[Avodah] RSRH on Kedusha

[Yitzchok Levine]

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch writes the following on Vayikra 19

2 Speak to the entire community of the Children 
of Israel and say to them: Be holy, for I, God, your God, am holy.

The mitzvah of Kedoshim Teyu is a command to strive for the highest
degree of human moral perfection (cf. Commentary, Bereshis 2:3); and
rightfully it should be addressed expressly to each individual. Every
person — regardless of status or sex, age or lot — is summoned to
attain the highest moral level. There is no one individual to whom this
call is specially addressed. We must all be Kedoshim, holy.

Kedusha — to be ready and willing to perform all that is good; a person
cannot attain this virtue unless his whole being is so steeped in morality
that the opposite of the good, viz., the inclination to evil, no longer
has a place within his being. The statement by our Sages in Toras Kohanim
— Kedoshim Teyu means Perushim Teyu— underscores this negative
aspect of Kedusha. It also points out the way that leads to Kedusha; for much
work is required of anyone seeking to attain the heights of Kedusha. Kedusha
is attained through mastery over all of one’s powers and faculties and
over all the temptations and inclinations associated with them — to be
ready and willing to do God’s Will.

Self-mastery is the highest art a man can practice. Self-mastery does
not mean neglecting, stunting, killing, or destroying any of one’s powers
or faculties. In and of themselves, the powers and faculties — from the
most spiritual to the most sensual — that have been given to man are
neither good nor bad. They all have been given to us for exalted purposes
— that we may use them to do God’s Will on earth. The Torah
sets for each of them a positive purpose and negative limits. In the
service of that purpose and within those limits, all is holy and good.
But where a person strays from that purpose and exceeds those limits,
coarseness and evil begin.

As in any other art, virtuosity in this, the highest moral art can be
attained only through practice — training one’s moral willpower to
master the inclinations of the heart. But this training is not to be undertaken
in the realm of the expressly forbidden, where any slip would
result in wrongdoing. Rather, moral resolve must be tested and strengthened
in the realm of the permitted. By learning to overcome inclinations
that are permitted but related to the forbidden, one gains the power of
self-mastery and thus makes all his powers and faculties subservient to
the fulfillment of God’s Will. Each person, according to his own unique
qualities, should work on his inner self; and he should train quietly, in
a manner known only to himself.

This is the training regimen that our Sages call Perishes, abstinence,
which the Gemara in Yevamos 20a formulates: 
Kadesh atzmicha b'mutur loch, “Sanctify
yourself in the realm of what is permitted you.” Perishes is not yet
Kedusha, but it is a preliminary step toward it, 
as R. Pinchas ben Yair teaches in
his “ascending steps” toward moral perfection (see Avodah Zarah 20b). 
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