By Marco Del Monte
Adapted from a lecture by Rav Yona Metzger
By joining the titles of the two Torah portions we read this week, we obtain a striking message: Acharei Mot – Kedoshim, which means "After the death, you shall be holy". It seems a paradox: should holiness not be concerned with life?
In reality, this combined title suggests to us that the goal of our earthly journey is to reach the end of the path so refined that our soul no longer has to wander, but may rest beneath the wings of the Shechinah. In the parashah we encounter a verse that is the beating heart of the entire Torah: "Love your neighbour as yourself". If we dig into the folds of the Talmud and mysticism, we discover that this precept conceals the true code for solving the enigma of our existence and the perfection of the soul. In the Talmud (Pesachim 75a), Rav Nachman utters a phrase that at first glance appears shocking. Discussing the laws on capital punishment, he states that the precept to "love your neighbour" is applied by "Choosing a dignified death for the person". How can love be reduced to a detail about the end of life? The answer does not concern the physical end, but the metaphysical destiny of the soul. To understand this "closing circle", we must look at another famous Talmudic episode.
In Tractate Shabbat (31a), a gentile appears before Shammai and Hillel with a bizarre challenge: "Teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one leg (Reghel)". While Shammai turns him away, perceiving a lack of respect, Hillel accepts the challenge and replies: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary; go and study". How is it possible that love for one's neighbour summarises all the laws of Shabbat, Tefillin, Mezuzah and so on? And what does standing on "one leg" really mean? The Ari HaKadosh in his Shaar HaGilgulim (The Gate of Reincarnations) offers us the key to interpretation. Every Jewish soul has the task of fulfilling all the mitzvot. If a person does not complete this spiritual "puzzle", their soul must return to this world through gilgul (reincarnation) to finish what is missing. This process is described as a wearying passage, a cyclical return that the soul would like to avoid in order to finally rest in the divine light. Gilgul does not happen only for ritual shortcomings, but above all for interpersonal matters. If a person dies having an unresolved argument or an emotional debt with another, they often do not return alone: they both return. The souls are forced to reincarnate together to recreate the situation of conflict and, finally, resolve it with forgiveness or repair. Loving our neighbour teaches us, therefore, that resolving a dispute today means freeing ourselves and the other from the obligation of having to return once more.
Now the convert's metaphor is illuminated. The Hebrew term reghel does not only mean "leg", but also "time" or "cycle" (as in Shalosh Regalim, three times cf. Parashat Balak). That man was not playing a physical balancing game; he was asking: "Teach me how to complete the Torah in a single time (reghel), in a single cycle of life, without having to return again!". Hillel reveals the secret to him: love for one's neighbour. No individual can fulfil all the mitzvot alone: whoever is not a kohen cannot offer sacrifices; whoever has no children cannot fulfil the mitzvah of procreation and so on. However, the people of Israel live under the principle of arevut: "All Israel are guarantors for one another" (Shevuot 39a). When we love our neighbour as ourselves, we become a single spiritual body. The mitzvot performed by my neighbour complete mine, and vice versa. Moreover, by the same principle social issues are also resolved. And what about the mitzvot that no one can perform today, such as the Temple services? The Talmud teaches: "Whoever occupies themselves with the study of the olah sacrifice, it is as if they had offered that sacrifice". So here too Hillel solves the enigma: Go and study.
Now everything falls into place. A single "leg", loving one's neighbour and studying. Closing the circle with our starting point, we could say that the "good death" of which Rav Nachman speaks in Pesachim is the Accomplished Departure. Loving one's neighbour means allowing oneself and the other to complete their spiritual mosaic in a single existence. "Go and study" is Hillel's invitation to bridge through knowledge what we cannot accomplish physically. In this vision, the ascent of the soul is not an end, but a serene milestone. It is the rest of a neshama that has intertwined its own light with that of the entire people and with Hashem-Echad. Ahavah (Love) and Echad (One-Union) share the same gematria (13). A reciprocal love 13 plus 13 gives 26, the Name of G-d Himself. Loving the other, therefore, is the greatest act of kindness we can do for our own soul: the freedom to return Home, finally sanctified, Achare Mot-Kedoshim.
And perhaps right here the deepest secret unfolds: when souls unite, every instant is elevated and life is already transformed in this world into a fragment of Eternity.
Shabbat Shalom
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.