דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־כָּל־עֲדַ֧ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל וְאָֽמַרְתָּ֥ אֲלֵהֶ֖ם קְדשִׁ֣ים תִּֽהְי֑וּ כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י יְהוָֹ֥ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶֽם: 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 . (Vayikra 19:2) When I was a child I had a very wonderful but also typical Jewish mother. How I dressed in the New York winters was very important to her (as it should have been!). I must admit that I was not always the most respectful child. There were times when my mother would ask me to dress warmer than I felt necessary and instead of listening I would argue with her. "Just because you're cold doesn't mean I need to put on a sweater!" In the end I would put on the sweater and take it off when I got to Yeshiva. When we examine the passuk above, Hashem instructs us to be holy because God is holy. But this is exactly like my mother telling me to put on a sweater because she is cold! God is holy. Good for him! How does God's holiness obligate us to be holy? If God wanted to tell us to act in a holy fashion he should have said to us that we are holy and we should act in accordance with our inner reality. To explain this question I once heard a beautiful moshul. Imagine for a moment someone who decides to open up a franchise of a world renowned restaurant. He approaches the parent company and offers to buy in as a franchisee. For a million dollars they will provide him with the company recipes, logo, equipment and re
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