"You shall observe my directives and perform them, I am HaShem. You shall not desecrate My holy name! I should appear holy among the Israelite people because I am HaShem who makes you holy, the one who took you out of the Land of Egypt to be your God; I am HaShem!" — Leviticus 22: 31-33

Emor Leviticus 21:1-24:23

How do we live a Jewish life— that is, a life that models the values, teachings and practices of the Jewish people as they have evolved over the millennia? In some ways, this is an easy question. The answer is simply, "Do it! "—put into action the customs and ceremonies, the rules and regulations, and the insights and wisdom enshrined by our people in our sacred writings and holy books.

From that simple answer our people have created a wonderfully complex, detailed, multifaceted pattern of life. It is a way of life that we express in terms of norms and standards, things to do and not to do.

The guiding metaphor of Jewish spiritual living is that HaShem, the traditional euphemism for the ineffable, four-lettered name of God, gave us, the people of Israel, the Torah at Mount Sinai to bind us to God forever. Out of a sense of love and loyalty to God, who brought us out of Egypt, guided us through the wilderness and brought us to the Promised Land, pious Jews strive to fulfill God's will. Thus, the laws, rules, judgments, and regulations found in the written Torah, the first five books of our Bible, provided our teachers and sages with the basic principles they used in describing the pattern of Jewish personal and communal life.

Needless to say, the result of this endeavor to describe a way of life based on the teachings of Scripture, which has engaged the philosophical, mystical, legal and artistic genius of the Jewish people, is a vast and ever-expanding literature of spiritual insight and religious practice. Over the centuries, Jewish life has come to resemble a broad river with shifting currents and parallel channels, all flowing, however, from a single source to a common goal. No one can master it all.

So how do we live a Jewish life when the directions for doing so seem so immense, confusing, detailed, and intricate? Fortunately, our ancestors have found guiding principles within our Scripture to act as a spiritual compass as we travel down the river of Jewish life. We may not be master pilots of any specific section of the river, but if we know where we came from and where we are going, we will get along fairly well.

Embedded in the Torah portion, Emor is one of these essential guiding principles. As Jews, whose basic existence is bound to the holy God, who liberated us from Egyptian bondage, we are to act in ways that promote and proclaim God's holiness— "Kiddush HaShem"—and avoid behaviors that dishonor, discredit and defame God and ourselves, God's people— "Chillul HaShem."

We may not know, and no one knows, all the so-far accumulated Jewish exploration of the Divine will, but knowing the difference between "Kiddush HaShem", "sanctifying God's name" and "Chillul HaShem", "desecrating God's name," puts us at a great advantage.

If the desire to make God's holiness and sanctity real in our daily lives guides our decisions in how we interact with our families, neighbors, community, and world, we will be living meaningful Jewish lives. As we continue to explore the richness of the Jewish tradition and open our hearts to the spiritual wisdom of our sacred inheritance, our skill to instinctively turn to acts of Kiddush HaShem—to sanctify God and bring honor to our people— will be sharpened. When we incorporate this and other guiding principles of our sacred traditio— loving God, loving our neighbor, pursuing peace, teaching Torah—into our very being, we will live lives that intuitively reflect the centuriesold Jewish engagement with God and God's living words proclaimed from Sinai and taught through the ages.

So how do we live a Jewish life? It is easy. We live a life that reflects the holiness and sanctity of God. We dedicate ourselves to the task of "Kiddush HaShem." .