Parashah of the week: Acharei Mot-Kedoshim

This week’s double-parashah is the hinge point in the book of Vayikra, between the letter of the law, and something bigger, more amorphous and more difficult - we could call it the spirit of the law, or we could call it kedushah, “holiness”.

Up to this point, Vayikra has fulfilled its rabbinic name, Torat Cohanim (Torah of the Priests). But from our verse onwards, the focus switches to bein adam l’chavero – relationships between human beings.

Rashi says that “you shall be holy” means distance from sexual wrongdoing, which may fit with the rest of the parashah. However the Ramban differs, first broadening Rashi’s focus from sexual wrongdoing to all kinds of things that we should distance ourselves from - such as over-indulgence in food and bad speech. The word for distancing ourselves is perushim, which is the Hebrew for Pharisees. This is us – Judaism today has evolved from Pharisaic Judaism.

The Ramban continues: “because the Torah permits sex within marriage and shows us how to have kosher wine and meat, a desirous person could find a place to be addicted to sex with their spouse or to have many wives [this was before the rabbinic enactment against polygamy], or to be among the guzzlers of wine and the gluttons of meat. They will speak as they please about all the vulgarities, the prohibition of which is not mentioned in the Torah. And behold, they would be a naval birshut haTorah”.