“…You shall be holy: for I the Lord your G-d am holy.” (Vayikra 19:2)

Many of us are familiar with the idea of a Rebbe dispensing shirayim to his chasidim. This idea, in short, is based on the fact that when the Rebbe eats, he elevates the food to be more spiritual, and those who partake of that leftover food are getting a dose of ruchnius that they would otherwise not have been able to attain.

How is it, though, that the Rebbe makes the food holy? What does it actually mean that the Rebbe himself is Holy?

The concept of holiness is often used synonymously with the concept of abstention (פרישות). A person who abstains from indulging in worldly pleasures is called “Holy” (קדוש) because he has separated himself from mundane matters. It seems to me that these two ideas are not necessarily two sides of the same coin. Many people who battle alcoholism or other types of addictions go through a “cleansing” process such as AA or 12-step groups, and are fond of saying: “Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.” The trick of these programs is that they give the addict the tools to enable him to win the battle against his enemy, whether it is drinking or some other vice. Would we consider that person “separated (פרוש)” from his alcoholic beverage? I don’t think so. There is merely a barrier in place all the time that is causing him to refrain. The minute an opportunity arises, the man could lose control and return to his drinking habit. To paraphrase a famous saying, “Quitting alcohol is easy – I have done it a hundred times!” However, I would not call this person “separated” from alcohol.

Rabbi Ruderman, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisrael, answered a question that bothers many: Parshas Kedoshim is not a parsha that deals with korbonos, so why are the laws of the Korbon Shlomim here? Rabbi Ruderman answers with an important idea that has to do with understanding what it means to be a Jew who received the Torah at Har Sinai.

People assume that they can do things which are physical or they can do things which are spiritual, but they can’t integrate both aspects into one. However, when the Jews received the Torah, something extraordinary happened: We became able to blend the two together and raise the physical world to spiritual heights (unfortunately, there is also a negative side: One’s physicality can pull down his spirituality, too). The more elevated and connected to Hashem the person is, the greater the amount of holiness his food is infused with. Therefore, in the parsha of Kedoshim tihiyu, where we are told that we should refrain from indulging in worldly pleasures, thus elevating us to be holier, we are also told about the korbon shlomim. For even a non-Kohen who abstains can actually partake of kodshim because he is holy in his essence.

According to the Ramban, the general commandment of Kedoshim tiyuhu demands that a person minimize partaking in worldly pleasures. But the goal is not to be in a constant battle with the yetzer hara, but actually to change who we are and eventually not even have to fight the yetzer. By practicing abstention (each person at his own level), we can elevate ourselves to the point that we no longer desire those things.

When I was a small child, I had a friend who was a superstar athlete. But as we grew to adolescence, he became a “super masmid”. I once asked him if he still had an urge to play ball, and he responded, “Learning Torah is much more enjoyable!” This friend is alive and well today – not someone from generations ago. I believe the key to this type of success is to change our perspective: Instead of trying to overcome our yetzer hara, we instead need to understand that by our following the concepts of Kedoshim tihiyu, we will raise ourselves to a level that we will not have to constantly fight the battle. The concept of “Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic” does not have to be true for a Jew.