Kedoshim: purified

Kedoshim: Purified

What does it mean to be kadosh?  Is the parsha offering instructions for the atainment of this undefined state? 

 There seem to be two versions.  One begins in chapter 19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them: Ye shall be holy.  and ends at 20:7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy.  Immediately thereafter, the second edition begins: 20:8: 8 And keep ye My statutes, and do them: I am the LORD who sanctify you.

In both editions, the first rule of the holy concerns relationship to parents.  The first time: (19:3)Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and ye shall keep My sabbaths

The second time:  20:9: For whatsoever man there be that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

A few days ago I said Yizkor, the memorial prayer, for my parents. Honoring parents does not end when they die.  Sometimes, that is when it begins, sometimes that is when it improves.  When we say kaddish we become holy through honoring our parents. 

What holiness I have devolves from my parents.  There is a sense of kadosh, quoted by Chazal, as tokad aish: burnt in fire. When I said Yizkor, I was reminded of that polluting, purifying, unforgiving and unforgivable fire.  The fire that consumed all my granparents, uncles , aunts, etc Everyone whose closeness and kinship is reinforced at the end of parshath Kedoshim

Holiness, sanctity: you know it when you see it.