Kedusha: The Challenge
The Torah's highest spiritual expectations are not attainable by everyone, but its Halachik (legal) expectations are. "Kedoshim Tiheyu" ("you shall be individuals of sanctity") is a Halachik expectation, it is a commandment, a mitzvah. We are obligated not only to aspire to sanctity, but to achieve it. And no, Hashem is not joking, He is absolutely serious! What is kedusha (sanctity) and how do you achieve it?
Kedusha is the ultimate level in the Mesilat Yesharim's[1] remarkable manual of spiritual greatness. In this essay I base my description of what kedusha is on Rabbi Chaim Luzzato's thesis in Chapter 26. We shall also look at how to achieve it and the dangers of artificialkedusha.
Image and Identity
There is a difference between image and identity. Image is the way we present ourselves to others. Identity is the way we see ourselves when we are honest. A gap between image and identity is neither unusual nor necessarily unhealthy. In civilized societies we tend to present ourselves to others as a little better than we really are. The danger is when the gap is too big or when we are unaware of the differences between our identity and our image. Then we tend to identify with our image rather than with our authentic selves.
The people, things and ideas to which we are attached play an important part in forming our identities. Our parents, children, nationalities, culture, religion and even our professions mold not only our images but often our identities too.
Kedusha: Detachment and Attachment
When we become attached to people, ideas and objects, we often merge our identities with them. If we function on different moral, spiritual or even social levels from the people and things we become attached to, we either raise them to our levels, or we drop to theirs as they become part of our identities. When the people and ideas with which we identify are on higher levels than we are, we raise ourselves to their levels as we attempt to become one with them and identify with what they stand for. This is why Chazal (our rabbis) emphasize the importance of living in a makom Torah (place of Torah) and spiritual purity, and associating with people of great spiritual achievement and Torah intellect. Ve'Davakta Bo (and thou shall cleave to Him) is taken not to mean cleaving to Hashem, which is not possible for us, but cleaving to G-dly people. We cannot havekedusha while we are attached to people and things that have none.
There is a profound difference between attachment and engagement. One can engage even intimately without dependency and attachment. Such engagement is the essence of healthy interaction. Kedusha is detaching from the material components of things, people and ideas, and attaching only to the pure spiritual components of the world. This does not mean that we do not associate or engage with things and people that are not kedoshim(people and objects of sanctity). We do, but we engage without attachment. Instead we attach only to Hashem and to the ideas contained in His Torah. This way Hashem and the Torah and nothing else, become part of our soul-identities.
Imagine the person who, no matter what they do, is attached only to Hashem in each of their actions and activities. When they eat, they enjoy every aspect of the food they are eating, but are not attached to that pleasure. They are attached only to the Divine dimensions of the experience embraced in the Beracha (blessing) and everything it means. When they are socializing they are fully engaged in the experience but are attached to the Divine elements of the person with whom they are engaged. In the same way, when they work at their professions, they are fully competent and assiduous, but they are not attached to their careers. They treat their work, as they do every other aspect of their lives, as part of their spiritual practices. They are not tempted by anything that could compromise their attachment to Hashem and the Torah. That is a person well on the road to kedusha.
The Kadosh (holy person) asks him or herself the same question each of us should ask ourselves each day in quiet meditation: "Who am I and why am I here - what is my mission?" The answer is clear and intensely present in his heart: "I am an eved Hashem (servant of G-d) and my mission is to sanctify His name in my every thought, word and deed."
Thought: The Tool of Kedusha
As with everything G-d asks of us, He provides us with the tools and the capabilities we need to achieve those things. The tool forkedusha is the mind. You go in the direction of your thoughts. Your mind determines the accuracy of your golf swing. A car-racing driver who looks at the walls on the side of his track will hit the walls on the side of his track! That is why a vision of where you are going, brilliantly clear to you at every moment, is so important to make sure you get there. Purity and sanctity of thought generate actions of sanctity and a life of purity, a life of kedusha.
