“You Shall Be Holy”: The True Meaning of Holiness According to Torah

In the Torah portion of Kedoshim, we are commanded to observe many mitzvot related to holiness — hence its name: “Kedoshim Tihyu” — “You shall be holy.”

What does it actually mean to be holy?

Holiness — A Demand From Within

Holiness is not primarily about how we treat others. Many mitzvot such as compassion, charity, communal memory, and justice, focus on our responsibility toward others: caring for the poor, the stranger, the priest, celebrating together, or remembering shared history.

However, holiness is different. Holiness is a demand a person makes of themselves.

The Sages teach that a human being is made of a horse and its rider — the body is the horse, and the soul is the rider. The rider must control the horse: not everything the eyes see should the person desire to taste. Holiness begins with self-mastery.

Justice as an Expression of Holiness

Even the civil and moral laws in Parshat Kedoshim that seem purely ethical, are rooted in the idea of holiness.

For example: “You shall not keep the wages of a hired worker overnight.” This law is not only about kindness or social justice, but expresses the holiness of the employer. The Torah says: “It shall not remain with you until morning” — the same language used regarding sacred offerings. Someone else’s money, says the Torah, is holy and therefore, holding it back is a form of sacrilege.

Likewise, to keep a dishonest weight or scale — even unused, is called an abomination: “You shall be holy and fear your God.”

Holiness demands that a person view another’s property as sacred — touching it unjustly is a violation of holiness itself.

The Moral Revolution

The idea of holiness is a foundational concept in the Torah’s vision of humanity. A state or society can have laws, justice, and equality enforced by authority — but that only ensures people don’t do wrong.

Holiness asks a deeper question: Does the person actually become good? Holiness means restraining oneself — to want something strongly and still not take it; to say no to yourself even when no one is watching; to act with integrity even when no punishment is expected.

This is the difference between doing good and being good. Doing good depends on circumstances, while being good is a permanent state that shapes the destiny of a nation.

Holiness as Israel’s Eternal Mission

The laws of holiness define Israel’s spiritual identity, and the Torah teaches that it is because of holiness that Israel merited to inherit the Land.

When a society abandons the sanctity of family life and turns desire itself into a value, its moral fabric begins to unravel. That warning, given 3,334 years ago, remains as relevant today as ever.

Just as the Israelites once gathered in the desert to hear God’s command, so too must we gather in our synagogues on Shabbat to hear those same words: “Let not the land vomit you out as it vomited out the nations before you.”

Our presence in the Land of Israel, then and now, is not something to take for granted. It is threatened not only by external enemies or political challenges, but by the erosion of inner moral strength.

What will determine our future is not military budgets or power,
but the purity of our character, our integrity, our spiritual resilience, and our holiness. These are what we must nurture, so that we may live, thrive, and truly inherit the Land.