Achrei Moth- Kedoshim ( Emor) 

 The names of these three parshioth is a Yiddish "joke:" " After their deaths (they are called) holy ones."  The joke  is a comment on the relationship between death and the strict observance of Torah   Was the failure to attend to the details the cause of death ( like the death of Nadav and Avihu referred to in Acharei Moth)?  Should we recall the observance of the previous, now past, generations as more stringent than our own, like the neo-Chareidim? 

This weeks parshioth contain  the Torah portion read on Yom Kippur.  This is the holiest and most dangerous of services. It is the single day in the year that Kohen Gadol entered the inner sanctum . It is a very unusual ritual that includes the banishment of a goat.  This service is incomprehensible and potentially lethal.  

This is the core of Yom Kippur, the holiday that my parents kept above all others.   The other holidays had been re-examined through the combined lenses of having experienced them in the shtetl and having survived the holocaust in death camp and buried alive.  They saw  customs of observance as a combination of tradition and deprivation.  But Yom Kippur was sacred. 

This is how I relate to the verse: 

אִ֣ישׁ אִמּ֤וֹ וְאָבִיו֙ תִּירָ֔אוּ וְאֶת־שַׁבְּתֹתַ֖י תִּשְׁמֹ֑רוּ

You shall each revere his mother and his father, and keep My sabbaths:

and the Haftorah:

וָאֹמַ֤ר אֶל־בְּנֵיהֶם֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר בְּחוּקֵּ֤י אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ אַל־תֵּלֵ֔כוּ וְאֶת־מִשְׁפְּטֵיהֶ֖ם אַל־תִּשְׁמֹ֑רוּ וּבְגִלּוּלֵיהֶ֖ם אַל־תִּטַּמָּֽאוּ׃I warned their children in the wilderness: Do not follow the practices of your fathers, do not keep their ways, and do not defile yourselves with their fetishes.

I received the tradition from my parents.  Other teachings tell me to modify those beliefs and practices.  To my parents the use of electricity was forbidden on  Shabbos  because (poor) people did not have it!  To me, Shabbath is a needed and welcome  vacation from technology. 

They were  all holy before their deaths.  I just realize it better now.