“After Death. Holiness.” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

April 24, 2026 | 7 Iyyar 5786

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat and this coming week, Passover. You can also listen to it as a podcast.

After death. Holiness.

These are the names of the double portion for this week. Offered one after the other, they offer some solace to the world we face at this time.

After death/Acharei Mot begins with the description of the unfortunate death of the two sons of Aaron, Nadav and Abihu. As priests, their improper behavior in the sanctuary of offering alien fire led to their demise. The portion proceeds to describe the Yom Kippur rituals of preparation and purification to ensure sanctity for the High Priest. Though read almost a half of a year before we observe Yom Kippur, it offers a moment to confront mortality in the face of what we experience as sacred.

It is followed by Holiness/Kedoshim which contains the holiness code and defines holiness not as an inaccessible lofty attainment beyond our reach but rather within our hearts, minds, and actions in our treatment of one another. The associative reason goes: if we are made in the image of God as the beginning of Genesis describes, and God is holy as Kedoshim reiterates and emphasizes numerous times , therefore, since God is holy, then we, created in God’s image can be holy as well.

קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

You shall be holy, for I, the ETERNAL your God, am holy. (Lev 19:2)

The difference is that holiness becomes possible by how holiness manifests itself. It is not delivered on a silver platter, as they say. It can only be attained by intentional action.

This is where we find the central verse of the Torah in Leviticus 19:18, Love your neighbor as yourself. וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ אֲנִ֖י יְהֹוָֽה׃

After death from war and other acts of terror, we turn to holy acts of love and kindness. These two portions, read together, remind us that the soothing balm of compassion is a holy act that can follow devastation and despair.

Shabbat Shalom! שבת שלום

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Rabbi Elaine Zecher