The Art of Thought Mastery
The challenge of thought mastery is that we cannot just "tell" our minds to stop thinking a particular thought. The more we try to do that, the more stubbornly our minds cling to the very thoughts from which we are trying to move them away. We can however choose thoughts with which to engage our minds. This way we effortlessly displace the thoughts we want to avoid. Remember though that our minds are more than our analytical left-brain capabilities. Our minds include the intuitive right-brain, artistic, emotional and spiritual dimensions too. We think not only in our heads, but also in our hearts and in our guts. So if we focus all of our attention, right and left brain, on positive, loving, beautiful and uplifting thoughts, this will impact everything we do. It will even affect the energy we project and therefore the response we get from the people and the world around us. We change every aspect of our lives by the thoughts we think and feel.
How to do this is beyond the scope of this essay. Allow me merely to point out the two primary approaches: the eastern approach and the Torah approach. These approaches do not conflict with one another. The eastern approach is universal. The Torah approach requires more skill and goes deeper and further, but its practice requires that an individual be engaged in Torah and Mitzvot. By focusing attention on breathing at first, the eastern approach stills the mind away from distracting clatter and allows it to access ones deeper subconscious, spiritual feelings and intuitive wisdom. Once skilled, one can practice this throughout the day both in between and during ones daily activities. It helps purify ones thoughts and is a wonderful preparation of the mind for kavvana in davening (attention in prayer).
The Torah approach is more transcendent. It accesses a person's superconscious (as Jung termed it) rather than merely their subconscious. The Torah approach totally engages the mind either in a ma'aseh mitzva (mitzva practice) or in a Torah idea (during limud Torah - the study of Torah whether formally in front of a text, or casually during the day). It is important in this approach too, to make sure that you engage the whole mind and that you feel the mitzva or Torah ideas on which you are reflecting in your heart and in your guts too, not only in your head. In fact, although Torah ideas areanalyzed in your head, you can develop the skill to then move them to a place where you can feel them deep inside you. Remember, ideas alone do not change behavior. Experiences and feelings do. By achieving this way you can feel and think G-dly thoughts throughout the day. As you deepen your appreciation of Torah andMitzvot, these thoughts and feelings consistently generate a level of rapture. This elevated state of being puts life's tribulations into perspective. It severs all other attachments while heightening the sensations of healthy engagement with people and the glorious world in which we live.
Mussar, as an emotive spiritual practice rather than an intellectual pursuit, helps to bridge the space between the above two approaches. It helps expand Torah thinking from the head to the heart. It converts ideas into feelings and builds attachment to Hashem not just to the ideas in our heads. Head-centered ideas can be just extensions of our egos (limud Torah lekanteir - Torah study used to feel good about ourselves and to diminish others), and attachment to them is nothing more than attachment to our own egos!
Artificial "Kedusha"
Artificiality is an impenetrable barrier to kedusha. The Mesilat Yesharim points out that just as it is a capital offence for a non-kohento perform Temple service, so it is improper for someone who has not attained kedusha to act as though they have. It is important to gently work ones way through the stages of spiritual development laid out by the Mesilat Yesharim and others in the pursuit of authentickedusha. It is advisable to do this under the mentorship of a Rav who is expert in this area.
This does not mean that until being fully evolved one can experience nothing of kedusha. Spiritual growth is not linear. More like the ripples on a pond they are more intense at the point where the pebble is thrown in, but from the beginning there are already ripples on the outer reaches too. So it is with spiritual development. We start with a little pebble in the center of the pond of life, and the effect of that first step forward reverberates throughout every level of our souls and beyond, into the universe all the way to Hashem's throne. We simply need to nourish that pebble in the center for the waves to continue, and little by little even the outer waves gain intensity.
Ki Kadosh Ani
"You shall be individuals of sanctity." G-d even tells us why He is serious about so astonishingly aspirational a standard for each and every one of us: "Ki kadosh ani" (for I am Sanctity), He says. G-d assures us that we are not alone in this. The reason we can achieve sanctity is because our Father in Heaven is Sanctity itself, and He undertakes to hold our hands along this journey provided we take the first steps and keep focused on our journey and its destination. "If a person sanctifies himself just a little, They sanctify him from above a great deal."[2]
The Torah does not reserve the highest levels of human spiritual achievement for priests and clergy. It offers every Jew the potential to achieve it and the ability to do so. Start your soul on the most spectacular journey of its life: the journey of sanctity - because you ARE holy.
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