HaRav Shmuel Eliyahu is Chief Rabbi of Tzfat.
The events of our times are a part of the promise of Redemption and a great Sanctification of the Name. How so? In the portion of Kedoshim we learned that the people of Israel must be holy. “Speak to the entire congregation of the Children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Leviticus 19).
The meaning of “holy" is entwined with the sanctification of the Divine Name. The prophet Ezekiel says that the Redemption is sanctification of the Name: “When I gather the House of Israel from the nations among whom they were scattered, I will be sanctified through them in the eyes of the nations, and they (the scattered Jews) shall dwell upon their land which I gave to My servant, to Jacob" (Ezekiel 28:25). The ingathering is a sanctification of Hashem bringing the gentiles to recognize the power of God in fulfilling His promise to bring the Jews back to Israel and to restore their kingdom in Israel.
Similarly, Ezekiel repeats himself and says that when Israel defeats their enemies there is sanctification of the Name in the world: “And I will be magnified and sanctified, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezekiel 38:23). These are great sanctifications of Hashem because they unfold before the eyes of all of the world.
Our Sages explain further how God is sanctified through the Children of Israel. Through the spreading of holiness as in the Kaddish prayer and the recital of Kedusha amongst a minyan of ten. In the presence of ten people or more he fulfills the command of “And I shall be sanctified among the Children of Israel," for the main thing is to sanctify His Name within all of Israel, in the simple meaning of the words.
So wrote the Arizal of blessed memory in “Sha’ar HaKavanot" (Discourses on the repetition of the Amidah, Discourse 3): “First one should intend to fulfill the positive commandment that we were commanded in the verse ‘And I shall be sanctified among the Children of Israel,’ and it was explained in the Zohar, portion Emor, that we are obligated to sanctify His blessed Name in the secret of the Kedusha of ‘We will sanctify You and revere You.’"
Sanctification of the Name through proper conduct.
A person sanctifies the Name in a positive way through good deeds. The Gemara (Yoma 86) states that a person can sanctify God also through behavior alone. “Abaye said, as it was taught: ‘And you shall love the Lord your God’ (Deuteronomy 6) - that the Name of Heaven should become beloved through you; that a person should read and learn and serve Torah scholars, and his speech should be pleasant with people, and his business dealings in the marketplace should be proper, and he should conduct his transactions faithfully. What do people say about him? Fortunate is so-and-so who learned Torah, fortunate is his father who taught him Torah, fortunate is his teacher who taught him Torah. Have you seen so-and-so who learned Torah? How pleasant are his ways, how refined are his deeds.
About him the verse says: ‘And He said to me, You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified’" (Isaiah 49). The portion of Kedoshim deals mainly with this sanctification of the Name, through the fulfillment of commandments that cause people to say: “Have you seen so-and-so who learned Torah - how pleasant are his ways, how refined are his deeds." Accordingly, “Woe to people who did not learn Torah."
Desecration of the Name through improper conduct.
And when a person reads and learns and serves Torah scholars, but his speech is not pleasant with people, and his business dealings in the marketplace are not proper, and he does not conduct his transactions faithfully - what do people say about him? Woe to so-and-so who learned Torah, woe to his father who taught him Torah, woe to his teacher who taught him Torah. Fortunate are the people who did not learn Torah - so-and-so who learned Torah, see how ugly are his deeds, how corrupt are his ways. About him the verse says: “In their saying to them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, yet they went out from His land’" (Ezekiel 36).
Rashi explains that when the gentiles see Jews living in the lands of the nations, they say that Hashem must not have the power to sustain them in the Land which He gave them. This is a Chillul Hashem. The opposite, as we learned above, is the great Kiddush Hashem when the nations witness how Hashem saves the Children of Israel and returns them to the Land of Israel.
Sanctification of the Name through self-sacrifice.
There is also sanctification of the Name when a person must give up his life if they try to compel him to transgress the words of God in the three cardinal commandments in public, as it is said: “And I shall be sanctified" - give yourself over and sanctify My Name. Could this be even in private? The verse says: “among the Children of Israel." So ruled the Rambam (Laws of Foundations of the Torah, chapter 5) and the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 157):
All the House of Israel are commanded regarding this noble sanctification of the Name, as it is said: “And I shall be sanctified among the Children of Israel," and they are warned not to desecrate it, as it is said: “And you shall not desecrate My holy Name." Therefore, if a non-Jew intends to force a Jew to transgress his religion in the three commandments of idolatry, forbidden relations, and bloodshed, in the presence of ten Israelites, he should be killed and not transgress.
First the holiness of the individual, then the light must be spread.
The Arizal continues there and says: “And this is what is meant by ‘among the Children of Israel,’ hinting that a person must intend that in awakening the Upper Holiness of Hashem, blessed be He, that same aspect of holiness will also be drawn upon the person, and the person will be sanctified from His holiness, blessed be He."
Therefore the portion of Kedoshim precedes the portion of Emor in which it is stated that a person must spread the holiness of God outward. For in the portion of Kedoshim the Torah emphasizes more the obligation of a person to sanctify himself, in commandments between man and his fellow, as we saw in the Gemara above.
And the Arizal, of blessed memory, continues:
“And this is ‘And I shall be sanctified among the Children of Israel,’ means that they will be sanctified and He will be sanctified with them among them. And this is what the verse says: ‘And you shall sanctify yourselves and you shall be holy,’ as mentioned, that we receive holiness from His holiness, blessed be He, and draw it upon ourselves.
"And it has already been explained that the place of receiving this holiness is in the saying: ‘The whole earth is full of His glory,’ meaning that His Name will be publicized in all places." Thus one’s attainment of holiness is not to be a private matter but rather a springboard to pass holiness on to others.
There is no sanctity with fewer than ten.
In Berachot (22b): “Rab Ada bar Ahavah said: From where is it derived that an individual does not say Kedusha? As it is said: ‘And I shall be sanctified among the Children of Israel’ - any matter of sanctity must not be with fewer than ten. What is the implication? As was taught: ‘among’ and ‘among’ also in another place. It is written here, ‘And I shall be sanctified among the Children of Israel,’ and it is written there: ‘Separate yourselves from among this congregation’ (Numbers 16). And it is derived ‘congregation’ ‘congregation,’ as it is written there: ‘How long for this evil congregation’ - just as there it is ten, so here it is ten."
The main sanctification of the Name is among those distant from Hashem.
From here we learn that the main sanctification of the Name is in the eyes of those who are distant. For they learned the law specifically from the congregation of Korach, about whom it is said: “And they perished from among the assembly" (Numbers 16), and also from the verse: “How long for this evil congregation" (Numbers 14), which was said about the Spies who sinned and caused Israel to sin and brought upon them punishment in the wilderness for forty years. About them it is said “congregation," which is ten - amongst them one must sanctify the Name.