Shabbat Greetings
The double Torah portion of Acharei Mot/Kedoshim (Leviticus 16:1-20:27) offers rich and timely lessons, especially meaningful for a milestone like Hebrew High School Graduation (which we will celebrate tonight!). The first part of this week’s doouble portion, Acharei Mot deals with sacred rituals (like Yom Kippur), laws about holiness, ethical behavior, and boundaries—especially around community and personal conduct. The second portion, Kedoshim is famously known for the commandment: “Kedoshim tihyu”—“You shall be holy” (19:2). This portion lays out the Holiness Code, including respect for others, honesty, justice, compassion, and moral integrity.
Tonight, we will celebration with our graduating seniors. Graduation is a transitional moment – moving from a structured, guided learning process towards a more independent life system, making decisions about direction and identity. As we read in the portion, we learn that the High Priest must prepare with care before entering the Holy of Holies. Likewise, our graduates also face their own “holy of holies”—the real world—with a need for intention, humility, and ethical awareness. We also learn that the text doesn’t define holiness as something mystical. Instead, it’s a practical holiness—how we treat the vulnerable, how we speak, how we act with integrity.
Our graduates are now being called to take ownership of Jewish values and as I have shared over the years, they too now become moral exemplars, not just in Jewish spaces but in broader society. The Torah teaches us that holiness is in your everyday choices. We need to exemplify a Torah of hesed, of compassion, to each other and to the world, and we need to fight to mend this world through small and large acts of tikkun olam.
Our double portion emphasize balancing individual responsibility with the needs of the community. Our students leave the tight-knit environment of Hebrew High to enter larger, more diverse communities—Newark, Delaware and Fairfax, Virginia, to name a few. Our portions ask – How will you maintain your identity, your ethics, your compassion, in a wider world? Since the portion begins with a reminder of the death of Aaron’s sons, a cautionary tale about overstepping or misusing sacred responsibility. Graduates are reminded to learn from past generations—parents, teachers, tradition—not out of fear, but out of respect and a desire to build wisely upon it.
It has been suggested that our portions are like mirrors that when you gaze into them, it reminds you of the seriousness of your choices and the sacredness of life. Holiness is not distant – it’s in how you treat your roommate, how you study, how you speak up for others. Graduation is not just an end – rather, it is now their turn to live out these Torah values in a world that desperately needs them. Mazel tov to our graduates and their families!
SHABBAT SHALOM