Kedoshim, Holy Ones
Vayiqra (Lev) 19:1 – 20:27
Amos 9:7-15; Ezekiel 20:2-20
Matthew 5:33-48, 15:1-11; Luke 10:25-39; I Peter 1:13-25
The pagan roots of Christianity and the evil origins of rabbinic Judaism are subjects many well-intended theologians and intellectuals like to study. Why? Is it to expose where others may be falling short in the area of true holiness in our congregations? To expose hidden idolatry that others may be committing unaware?
As important as it is to be aware of religious corruption, what does YHWH really want us to know regarding what it takes to be ‘holy ones’ – ‘kedoshim’? Is that enough to make us holy if we expunge every vestige of paganism and every crumb of the leaven of the Pharisees? What do the Scriptures say? What does Yeshua call us to base our understanding of true holy character and the true holy behavior of holy ones?
In other words, what does it mean to be kedoshim – holy ones – according to the heart of the Living Torah that we’ve been studying recently? What does that look like for those who desire to be set apart unto the Holy One? Let’s start by taking to heart what the apostle Peter had to say about the matter of true holiness:
Peter’s Commentary on Kedoshim - Holy Ones
Peter commented on what it means to be Kedoshim, holy ones, to be set apart ‘in all behavior’. Peter quotes out of the Torah portion – Kedoshim (Holy, Set-apart Ones):
Instead, as the One Who called you is holy (set-apart), so you also should become set-apart in all behavior, because it has been written, “Be holy (set-apart), for I Am holy (set-apart).” (Lev 19:2) 1 Peter 1:15-16
So it’s not in what we know intellectually that makes us holy, it’s about how we behave.
Paul brings it closer to home when he taught the Ephesians to ‘lay aside the old self’ ‘and put on the new self.’ He appeals to the born-again spirit within the believer:
Since they are past feeling, they have turned themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of immorality, with greed for more. However, you did not learn Messiah in this way – if indeed you have heard Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Yeshua. With respect to your former lifestyle, you are to lay aside the old self corrupted by its deceitful desires, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self – created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:19-24
So who are the ones who are holy and set apart ‘in all behavior’? Those who believe that Elohim raised Yeshua from the dead are set apart, and holy, as the Messiah, is set apart and given eternal glory. Because Yeshua was raised from the dead, believers are delivered from being ‘dead in trespasses and sin,’ Elohim ‘has quickened us together with Messiah, by grace are you saved.’ (Ephesians 2:1,5)
Holy ones are set apart when:
‘Elohim made you alive together with Him when He pardoned us all our transgressions.’ (Colossians 2:13)
Only God Almighty can make us alive and holy by His Spirit, not by our own power, nor by our intellect can a soul be sanctified.
Now that you have cleansed your lives in obeying the Truth through the Spirit… I Peter 1:22a
We are clean by obeying the Truth, what the Scriptures define to be the Torah (Psalm 119:142), through the Ruach Ha’Qodesh (the Holy Spirit) living inside of us. Just knowing the Truth is not enough. We can only pretend to obey the Truth merely by leaning on our own intellect, and our own understanding, and trying to do Torah by the flesh. That means we must be walking in the Spirit to be set apart or holy ones – kedoshim.
How do you know when you are obeying the Truth of the Living Torah and are walking in the Spirit of the Holy One?
…to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another fervently with a clean heart… I Peter 1:22b
Qedoshim (holy ones) have a sincere love for one another without being two-faced, or hypocritical, wearing religious masks. True love is not phony and lukewarm. Yah’s love in a cleansed heart is fervent and selfless with pure, sincere motives toward others.
Now back to how is it that we become kedoshim, set apart or holy ones, in the first place:
…having been born again – not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible – through the living Word of God, which remains forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass and all the esteem of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and its flower falls away, but the Word of God remains forever.’ And this is the Word announced as Good News to you. 1 Peter 1:23-25
As Yeshua said, “You must be born again.” (John 3:7) You must have the incorruptible seed of the Gospel growing inside your soul. You must have the gift of eternal life within your spirit to be holy. The only holy seed that can be is the Seed of Messiah (Gal 3:16), the Word Who became flesh (John 1:14), which is planted in the heart when a soul hears and believes the Gospel. How is it that we in Hebrew Roots so easily overlook this obvious and extremely important point about how to be holy?
What I hear many brothers and sisters talk about when trying to get people to be holy by keeping the Torah, is how to do it according to their walk, their lifestyle, and their intellectual ideas. Many become judgmental when they see behavior or words said that they believe are pagan or unholy in origin. Separation and division ensues.
Keeping Torah then becomes self-centered and self-righteous, rather than oriented towards others in selfless love. Not walking in the Spirit while trying to live ‘holy’ produces religious dogma, made-up doctrines of men, and hypocritical behavior as Yeshua taught and warned us about in Matthew 15.
Hey, I know, because I’ve been guilty of judging others that way myself! But thanks be to Yeshua for the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the blood of Yeshua that cleanses us of all unrighteousness! Believers in Yeshua do not have to keep treating their brethren that way, we’re not slaves to sin, and we can walk in the Spirit and the love of God.
