As was the case with the torah portion we read this morning, nitzavim, the text on page 452 contains issues and commitments which were to be addressed to the people as a whole, as it says in an atypical fashion, el kol adat b’nei yisrael. The commentators suggest that this is because the deep meaning structure of torah is mostly revealed in these particular texts, rov gufei hatorah t’luyeen bo. They actually follow immediately after the portion that describes the Yom Kippur sacrifices in the wilderness.

Scholars call the section from which these first readings are taken, Leviticus 19:1-18, “the Holiness code,” since it comprises a list of actions and behaviors which are prefaced by a statement, “Kedoshim Tih’yu, you shall be Kadosh or holy, kee kadosh ani adonai eloheichem, because I, the Eternal your God am Kadosh. Whatever Kadosh means it is an attribute of God which we are to emulate.

The early rabbis defined kadosh as “set apart” or “distinct” from the prevailing culture. Kedoshim Tih’yu – p’rushim tihyu – you hall be separatists. It means you should be a counter-culture. This counter culture should be characterized by concern for the poor and the stranger, by just labor policies, by not taking advantage of others who are differently abled or who are disabled by a lack of knowledge, i.e., by maintaining just weights and measures and other high standards of business ethics, and ultimately by acting lovingly toward your neighbor who is like yourself.

Interestingly this text says that we should do all these things for one reason alone– ani adonai – that is, as it say after almost every verse, I am the Eternal. Later Rabbinic texts distinguished between mitzvot bein adam l’makom and mitzvot bein adam l’chaveiro, commandment that are between human beings and God and commandments that are interpersonal, between us and our fellow humans. But this text says really all commandments are between us and God. The way we treat others directly impacts God as well.

The editors of our machzor added a few verses from later in the portion which round out the picture of the basis for Jewish ethics. The non-Israelite natives, the gerim, who sojourn with you as part of your community shall be treated lovingly as well, not just your neighbors, since you were gerim, i.e., sojourners in the land of Egypt. – here it also says, v’ahavta lo kamocha, just as it says v’ahavta l’rei’echa kamocha. Our experience as an oppressed minority whether in ancient Egypt or in more contemporary times is a teacher for us as well.

The torah repeatedly reminds us to include the ger, the alien, the immigrant, the refugee, in all our concerns because God has a special connection with the vulnerable in society and we have a connection through our history. In fact in Leviticus 16, when the original Yom Kippur in the wilderness is described, the ger, the sojourner, was actually invited to join with us in the first observance of Yom Kippur. So there really is no genuine experience of kedushah, of holiness, that does not include within it those who are with us but not one of us at one and the same time – so shall you be Kedoshim, a holy counter-culture.