Rabbi Dennis

It was more than a decade ago that I attended my one-and-only Greek Orthodox service. It was awesome and mysterious. It was also utterly incomprehensible, being entirely in Greek. Well, almost entirely. Mid-service I was startled to hear the priest recite familiar Hebrew words: Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Adonai Tzevaot -- What a marvelous surprise -- Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts (Is. 6). I was moved that Christian liturgists found the original Hebrew words themselves holy enough to preserve them. And that experience has ever since made me ponder the spiritual role of “holy” things.

Early in the 20th Century the German philosopher Rudolph Otto linked the idea of the holy to the “numinous” -- that which fills us with a sense of fear and mystery. It is a useful definition. As Isaiah’s emphatic angels attest, the mighty God of Israel is sublime and inscrutable –and therefore holy beyond measure.

Yet Scriptures record that God also assigns a measure of holiness to specific things “outside” Himself. God declares the Sabbath to be holy (Gen. 2.3). God also sanctifies the locations of His revelation (Ex. 3.5). Thus Judaism embraces the concept of holy space and, especially, the concept of holy time. To these Christianity and Islam eventually added what historian of religion Karen Armstrong calls the “cult of the holy human being.” But as Armstrong notes, “any symbol of the sacred, be it a building, a city, a literary text, a law code, or a man, is bound to be inadequate.” That inadequacy becomes highly evident when, for example, religion criminalizes the criticism of holiness. Israelite religion prohibited the abuse of God’s name (Lev. 24). The early Church went further when it determined that insulting the person of Christ was a desecration that warranted execution. Later still, Islam made it a capital offense to denigrate any “holy prophets,” especially Muhammad.

As a consequence of this desire to protect holiness punitively, we see situations such is now happening in Pakistan and Iran, where academics are facing execution for interpreting events in the life of Muhammad in ways contrary to Islamic tradition. We also have tragedies such as has just unfolded in Nigeria, where one journalist’s irreverent speculations on the Prophet’s attitude toward beauty pageants sparked the death of hundreds in inter-religious riots. Elevating something as holy can be a two-edged sword for a faith community, for holiness has the power to both inspire and inflame the human spirit.

But the idea of holiness outside of God, and human sacredness in particular, is still a profound insight, despite its inadequacies. In Lev. 19, for example, the entire People Israel is commanded, “You shall be holy, for the Lord your God is holy.” It seems on the surface an invitation to claim special privilege for the Jewish people above all others. But crucial to understanding this idea of the holy is the wording. As the philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz points out, the Hebrew verb to “be holy” appears here in the imperfect form; it is not descriptive of what humans are already, but prescriptive of what we must strive to be. Consequently Judaism has learned to elevate self-criticism to almost the status of a sacrament.

Equally important, Biblical holiness is inextricably linked to the ethical. As Lev. 19 goes on to say, pursuing holiness requires of people that they “not deal basely…not take vengeance, or bear a grudge…. love your fellow as yourself…” Slaying or imprisoning those who slight the honor of prophets and sages does not protect nor advance holiness; it only undermines it. We should realize that just as The Holy One is Mysterium Tremendum, an awesome mystery beyond our control, so too holiness is a condition beyond human regulation. That which is holy does not need defending -- it needs emulating.

(This essay appeared in the Dallas Morning News)