Holiness – Kedushah

Abstract

Holiness can be analysed in terms of three frameworks: as a real property of sacred persons, places, things, and times; as an ascription of a special status, especially that of ownership by or proximity to God; and as a project of spiritual and ethical striving. The Bible exemplifies each of these approaches, endowing Judaism with a complex teaching as to the nature of holiness. Although an ontological sense of holiness persists, Judaism comes increasingly to emphasize spiritual and moral self-transformation as the essence of holiness.

Keywords

• blessings
• consecration
• desecration
• holiness code (h)
• impurity
• profane
• purity
• sabbath
• sanctification