Kedoshim: Who is in Charge Here?

It is prohibited to pass our children through fire to worship the god Molekh- I need hardly remind you, as we read it last week^[1]- but the punishment for violating this horrible transgression appears in this week’s reading in a passage which is striking and instructive for too many reasons to list for lack of time. We will highlight just one and, if you permit me, will relate it to our relationship with Yom Ha’atzmaut and Zionism, seeing as I think there is an important spiritual lesson that we must take from that day, which has barely passed.

The worship of Molekh, if you recall, consists of passing one’s children through fire, along with assistance from the helpful of priests of Molekh^[2]. What happens to the transgressor, who so tortures- God forbid- his child?

קדשים, פרק כ

א וַיְדַבֵּר ה׳, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר.  ב וְאֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, תֹּאמַר, אִישׁ אִישׁ מִבְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמִן-הַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר יִתֵּן מִזַּרְעוֹ לַמֹּלֶךְ, מוֹת יוּמָת; עַם הָאָרֶץ, יִרְגְּמֻהוּ בָאָבֶן.  ג וַאֲנִי אֶתֵּן אֶת-פָּנַי, בָּאִישׁ הַהוּא, וְהִכְרַתִּי אֹתוֹ, מִקֶּרֶב עַמּוֹ:  כִּי מִזַּרְעוֹ, נָתַן לַמֹּלֶךְ--לְמַעַן טַמֵּא אֶת-מִקְדָּשִׁי, וּלְחַלֵּל אֶת-שֵׁם קָדְשִׁי.

1 And God spoke to Moshe, saying 2 Tell the children of Israel: Any one of the children of Israel, or of the strangers living in Israel, that gives of his children to Molech; he shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3 I also will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he gave of his children to Molech; this defiles My sanctuary, and profanes My holy name.

The one who goes to tortures and endangers his children must be put to death. Ideally, we seek to prevent this crime from taking place. This is one way of understanding the phrase “עם הארץ ירגמהו באבן”, “the people should stone him”. First, they should try to stop him, even at the cost of his own life; if that doesn’t work, then they will stone him in court, via the usual mechanisms of the Rabbinical Court and its procedures^[3]. The spiritual punishment of Karet will be administered by God.

But what if the people don’t know what’s going on? What if they miss the signs, they don’t see that their neighbor is doing this?

What if- and we can imagine it, especially if we know the name Kitty Genovese^[4]- they do know what is going on, but it is too inconvenient or difficult to say anything? What if the family sacrificing their children are from the political class, or they are pillars of the community, what if they are celebrities or famous comedians or producers? Well, it is possible that people could turn a blind eye, just for a little while…

If that happens, God says, he will do the job Himself:

 ד וְאִם הַעְלֵם יַעְלִימוּ עַם הָאָרֶץ אֶת-עֵינֵיהֶם, מִן-הָאִישׁ הַהוּא, בְּתִתּוֹ מִזַּרְעוֹ, לַמֹּלֶךְ--לְבִלְתִּי, הָמִית אֹתוֹ.  ה וְשַׂמְתִּי אֲנִי אֶת-פָּנַי בָּאִישׁ הַהוּא, וּבְמִשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ; וְהִכְרַתִּי אֹתוֹ וְאֵת כָּל-הַזֹּנִים אַחֲרָיו, לִזְנוֹת אַחֲרֵי הַמֹּלֶךְ--מִקֶּרֶב עַמָּם.

4 And if the people of the land do ignore that man- when he gives of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death; 5 then I will set My face against that man, and against his family (his followers^[5]), and will cut him off, and all that go astray after him, to go astray after Molech, from among their people.

ONLY if we fail in our duty, for one reason or another, will God step in. But wouldn’t it be much more efficient if He would do the job immediately? Wouldn’t it be faster, cleaner, easier? Why leave it all to us in the first place? No doubt, we’ll get things wrong, we’ll take a long time filing paperwork, investigating witnesses and modes or warning, what happened, how, and when. We’ll gossip and wring our hands, allowing the criminal to comfortably await a trial which will happen only if we actually muster the will to do something about it and- honestly, as we know- we might not.

So, God, let’s cut out the middleman, shall we?

