Acharei Mot – Kedoshim

Acharei Mot – Kedoshim – Daniel Anderson 

Daniel Anderson lives in London and is co-founder of Tiferet www.tiferet.co.uk , a personal development and life coaching framework that utilizes Kabbalistic principles. A life entrepreneur and informal educator he is a regular presenter at Limmud.

In this week's double parsha, where there is a prevailing theme of holiness, the punishment of Kares (spiritual excision) for serious transgressions is referred to in a number of separate instances. These include for sacrificial offerings made outside of the Tabernacle; for the direct consumption of blood; and for idolatry - specifically the worship of Molech. In fact, the Mishna lists 36 instances in which Kares is applicable, the majority of which are to do with various forms of sexual impropriety (Keritos 1:1).

However, as to who exactly is culpable on the one hand and how Kares manifests itself in practice on the other, the Torah remains unclear. With regards to the former, in places it intimates that only a male is liable (ha-ish), whilst elsewhere, it states that all (kol) who transgress are culpable. With regards to the latter, most often the term 'nefesh' is used, which though literally means the 'body' - suggesting a physical consequence, is also understood to mean the 'soul' implying something metaphysical.

Not surprisingly then, the biblical commentators themselves are divided, only agreeing that kares is some form of Divine retribution; that it is warranted solely for wilful transgressions; but that the consequences can be forestalled through sincere teshuva (repentance) and the bringing of an atonement offering to the Temple.

The Jerusalem Talmud (500 CE) suggests that any individual deserving of such a fate will die before the age of 50, whilst the later, and more authoritative, Babylonian Talmud (600 CE) indicates that death will occur somewhere between the ages of 50 and 60. Rashi (11th C) argues that not only will the offender die young, but so too will any children, though later medieval commentators on the Talmud (the Tosafists) disagree and suggest that one should assume that only the individual is culpable unless the Torah specifically indicates otherwise.

Maimonides (12th C), very much true to form, offers a rather stark, but straightforward analysis of Kares, simply stating that the righteous will merit the World to Come, whilst the wicked will be totally obliterated from both this world and the next.

But it is Nachmanides (13th C) who, perhaps, provides a more satisfying theological response, by suggesting that there are in fact different degrees of punishment depending on the severity of the sin and the worthiness or otherwise of the sinner, though is uncomfortable with the notion that any soul, emanating as it does from the Divine, could ever be extinguished and so leaves the door open for the process of soul cleansing in Gehinom, a corridor before ultimate entry to the World to Come. 

Finally, the Alter Rebbe (18th C), founder of Chabad Lubavitch, argues that there is a Kabbalistic principle behind the punishment, but that it isn’t present today.

So be this as it may, what, if any, lesson can we, living in the 21st Century, take from all this?

Perhaps the answer lies in the way we address the myriad of decisions we take each and every day. At one extreme they may appear to be rather trivial, whilst at the other they can be highly significant, but the overriding question should always be, at whichever point we find ourselves along the scale, does this specific action move me closer to or further away from my relationship with God? This is the path towards a holy life.