פרשה: קדושים · עלייה: חמישי (הוד)

ואל בני ישראל תאמר, "Moreover, you shall say to the children of Israel, etc." The reason for the expression "and to the children of Israel" is that all of them are to be involved in executing anyone who hands any of his children to the fire-god Molech. The conjunctive letter ו at the very beginning of the paragraph hints that not only the person who delivers a child to the Molech is guilty of punishment but also those who fail to punish such a person.

ואני אתן את פני באיש ההוא, "And also I Myself will set My face against that person, etc." What further punishment does G'd have in mind seeing the guilty party has already been executed by a human tribunal?

I believe the Torah informs us that in addition to the physical death of that person by execution there is further punishment in store for his soul. This is alluded to by the words והכרתי אותו מקרב עמו, "I will cut him off from amongst his people." This is a reference to the holy root from which all Jewish souls emanate. The Torah explains the reason for these two punishments and writes: 1) "for he has given of his seed to Molech in order to defile My Sanctuary" 2)…"and to desecrate My holy name." The execution of the sinner's body is the retribution for defiling the Sanctuary, the destruction of the sinner's holy roots is retribution for profaning the Lord's name.

ואם העלם יעלימו עם הארץ, "And if the people at large choose to ignore, etc." The reason the word "they will ignore" is repeated is to tell us that if the people choose to ignore the first time this abominable crime is committed, they will have paved the way for ignoring all subsequent repetitions of this abomination. Even if they would want to punish people then for practicing this cult, the guilty party would challenge the authorities pointing out that the first guilty party had been allowed to get away with this practice. Alternatively, the first word העלם refers to the failure of preventing the father from carrying out his intention to sacrifice his son to the Molech; the second יעלימו refers to the failure of the people to bring such a father to justice.

ושמתי אני את פני, "then also l will set My face, etc." The plain meaning of the text appears to be that if the people will not exact retribution then G'd will turn His wrath also against the whole family of that father. If the people had carried out the prescribed judgment, G'd on His part would have punished only the guilty individual. This seems a most unusual aspect of G'd's justice! If members of the family shared in the father's guilt why would G'd not punish them regardless of whether the father has been executed?

We feel that the meaning of the verse is to tell us that whenever the judges appointed by G'd on earth fail to mete out justice, justice will be meted out in the celestial spheres. G'd announces this by saying: "I will set My face, etc." Once the heavenly tribunal opens the file of the accused, the files of his family members will be scrutinised at the same time. This is what the Torah meant by mentioning ובמשפחתו, "and against his family." The Torah explained in our verse that G'd's setting His face against the sinner would result in his being being cut off, plus all others who had gone astray by making common cause with the father. The files of the family members will be examined each on his own merit. Any family member who will not be found guilty of the Molech cult whether in deed or thought will not be wiped out. The Torah uses the words הזונים אחריו לזנות, "who go astray after him in order to go astray" (the Molech cult) in the present tense to tell us that even if they had not yet been guilty in deed they are considered as guilty as if they already had performed the abominable act. Ezekiel 14,5 expressed this thought more directly when he wrote למען תפש את בית ישראל בלבם, "in order to catch the house of Israel while (the sin) is still in their hearts." [We find independent confirmation of this in Chulin 142. Ed.]

As a result of what we said we may intepret our verse as assuring us that if the people at large bring the guilty party to justice he alone will be punished and his family will not even be examined by the heavenly tribunal at that time. Should the people fail to get involved, G'd will involve the family of the sinner to the extent that they harbour thoughts similar to those of the father. If so, the family members will be punished by G'd for their ideology though they cannot, of course, be brought to trial on earth. This is the meaning of Devarim Rabbah 5,4 that "in a place where there is judgment there is no judgment, whereas in a place where there is no judgment there is judgment." The difficulty with this saying is that it is obvious that when judgment is carried out in our world that there is no need to carry out judgment in the celestial spheres. Why would the Midrash have to tell us something so obvious? When you follow our approach, however, the Midrash makes sense as the judgment in the celestial spheres referred to is that of the family of the guilty party. You will find that our sages said in Rosh Hashanah 16 that whenever the Book of judgment of a person is opened in the celestial spheres that person's life is in danger and he needs a special merit in order to emerge unscathed.

והתקדשתם והייתם קדושים, "and sanctify yourselves so that you will be holy." G'd directs that we should strive to be holy; when people do this they are assured of attaining the spiritual level of angels who are called קדושים, "holy beings." We know this from Daniel 8,13 "ויאמר אחד קדוש," "one holy one said, etc." This is what is meant by והייתם קדושים. Our sages in Bamidbar Rabbah 20, comment on Numbers 23,23 כעת יאמר ליעקב ולישראל מה פעל אל. "at a time when Jacob as well as Israel is told at once what G'd had worked." They describe an outer circle of angels and an inner circle of Israelites. The angels who are standing in the outer circle are forced to ask the Israelites (who are closer to the centre) what G'd has been doing. This teaches that when the Bible speaks of "His holy ones" in a context of angels, the reference is to the Jewish people. In verse 8 the Torah specifies the means by which the Israelites are to sanctify themselves by saying: ושמרתם את חוקותי ועשיתם אותם. The word ושמרתם refers to observance of negative commandments, whereas the word ועשיתם refers to the performance of positive commandments. Between them the commandments are the means by which G'd will sanctify us. The Torah associates G'd's four lettered name י־ה־ו־ה with the performance of the commandments. The Tikkuney Ha-Zohar chapter 70 explain how by the performance of each commandment the respective organ with which that commandment is performed merits that G'd's name comes to rest on it, a concept alluded to in the letters of the word מצוה.