This week’s double portion of Acharei Mot/Kedoshim (Lev. 16:1 – 20:27) draws our attention to the balance between communal and personal responsibility. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, addresses both personal and communal sin, repentance, and atonement, publicly. 

What is the lesson? 

While there is great comfort in private confession, holiness is a communal endeavor, as in the verse, “you shall be holy,” “you” is plural, as it is spoken to community. This is the honing of personal ethics, based on the ethical norms found in the Torah (the instruction of God), by communal association. 

As James writes, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jas. 5:16).

In this we find personal responsibility, as well as, communal accountability. 

The beauty of the “heart of the Torah” (Lev. 19:1-20:27) is that we recognize personal and communal shortcoming and responsibility, while endeavoring to turn the page of renewal together, as we trust in Messiah Yeshua/Jesus, Who is the “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). 

If we string together the names of the double-portion this week, Acharei Mot/Kedoshim we learn this: “after the death, holiness.” The apostle Paul teaches, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” (Ro. 6:8; cf. 1 Pet. 1:15-17). 

Maranatha. Shalom.