My friend, Dovid Becker, shared with me a very deep insight that his four year old, Yaakov Zev, had as sleep was overtaking him:
"Abba, there are three kinds of monkeys: Gorillas, monkeys, and pretend monkeys"
Now how can you possibly get deeper than that? On to Torah!
"And Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, 'Speak to all the congregation of the people of Yisroel, and say to them, 'You shall be holy; for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy'" (Vayikra 19:1-2)
"This teaches us that this portion was said at the gathering of the entire nation" -Rashi, Vayikra Rabba (24:5)
Rav Mordechai Rogov asks why was this portion, compared to many others, specifically said at the gathering of the entire nation. Why was this portion publicized so heavily?
The parsha begins with the statement, "You shall be holy", and is quickly followed by several different laws: "Do not unjustly withhold that which is due your brother, and do not steal"; "Do not pervert justice”; “Do not hate your brother in your heart"; and "You must love your neighbor as you love yourself".
When people think of 'holiness', they think of somebody who is off in their own spiritual world, cleaving to G-d. People might think some monks on some high up mountain are achieving holiness, while average people live their everyday lives in this world.
Within the Jewish circles, people might say that a person who davens three times a day, wears tzitzis, puts on tefillin, and learns all day, is holy. Says, Rav Rogov, this is not entirely true.
The parsha says, "You shall be holy", and begins listing off a slew of mitzvos. Take a good look at those mitzvos. Did you notice something? None of them seem to be dealing with the relationship between man and G-d, they deal with the relationship between man and man! A person who learns all day, and works for two hours, and is stealing money from his customers, is far from holy!
Says Rav Rogov, the Torah specifically introduces this parsha by declaring "You must be holy", to emphasize that even these rules which govern our day to day interactions, will be fulfilled only if accompanied by an element of spirit. If someone attempts to be honest or fair without being responsible to Hashem, his level of integrity will be far from being adequate.
Two examples pop to mind. The first one is the government. We all know about the stealing and cheating that happens throughout the government. Here are people, representing "the will of the people", who are holding our country's highest offices, accepting bribes and playing 'politics'. The people who are supposed to be representing the best of our country, who preach about fairness and law, are nothing more than crooks themselves (with a few exceptions of course). When a politician says one thing, you can rest assured, the chances are, he/she won't stick with those words.
Another example that springs to mind are, of course, "Peace" activists. Here you have a group of people, proclaiming that we should "love our fellow man" and "cherish mother earth", and bring "peace" throughout the world. Have you ever seen photos of the day after a "Peace" Rally? The places they rally at are full of litter and they always get into a bad habit of destroying property that isn't theirs. Just to make it worse, these 'peace-loving' folks happen to always support groups that would love to see Israel or the US destroyed. Now, don't you think it somewhat ironic that peace groups should support Hamas, Hezbollah, Cuba, North Korea, the Iraqi insurgents, etc...? What went wrong with these two groups? "Kedoshim Tihiyu", Be Holy. That's what went wrong. They don't have any holiness to them. Government officials make up their definition of what is right and what is wrong. Peace groups make up their own definition of what is peace and what is not.
Rashi is offering us a tremendous insight. This parsha was given over in public in order to teach us that being holy is NOT just the responsibility of those living outside this physical world. It is obligatory on every man, woman, and child. When one is confronted on how to deal with his fellow man, he has two choices, look at the Torah and see what it considers 'holy' or make up your own definition. As we see, when you make up your own definition, you have no real boundaries. You can simply make up the rules as they go. However, when you look into the Torah and it says, "do not cheat", it MEANS "do not cheat". No ifs, ands, or buts. If he wishes to fulfill the OBLIGATION of 'being holy', he will look into the Torah and see what it says. This parsha teaches us that this rule does not only apply to mitzvahs "bein adam l'makom", between man and G-d, but also "bein adam l'chavero", between man and man. On top of that, the obligation applies to each and every one of us at all times. With that, I wish you a good Shabbos!