{"id":45240,"date":"2018-12-05T12:14:28","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T10:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45240"},"modified":"2022-06-30T13:11:58","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T10:11:58","slug":"holiness-a-balance-between-hedonism-and-asceticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/holiness-a-balance-between-hedonism-and-asceticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiness: A Balance Between Hedonism And Asceticism"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[383,401,742],"acf":{"old_id":"45240","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"105","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A religion of life that celebrates both Creator and Creation","content":"

The sidrot<\/em> of Tazria and Metsora contain laws which are among the most difficult to understand. They are about conditions of \u201cimpurity\u201d arising from the fact that we are physical beings, embodied souls.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout history there have been two distinct and opposing ways of relating to this fact: hedonism (living for physical pleasure) and asceticism (relinquishing physical pleasure). The former worships the physical while denying the spiritual, the latter enthrones the spiritual at the cost of the physical.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jewish way has always been different: to sanctify the physical \u2013 eating, drinking, sex and rest \u2013 making the life of the body a vehicle for the divine presence. The reason is simple. We believe with perfect faith that the God of redemption is also the God of creation. The physical world we inhabit is the one God made and pronounced \u201cvery good.\u201d To be a hedonist is to deny God. To be an ascetic is to deny the goodness of God\u2019s world. To be a Jew is to celebrate both creation and Creator. That is the principle that explains many otherwise incomprehensible features of Jewish life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The principle essential to understanding the laws of ritual purity and impurity is that God is life. Judaism is a profound rejection of cults, ancient and modern, that glorify death. The great pyramids of Egypt were grandiose tombs. Arthur Koestler noted that without death \u201cthe cathedrals collapse, the pyramids vanish into the sand, the great organs become silent.\u201d The English metaphysical poets turned to it constantly as a theme.<\/span><\/p>\n

It follows that kedushah<\/em> (holiness) \u2013 a point in time or space where we stand in the unmediated presence of God \u2013 involves a supreme consciousness of life. That is why the paradigm case of tumah<\/em> is contact with a corpse. Other cases of tumah<\/em> include diseases or bodily emissions that remind us of our mortality. God\u2019s domain is life. Therefore it may not be associated in any way with intimations of death. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is how Judah Halevi explains the purity laws in his work The Kuzari: \u201cA dead body represents the highest degree of loss of life, and a leprous limb is as if it were dead. It is the same with the loss of seed, because it had been endowed with living power, capable of engendering a human being. Its loss therefore forms a contrast to the living and breathing\u201d (Kuzari, II: 60).<\/span><\/p>\n

The laws of purity apply exclusively to Israel, argues Halevi, precisely because Judaism is the supreme religion of life, and its adherents are therefore hyper-sensitive to even the most subtle distinctions between life and death.<\/span><\/p>\n

From: The Scapegoat: Shame and Guilt (Covenant & Conversation, Acharei Mot \u2013 Kedoshim 5775)<\/em><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":106079,"id":106079,"title":"-62bd76db6619c--62bd76db6619elev15-flower-of-life.jpg","filename":"62bd76db6619c-62bd76db6619elev15-flower-of-life.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/62bd76db6619c-62bd76db6619elev15-flower-of-life.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/holiness-a-balance-between-hedonism-and-asceticism\/62bd76db6619c-62bd76db6619elev15-flower-of-life-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"62bd76db6619c-62bd76db6619elev15-flower-of-life-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":45240,"date":"2022-06-30 10:11:39","modified":"2022-06-30 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