Achrei Mot – Kedoshim
Leviticus 16:1 – 20:27

By Torah Blogger, Jen Smith

This week’s double portion, Parashat Achrei Mot – Kedoshim, is not so much a Torah reading as it is a spiritual manifesto. In it, we traverse from the sacred spaces of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) to the intimate, messy spaces of human relationships. These twin portions insist that holiness is not confined to mere ritual. Rather, it is cultivated through justice, empathy, restraint, and caring for the community. At the center of this moral constellation is one of the Torah’s most iconic verses:

Kedoshim tihiyu, ki kadosh ani Adonai Eloheichem – You shall be holy, for I, Adonai your God, am holy (Leviticus 19:2).

This is not simply a command. It’s a theological provocation. What does it mean to be holy in the image of the Infinite? If God is beyond time, space, and limitation, how are finite humans to emulate that holiness?

Enter Jewish mysticism, which offers a radical reinterpretation of this call. The Kabbalists suggest that holiness is not perfection, but integration – the weaving together of the Divine and the earthly. The world, according to the mystical tradition, is suffused with hidden sparks of divine light, remnants of the primordial shattering (shevirat ha-kelim). Each act of moral living – every honest transaction and every lifted soul – is a tikkun, a repair of the cosmic tapestry. In this worldview, holiness becomes a verb – not a state of being. We are not being holy; we are becoming holy through sacred action.

Achrei Mot speaks of atonement and the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies only once a year. Kedoshim, by contrast, democratizes holiness. It brings the Holy of Holies into the proverbial town square with fair wages, honest judgments, and radical empathy for the vulnerable. Together, the two parshiot reflect a tension familiar to many religious seekers: transcendence vs. immanence, sanctuary vs. street.

It is perhaps within that dialectic that we pause this week for a moment of interfaith celebration: Mazel tov to the new (American) Pope!

Now, obviously, there isn’t a papal office in Judaism. We are a famously decentralized tradition with rabbis who argue, communities that differ, and a God who seems to prefer our questions over answers. But in the spirit of Kedoshim, where we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves – v’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha – a verse Rabbi Akiva famously called the greatest principle in the Torah and the same verse that Rabbi Hillel used to explain the whole Torah (Shabbat 31a:6); we recognize that holiness crosses denominational lines.

The appointment of an American as Pope is not only a significant moment for Catholics, but for all people of every faith who care about moral leadership. And, from our perch in the modern Jewish world, we can acknowledge this with warmth, curiosity, and yes, with a generous helping of mazel tov, and here’s why: Even in a tradition as richly particular as our beautiful Jewish tradition, we are instructed to rise before the aged, honor the stranger, and not stand idly by the suffering of our neighbors (Leviticus 19). These are not merely Jewish values, they are human values – they are divine values.

The Zohar (a central Jewish mystical text) teaches that the Shechinah, the divine Presence of God on earth, rests where there is justice, peace, and compassion. Perhaps that’s why Kedoshim begins with an address to the entire community – kol adat b’nei Yisrael – not just to the priests or sages. Holiness is not inherited. It is created through action. In a world fractured by war and spiritual fatigue, our Torah portion reminds us that holiness is within our reach if we are willing to engage with the world, serve with integrity, and see each other through a lens of sacred potential.

To world Jewry, the Pope may be an external sort of symbol. But to the soul attuned to the sparks of holiness scattered throughout the world, even surprising elevations in leadership can remind us of our sacred calling: to elevate, repair, and most importantly, to love.

So yes, I say: Mazel Tov to Pope Leo XIV! May he serve with wisdom and humility, and may we, in our own tradition, heed the call of Kedoshim: to invite the Divine into our everyday, and to reveal God’s light not only in our beautiful sanctuary, but in the soul of every single human being.

Shabbat Shalom.