GENERATING SANCTITY: THE HUMAN ELEMENT
God,unilaterally, endowed very few phenomena with holiness [kedushah]: theTorah [1] Shabbos, first born Jewish males and the first born of domesticatedkosher animals.
Allother sanctified phenomena are (or, have been) endowed with kedushah byacts of designation performed by human beings.
Halachadetermines which entities human beings may, or must, designate as holy. Halachalikewise determines the specific procedure through which each entity is toachieve sanctification. Each act ofsanctification, however, must be performed by man.
Hereare some random examples which illustrate the central role of human endeavor inthe sanctification process.
•The Torah mandates the nation of Israel, as represented by the Sanhedrin, todetermine whether each month will be twenty-nine or thirty days long, andwhether to extend the calendrical year by one month. The specific time-sanctityof all the calendrical holy dates, therefore, (i.e., Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur,the three pilgrimage festivals, and Rosh Chodesh) is thus determined by humandecision and procedure.
•The Nation of Israel became a גוי קדש - a sanctified nation - by dint of its willingacceptance of the Torah in the context of a sacrificial conversion process, asdetailed Shemos 19. In like manner, a gentile who converts to Judaism isendowed with Kedushas Yisrael by in of his or her inner-directed decision toaccept the mitzvos as binding and to undergo the conversion procedure under theauspices of a bais din.
•Although God chose Aharon and his sons to be endowed with the sanctity ofpriesthood [[קדושת כהונה, He commanded MosheRabbeinu to actualize this sanctification through a specific human procedure.(Vayikra Chapter 8)
•The same is true regarding the initial sanctification of the Levites (throughthe transference of the sanctity of the first-born of all the other tribes tothem), as well as the sanctification of the first-born of domesticated animals,which, despite their sanctification “by God”due to their being first-born,nevertheless require human designation. (Bamidbar 8:5-15).
•All aspects of the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) as well as the priestly garmentsrequired acts of human ritual procedures in order to attain sanctification (Shemos30:26).
•The Land of Israel and Jerusalem, which God designated as holy, achieved theirvarious levels of kedushah through human acts of sanctification. (II Samuel,24, Rambam Hilchos Terumos 1:5, and Hilchos Bais Habechirah Chapter 6:14-16.See Mishnah Keilim Chapter 1).
•All sacrifices must be sanctified by a human act of designation. (See thearticle entitled “Kedushas K’li” under “Topics-Hashkafa”).
•Sifrei Torah, tefillin, and mezuzos are categorized as “objects ofsanctification” - תשמישי קדושה - only if the scribe writes them with the intention of endowingthem with sanctity.
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[1](as a concept: the actual Torah scroll and the individual writings of the OralLaw are sanctified by man),