How do holy ones live? ‘The just shall live by faith’ – in the Messiah Yeshua, Who justifies us and works through us by His Spirit to walk in His righteousness, not our own.
Yeshua took being set apart a step further when He showed us how our love should be ‘unfeigned’ and ‘fervent,’ even in our behavior towards our enemies (Matthew 5:33-48). For He is the Prophet greater than Moses that we should all hear and obey.
Holy Ones Revere Mom
Upon commanding us to be holy as He is holy in the Torah portion, why does Abba start with fearing mother first? By the way, Mother’s Day is this Sunday – no coincidence!
Each man of you shall revere his mother and his father… Leviticus 19:3a
Why does the commandment start with the order of revering mother first, then his father? The order of words in a sentence in the Scriptures are not happenstance but carries a message. To find an answer, let’s look at how Yeshua revered His mother when He had obeyed the Father when hanging upon the cross.
Then seeing His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, Yeshua said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour, the disciple took her into his own home. John 19:26-27
Upon the cross, we find Yeshua gave the disciple whom He loved the charge of taking care of His mother, Miriam. His earthly parent, Yoseph, is not mentioned in any Gospel account during His suffering and death. Could it be that Miriam had become a widow? Yeshua not only honored His mother, but He also provided for a needy widow. Why else would He give His mother to John, if Joseph was still a husband to Miriam?
Fulfilling the Torah, the Holy One put His mother, a solitary woman, in a house of love, the home of His beloved disciple, John. Yeshua is the Elohim Who is this:
Father of the fatherless, and Right-ruler of widows, is Elohim in His set-apart dwelling. Elohim makes a home for the solitary. Psalms 68:4,5a
He profoundly fulfilled this prophecy, doing the work of the Father, for Yeshua is Deity.
On the other hand, in His suffering and death as a Man, He submitted perfectly to the Father in Heaven by laying His life down for whosoever would call upon His Name. The Son of Man did not His own will, but the will of His Father. Later the Son of God honored His Father through His obedience to Him:
“I have glorified You on the earth. I finished the work that You gave Me to do.” John 17:4
He revered both His mother and His Father.
How are we to revere our mother and father? A very wise man instructs us to be obedient to our father and mother. Let’s read Proverbs 6:20-21:
My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life.
What teachings and commandments would righteous parents teach their children?
Moshe’s Teaching on What Holy Ones DO
According to Vayiqra (Leviticus) 19, kedoshim (holy ones) are doers of the Word who:
- feed hungry travelers by allowing them to glean and eat from their crops,
- don’t steal, lie, or deceive hired help, but pay due wages on time,
- treat the deaf and the blind with kindness and respect,
- do not judge people according to whether they are rich or poor,
- give strong rebukes, but not out of disdain or hatred that pierces the heart,
- don’t hold grudges against children,
- do not mistreat or oppress strangers traveling through their land.
- love your neighbor as you love yourself.
What do you know? Nothing here about expunging paganism, or rejecting religious authority structures! Nothing about saying the Sacred Names correctly, nor on identifying sacred calendar dates, nor on observing festivals in holy ways.
Just maybe if we do the works of the Torah out of a sincere and fervent love for others, there won’t be any room for paganism in our lives. Just maybe the Holy Spirit will then do the expunging of anything pagan or unholy in our behavior and that of others.
What follows after the commandment to ‘fear mother and father’ and to keep the sabbaths? Many Torah-observant believers keep Shabbat, which of course is good, but how then should we become ‘set-apart in all behavior’ every day of the week?
The meaning of qadosh is to be ‘set apart from the rest for a special function’ (Jeff Benner). What is that function according to the Torah, and how are we to do Torah?
Should we emphasize checking our walk to make sure that what we are doing doesn’t line up with the pagan roots of Christianity nor the evil origins of Jewish practices?
In contrast, we find that qedoshim, holy ones, take care of the needs of those whom Yeshua calls “the least of these My brethren.” Out of hearts devoted to Him, the Living Torah teaches us to take care of hurting people and to show kindness and mercy to the desperate. Want to be considered set-apart and keep the heart of our Father’s instructions?
The instructions of kedoshim (holy ones) follow after the most qadosh Man to have walked the earth – our Messiah Yeshua.
Yeshua’s Teaching on Holy Ones - The Parable of the V’ahavtah
In some Hebrew Roots communities, the V’ahavtah (And you shall love) is often recited to remind forgetful folk like me to love YHWH with all my heart and soul and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself.
A Torah lawyer had answered Yeshua well when He asked him what was written in the Torah and how it had been read to him (Luke 10:25-27). The lawyer quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 and Vayiqra 19:18, a very common Jewish saying heard to this day (Romans 3:1-2)
The Torah scholar had asked the Master what he should do to inherit eternal life. When he said that walking in love for Yah and his neighbor was how the Torah read to him, Yeshua quoted out of the Torah, “Do this and you shall live.” (Luke 10:28) In other words, you’ll have eternal life, if you walk in love. The Word of Yah teaches that walking in love can only be done by the Spirit from a born-again heart, thus our need to repent and ask Yeshua to come into our hearts. It is impossible to walk in love without His Spirit.
