Now, this ideal, this way of living, is so important that it’s repeated in various ways in the Torah. But one of the most prominent ones is found in the opening of this week’s sedrah. קְדֹשִים תִּהְיוּ – You should be holy, קֵיכֶם אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם – because I, Hashem your G-d, am holy. It’s a command: “Make yourselves perfect – that’s what kadosh means, perfection – by emulating Me.” But it’s also the ultimate guide for perfection of our character, our thinking, our behavior.
כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי means that I, Hashem, am shaleim betachlis hashleimus, the epitome of perfection, and therefore, קְדֹשִים תִּהְיוּ – I want you to be perfect by using Me as your model.
And so why should we be such superficial people? After all, we come across that verse sometimes when we’re studying, don’t we? At least when the baal korei reads the Torah we hear it: ‘Make yourselves holy, because I am holy.’ And it’s not a recommendation, an eitzah tovah; it’s an obligation, and therefore shouldn’t we think about that sometimes? ‘What are the ways of perfection of Hashem that I should try to emulate?’
