Kedoshim: The precepts of sanctity

Kedoshim: The precepts of sanctity

Kedoshim,  motivates us to keep the mitzvoth with a call to be holy ones, kedoshim. 

The third sentence of the parsha ,אִ֣ישׁ אִמּ֤וֹ וְאָבִיו֙ תִּירָ֔אוּ וְאֶת־שַׁבְּתֹתַ֖י תִּשְׁמֹ֑רוּ אֲנִ֖י the first sentence of instruction,  inverts the ten commandments Fear your parents (5) is followed by keeping the Sabbath (4) and ends with I am the Lrd (1).  According to Rashi, this give  the method for resolving situations in which instructions conflict with one another

ואת שבתתי תשמרו AND MY SABBATHS SHALL YE KEEP — Scripture places the commandment of observing the Sabbath immediately after that of fearing one’s father in order to suggest the following: “Although I admonish you regarding the fear due to your father, yet if he bids you: "Desecrate the Sabbath", do not listen to him” — and the same is the case with any of the other commandments. This, it is evident, is the meaning since Scripture adds —

אני ה' אלהיכם “I am the Lord your God" (the plural) — both you and your father are equally bound to honour Me! Do not therefore obey him if it results in making My words of no effect (Sifra, Kedoshim, Section 1 10; Bava Metzia 32a). 

Thus, annually the parsha reminds me how the Yeshiva my parents sent me to  put me in conflict with them.  It is a variant of the dystopian theme of The State turning children into informers against their parents ( cf. 1984, cold war anticommunist propaganda).  My parents voluntarily  paid to turn me  into a true believers that wouldn't let them turn off electric lights on Shabbath (under penalty of death by stoning).

As a participant (victim?/beneficary?)of  this process I can attest to its success. Had I tried to reproduce the post-Holocaust, ambivalent Judaism of my parents , my life would be very different.  I do not think it would be happier.  It would (almost certainly) be less ( recognizably) religious. The ancient portion, the connection to the text and tradition, would have been weakened.

The tradition is transmitted by parents to children.  Patents teach us  to keep the Sabbath and the Yeshiva teaches them how it should be kept.  The resolution of the conflict is the stuff of kadosh, sanctity.  Perhaps that is (part of ) the meaning of "You shall be holy for I, Y' your Gd am holy." Gd, who deals with conflicting issues, instructs us to do the same  - righteously.

Do as I say, not as I do.