This week we have another double Torah portion, Achrei Mot and Kedoshim.
The first portion means after the death and alludes to the time after the death of the sons of Aaron.
Kedoshim, the second portion, talks about holiness.
Kaddosh means holy.
There is a cynical statement that plays on the juxtaposition of these two portions.
After death, all is holy.
In other more understandable words, after one passes away, we remember that person as “holy”, someone who could do no wrong.
At a funeral we always laud the deceased, it seems that here lies a holy person, we will never focus on any lacking or deficiency.
The Torah portions are teaching us a deeper message.
In order to live life, one must be holy. So that after one has passed from this world they have not only become the best version of themselves, they have used their unique strengths and talents so make this world a better place.
After the death, holiness is left behind.
The portion of Kedoshim is replete with Mitzvot to help us attain holiness.
You might be surprised to learn that the 51 commandments listed are those that regulate behavior between people so that we can refine and improve ourselves to become a holy person in the image of Gd. They include giving gifts to the poor, refinement of language and behavior, honesty in business dealings and the ultimate loving one’s neighbor as oneself.
These are commandments that are intertwined in warp and woof of the tapestry of life.
The Torah teaches that holiness does not result from asceticism or distance from the physical world. Rather we are meant to be fully involved in the physical but use it as a stepping stone to spirituality.
One of the commandments is the injunction not to curse a deaf person.
At first blush, this commandment seems somewhat unnecessary.
If one curses a deaf person, they will perforce not hear it.
Why should one be commanded in such a matter?
Our Sages teach us that the injured party in this equation is actually the one who does the cursing.
The deaf person is not injured, they cannot hear.
But the one who does the cursing debases themselves, allowing themselves to sink so low as to insult a defenseless person. This takes a chunk of humanity out of the person who is slinging the insults and distances that person from Gdliness, from the essence of the portion of Gd that rests within.

Day 216
May 6 was Yom Hashoah, the day we remember the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
On that day, a Holocaust survivor passed away.
Esther Greizer left this world at the age of 95. She had no children as she was a subject of the diabolical experiments of Mengele in Auschwitz which rendered her sterile. After the war she married and moved to Israel. The family she married into embraced her and she had many nieces and nephews.
They say she had a happy life.
When she passed away in Haifa on Yom Hashoa the family was concerned there might not be many people at the funeral.
A post went up on social media and the opposite happened as thousands attended her funeral.
One of her nieces said she was so happy for her beloved Aunt.
On the same day, a group of students were on the March of the Living. It was a group of about 60, and they realized that about 30 of them were descendants of survivors of Auschwitz.
They took the opportunity to make a special blessing.
This is a blessing one can make when revisiting a place where one experienced a miracle. The blessing can also be made when an individual visits a place where their ancestor experienced a miracle.
So in Auschwitz, some 30 young women made the blessing that their ancestors experienced a miracle in this place.
The miracle of survival.
One of the young women expressed her happiness at the opportunity of making the blessing.
In both of those instances the word happiness was used.
I found that an interesting usage of happiness.
Is that really a good definition of happiness?
The Jewish people seem to live in the nexus of joy and sorrow.
Next week we will experience Yom HaZikaron, the day we remember the fallen in Israel which is immediately followed by Yom HaAztmaut, Israel’s Independence Day.
The sorrow immediately leads to happiness.
How can that be?
It turns out that according to the World Happiness Report, Israel ranks 5th in happiness. This statistic is still true in this past half year when there has been so much tragedy.
This ranking includes the young adults who are serving in the army and often paying the highest, most unimaginable price for that service.
So how is it there is so much happiness?