In truth, we know the world simply does not work this way. But this is not merely an observation. There is a great moral lesson which dwells in knowing this, that, in fact, God waits for us to act: God created us so that the world and what goes on in it would be our responsibility.

This is indicated at the very beginning of Creation. Thus, we find in chapter 2 of Bereshit:

וַיִּקַּ֛ח ה׳ אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּנִּחֵ֣הוּ בְגַן־עֵ֔דֶן לְעׇבְדָ֖הּ וּלְשׇׁמְרָֽהּ׃

And the Lord God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Even to work and guard it.

The first thing Adam learns, before he is even commanded to refrain from eating from the tree of Knowledge, is that it is his job to preserve and develop this world^[6], not God’s. God Created the world and administers it- yet, fundamentally, He seeks to  delegate this task. If we imagine Adam appearing before a great desk in the heavens in the great interview office in the sky, it is to apply for this job- for caretaker of creation. And, since, after all, Adam was hired, it is our job as well.

The world stands on three things, we learn in Avot: The study of Torah, the worship of God, and acts of kindness^[7]. These are things that we do. We study Torah, we worship, pray, and cultivate a relationship with God, and we take what we have learned from God and imitate His acts of kindness^[8].

This notion is also hinted at in the Sifra, the Midrash that appears here. The Midrash teaches the law which is practically understood and applied from these verses:

ספרא

״מוֹת יוּמַת״ – בְּבֵית דִּין.

מְנַיִן אִם אֵין כֹּחַ בְּבֵית דִּין, עַם הָאָרֶץ מְסַיְּעִין אוֹתוֹ?

תִּלְמֹד לוֹמַר ״עַם הָאָרֶץ יִרְגְּמֻהוּ״.

דָּבָר אַחֵר: ״עַם הָאָרֶץ״, עַם שֶׁבְּגִינָן נִבְרְאתָה הָאָרֶץ.

רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר: עַם שֶׁהֵם עֲתִידִין לִירַשׁ אֶת הָאָרֶץ עַל יְדֵי הַדְּבָרִים הַלָּלוּ.

"He will surely die”- in court.

How do we know that if the court is not strong enough to administer the law, that the people must help them?

Thus the verse teaches that “the people will stone him”.

Another opinion: “The people”, meaning the people for whom the world was created.

Rabban Gamliel says: The people who will, in the future, inherit the Land of Israel because they fulfill these words.

These understandings of the term “עם הארץ”, the people, do not conflict with one another. They each mean the same thing. Indeed, if the Bet Din is too weak to administer the law, then the people must. Indeed, the world was created for such people, who act and do not wait on the sidelines. Indeed, the Land of Israel will be inherited by such people.

This takes us back to Yom Ha’atzmaut. In quite short, some people do not celebrate this day because they think it is impetuous for a human being or for a group of people to take charge of our destiny; rather, we should wait for God to return us to the Land of Israel and to care for our spiritual and physical needs. To such people, we must simply reply, “you have it exactly backwards.” Exactly backwards. God created the world for us to act^[9], and we must do nothing less^[10].

Yom Ha’atzmaut, in this way, reflects our fundamental orientation to life. We believe that God has entrusted to us the care of all of His creation. We can well understand, then, the Midrash^[11] that comments on Moshe’s song in Parashat Ha’azinu:

אל אמונה – שהאמין בעולם ובראו. ואין עול, שלא באו בני אדם להיות רשעים אלא להיות צדיקים.

“A Faithful God”- That He believed in the creation and created it. “Without Iniquity”- that humankind did not come to be evil but to be righteous.

God has given us the reins^[12]. Certainly, we affirm that this is so regarding history. The true question is how much we live by this credo in our day to day lives. Do we take the reins in the little things that form the pillars upon which the world stands? How much Torah do we study? How much worship and prayer? How much kindness? Enough? Can we not do more? And, most importantly, do we permit ourselves to say aloud that which we know is quite obvious- if we choose not to do something for ourselves, our children, our community, it will not get done at all?

God can do it but He will not. He wants us to act. And if we know it is true on a national level, then we must know it is true and in many ways much more pressing on an individual level. No one else will wake in the morning and pray. No one else will study, work on our patience, make a donation, attend an event, practice the appropriate blessings ourselves or with our children or sit with them in shul.

God has entrusted us with the keys. Now it is time for us to act.