The Master answered the question of who our neighbor is and how to love our neighbor as ourselves with the story of a traveling man from Samaria, who helped a robbed and beaten stranger on a wayside. So how do we do that in practical, real-life scenarios?
It was a religious priest and a Levite who passed the poor guy by – and they had the Torah to back them up! Sure, a kohen (priest) was not to defile himself by touching the dead according to the Torah. The beaten man was barely alive, so neither the priest nor the Levite would take the chance of touching the stranger, lest he die and defile them.
How many times have I passed by hurting people by thinking that same kind of holier-than-thou attitude? Oy vey! Oh me!
How do you spell ‘f a i t h’ with four letters? R I S K
But the robbed and beaten man did not die, he was revived! The good Samaritan never defiled himself by touching the dead as the Levite and the priest were so worried about.
What Yeshua was teaching here was that loving our neighbor trumps being defiled by them. Selfless love for a neighbor takes being dead to self and self-importance. Being too busy to be defiled by a guy dying on you is self-centered and is not how a true holy one would behave. When by the Ruach HaKodesh we truly love a dying person, we can believe that the Resurrection and the Life will revive the victim. Then death cannot defile us when YHWH heals and revives the sick and the dying.
The irony of our Torah portion is that the Good Samaritan came from a people who mixed pagan practices with keeping the Torah. The Levite and the priest observed Torah mitzvot (commandments) and steered way clear of anything or anyone pagan. But they missed the bigger theme of true holiness – selfless love, a weightier matter of the Torah.
Did you catch that? The Levite and the priest observed Torah mitzvot and steered clear of any defilement, but they missed the bigger theme of true holiness – selfless love.
On the other hand, did Yeshua condone mixture by making a Samaritan out to be the holy one, instead of a priest? He could not have been the Messiah if He did. The selfless act of love by the Samaritan had absolutely nothing to do with his pagan roots or his mixture of religious practices. His heart of mercy and compassion for a hurting soul was pure and holy, set-apart from a world that passed the guy by and left him for dead on the roadside. Life and healing imparted out of Love is the behavior of kedoshim, holy ones.
The more empowered we are by the Holy Spirit, the more effective we are at winning battles against evil inclinations and defiling spirits. The more spiritually empowered we are, the more effective we are at loving our hurting neighbor back to life and to wholeness. The more productive we will be in the end-time harvest of souls.
Never fear! Holiness, not paganism, will prevail! For we are born of an incorruptible seed by the Spirit. The Messiah in us has never seen, nor ever will see corruption.
Let the Light expose the strengths and weaknesses of different people groups. Most of us came out of some kind of Christian mixture in our earthly sojourn. Others had been immersed in Judaism. For us to enter into true holiness as a set-apart people, a faith that works by love trumps merely observing commandments that separate the clean from the unclean. What sets us apart and makes us holy is how we selflessly love those who no one else will love with real compassion and with selfless sacrificial service.
Discerning True from Phony Holy Ones
What pathway to holiness do we embark on? Some head into the Dead Sea scrolls to deepen their understanding of the holiness standards of ‘the Scriptures’. Were the Essenes, called ‘the sons of Zadok,’ truly holy ones, or were they phony? If they were truly holy, did they accept the Holy One, Yeshua of Nazareth as their Savior?
If the Essenes were ‘the sons of Zadok,’ they were Levites. Josephus described them as intellectual religious elites that cloistered themselves away in the Qumran Community. Unlike Yeshua and His disciples, these Levites did not go out into the world to touch the sick and dying with the love of Elohim. The Essene authorities kept strict religious rules on celibacy and monastic lifestyles that superseded the Torah of Moses. The cloistered Essenes were lawmakers who wrote laws that added to and took away from the Torah.
The Essene scribes were among those Yeshua rebuked when He said “Woe to the scribes and Pharisees.” Many laws of the Pharisees came right out of the writings of the Essene lawyers. Extra-biblical writings, such as the Book of Jubilees, were the source of much of the leaven of the Pharisees. Therefore, I cannot accept the apocryphal books to be part of the Scriptures, as some assert. The Torah will go forth from Zion, not from the Dead Sea scrolls; and the Word of YHWH from Jerusalem, not out of the Qumran Community (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2). Please, test and prove all things.
Nothing in the Scriptures, nor in any historical writings, documents that any Essene in authority had accepted Yeshua as the Messiah. Their intellectual authorities were ‘vehemently opposed’ to Yeshua. Why? Because He rebuked their scribes for legalism and He did not come to restore ‘the sons of Zadok’ to Temple service in Jerusalem. Why did the Essenes disappear from history after 69 AD, but not the rabbinic Jews?
It was the religious authorities who criticized Yeshua for drinking and eating with winebibbers and gluttons, with you know – carnal pagans. The Doctor went to the sick and healed them, to the hungry and He fed them. He opened deaf ears and blind eyes. To the sinner He taught righteousness, and to the dying He imparted Resurrection Life.
There for the grace of Yah go true holy ones!
David Klug