holy. But, this question I must admit, I had never really considered: Is God Always Holy?
Using all sorts of textual tools, the Rabbi writing this article - Rabbi Mark Miller - argues that no, God isn't always holy. There are stories in the Bible where the word Kadosh - holy - is noticeably absent. One is during the destruction of the cities of sinners, Sodom and Gemorah. Abraham is unable to find even 10 good people there. He and his family leave, making these cities void of any Israelites. The cities are then destroyed by God.
God is capable of carrying out terrible and unholy destruction when the people of Israel are absent.
On the other hand, later in our history, when God has every reason to destroy us – when we as a people have abandoned God and adopted the worship of idols - God welcomes us back. A Biblical example is this verse from the book of Hosea where God says: 'I will not act on my fierce anger...For I am God, and not man. In your presence (O Israel) I am Holy, unable to come (to you) enraged.'
These are important words for Yom Kippur when we appear before God with all of our shortcomings and disappointments exposed. God could throw the book at us. But, our presence and our actions have an influence on God. In our presence, God is Merciful, God becomes Kadosh, Holy. It is our partnership that creates this wholeness and holiness. God + Israel = holiness. Ours is a partnership, a marriage. Consider this, the Hebrew word for marriage is Kiddushin, which like Kaddish and Kiddush, means holiness.
This afternoon's Torah portion begins with the commandment k'doshim tih'yu – be holy. By understanding that God needs us for there to be holiness, this Torah reading makes more sense. This is a plea to us to join God in holiness, to make God holy by being holy. It can be seen as a marriage proposal.
Today's Torah reading outlines for us what it means to be holy, what it means to partner with God. For example, we learn that to be God's partners, we should leave the corners of our field for the poor. Most of us are not farmers. Neither, by the way, is God. So, how do leave the corners of our fields these days? We go to our pantries and fill up paper bags for the Greensboro Urban Ministry each fall. I hope that you did this and that you also support Urban Ministry financially. The Torah doesn't specify how large the corner of your field has to be; just that you give. The more, obviously, the better. However, every little bit helps. It helps when you go with the Temple Brotherhood to cook dinner at Urban Ministries once a month; it helps when you volunteer for Temple's Mitzvah Garden – one corner of our 10 acre property which grows food for local hunger relief projects. In order to be God's partners in holiness, we have to care for the poor.
There is another aspect of how we partner with God in holiness – beyond answering the question “Is God Always Holy?” Judaism doesn't imagine God to have body parts. There are no pictures of God in our books or on our walls. Any references to “God's outstretched arms” or “God's watchful eyes” are to only be taken figuratively. God doesn't have arms, hands, legs. But we do. Think of that: we have something that even God doesn't have. As such, we not only contribute to God's holiness, but we literally become the arms, hand, and legs of God. When someone falls, we should be there to pick them up. When they need a meal, we should extend our arms to feed them. Whenever there is a problem, we should run to help. Wherever there is injustice, we should raise our voices.
This afternoon's Torah portion also says that to be k'doshim, to be holy, we shouldn't gossip. Moreover, we are not allowed to stand idly by when our neighbor's blood is being shed. Slander and gossip – also known as lashon ha-ra – is a terrible transgression. It seems so innocuous, especially when compared with how we care for the poor. Yet, slander can mean the end of a another's livelihood. It can spoil relationships and tear families and communities apart. Our Sages noted how gossip is used here in the same sentence with standing by while a neighbor bleeds. From this they concluded that gossip is tantamount to murder. The Rabbinic view on gossip is that it is more than just character assassination. There are three victims of this seemingly victimless act: the first is the person being gossiped about, the second is the gossiper who risks losing friends and credibility, and the third is anyone who hears the gossip. Refraining from gossip or stopping it dead in its tracks makes us partners in holiness with God.
One last example from the Torah portion that we are about to read. God instructs us: 'love your neighbor as yourself.' This comes only a few verses after the commandment forbidding us to stand idly by as our neighbor is bleeding. I imagine that when the Torah referred to neighbors, it was talking about our literal neighbors. So, first and foremost, we have to remember to be kind to our neighbors. This applies to our own neighborhoods and to our community. Just yesterday, I went to a dedication of a new house, built by volunteers from Habitat for Humanity. Our Adult B'nai Mitzvah class was there when the initial Building Blitz took place. During those days, they teamed up with a group from Friendly Avenue Baptist Church. I am not sure if it’s possible to find a better example of neighbors working with neighbors to help neighbors. I pray that efforts like this will continue.
I also pray that we will not stand idly by as our neighbors, anywhere, bleed. Only a decade ago this happened in Rwanda. These days, our focus is on Darfur, Sudan. We first started talking about Darfur prior to the afternoon Torah reading on Yom Kippur three years ago as the first reports hit the West. We will cannot and should not stop talking about Darfur or raising our voices about it until the tides of the genocide there are stopped.
Indeed, we need to partner with God. God needs it, we need it; our world needs it.
It takes two to make a marriage, a partnership. It takes the marriage or partnership between the people of Israel, us and God, to create holiness.
On this very holy day, let us not forget that God is there. On this Yom Kippur, let us step up and hear God calling us to action. That way we do our part to bring more holiness to God and the world.
May each of us and all of Israel be inscribed in the Book of Life, Goodness, and Holiness. AMEN
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