Acharei Mot – Kedoshim

Acharei Mot Kedoshim – Michelle Citrin

NYC based singer/songwriter, Michelle Citrin is known for her YouTube sensations, "20 Things to Do with Matzah" and "Rosh Hashanah Girl". Billboard Music named her a Top Songwriter. The Jewish Week included Michelle in its 2009 list of "36 Under 36: The Next Wave of Jewish Innovators".

In the summer of 2003, I volunteered at a Kibbutz in Israel called Neot Semedar located in the Arava Valley Desert. It was a magical place, where I learned a great deal about life from the many deep conversations I shared with members of the community.  One night I had a conversation with an elderly man named Judah.  It was a conversation that has profoundly affected my understanding of "Oneness".

It was 2am and Judah and I were sitting outside, watching two hungry cats fight for the same scraps of food. This was clearly survival of the fittest.  Just as the cats were fighting with one another over the food, a dog came by and swiped away the scraps of food, leaving the cats to fight with one another. Judah explained: "This is how we are different than animals, people know it’s good to help one another, because we are all one."

He continued on to repeat "we are all one", "we are all one". At first I didn’t follow what he was saying, but I was so fascinated by the bright light of wisdom shining in his eyes that I listened intently hoping that I too could have this light of understanding in my eyes when walking through the world. And that's when Judah continued with his theory of love, citing a passage from this week's parsha of Acharei Mot-Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:18): "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Rabbi Akiva explains that this is a fundamental principle, one of the pillars of Torah and Judaism. A person is supposed to love fellow human beings exactly as they love themselves and the others should love that person in the same manner. To love everyone as ourselves implies a responsibility for others. Not only are we commanded to love our family and friends as ourselves, but we are to extend this love for strangers as well. But why? Why should we extend the love we share with our family to a random person on the street? Because "we are all one".

With every action having a reaction, is it really all that difficult to believe that we are all one?  When we help a blind person cross the road we feel a wonderful sensation like no other – the kind that follows performing a mitzva. Similarly, when we do wrong unto another, like falsely accusing someone out of fear of taking the blame, we feel bad. In both cases, even though our actions are directed at another, we feel the effects. Why? Because "We are all one". Therefore, anything we do to others, it is as if we are doing it to ourselves. 

In Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, we are commanded by G-d to be holy people - "You shall be holy" (Leviticus 19:12) and we are supplied with an instruction list of rules dictating how to do so including leaving food for the poor, treating those with disabilities with respect, loving the stranger as yourself and having honest business transactions. The Torah also lists sexual prohibitions leading to one of the most difficult passages in the Torah - "You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is abhorrent" (Leviticus 18:22).

How can it be that the Torah, in one moment talks about loving thy neighbor as thyself, stressing the importance of treating others as equals to ensure that no one is marginalized, and then immediately command a harsh punishment for someone who might fall under the category of "the other". In response to this scholars have suggested that the only known types of homosexual acts during the time of the Israelites were acts of cultic prostitution and acts of aggression against strangers as seen in the story of Sodom and Gemorrah.

The purpose of Kedoshim & Acharei Mot is to teach us an ethical lifestyle built upon a foundation of treating others with equality and respect. Coincidentally it is because of the literal interpretation of this one line in the Torah, that our society faces the last acceptable form of discrimination. Something which the Torah teaches us in unacceptable. And yet, approximately 10% of the world’s population who identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (roughly 600 million people) face discrimination every day. These 600 million are Jews, Christians, Muslims, doctors, lawyers, teachers and government officials. They are adolescents who face the highest rate of teen suicide due in some cases to feeling of shame and bullying. In some countries being gay would mean the death penalty.

Our society has seen first-hand the effects of what happens when we don't treat each other as one - the American Civil War, Sudanese Genocide, the Holocaust and ongoing global discrimination against the GLBT community. Meanwhile, some of the best moments in history stem from our understanding of our interconnectivity as human beings - like Woodstock, where 400,000 people united for three days, in peace, love and music, and during the tragic events of 9/11 in New York, where strangers risked their lives to help save others from burning buildings.

In fact, the concept of "loving thy neighbor as thyself" is so important that the Rastafarians adopted an entire language that stems from the importance of recognizing everyone as equals. Instead of saying "you and I" or "me and you" delineating a separation of each other, they will say "I and I", for there is no "you", and there is no "me", there is simply I and I and we are all equal, because we are all of the same entity. The sooner more people can understand this and the sooner their treatments of others are consistent with this concept, the sooner we will be able to experience a lasting peace around the world. Let us reach out to those who are strangers, those who are in need, those who are different from us, those who are facing discrimination and  and offer the most important thing we can - love. In the words of the great Bob Marley: "One love, one heart, let's get together and feel all right."