“For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, because I am holy… For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; so you shall be holy, because I am holy.”
Leviticus 11:44–45

Holiness is not something we define. It is not shaped by what feels right to us, and it is not measured by intention or sincerity. It begins with God, and it remains His to define. So the question is simple, but not easy. When it comes to holiness, whose standard are we actually living by? How often do we actually stop, reflect, and look in the mirror of our faith?

Because it is very possible to be doing things in the name of God, things that feel right, that even look right, and still miss the fact that they were never asked of us in the first place.

In Leviticus 10:1–2, Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, step forward with what appears to be an act of devotion. They bring incense before the Lord, but the Torah is precise. They offer “אֵשׁ זָרָה”, foreign fire, something “which He had not commanded them.”

We are not told exactly why they did it, and maybe that is intentional. It removes the ability to justify it. They may have thought they were adding something meaningful. They may have believed they were expressing a deeper level of devotion. Or perhaps their judgment was affected, as hinted later in the passage. But none of that changes what actually happened.

They brought something that was foreign to God, and the result was immediate. How often do we do things that feel right to us, but are foreign to Him? In 2 Samuel we see a different story, with what may have been good intentions, but a similar outcome.

“When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, because the oxen nearly overturned it. And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God.”
2 Samuel 6:6–7

Here we see that even good intentions, even what feels right in our human eyes, does not make it right before God. “For I am the Lord your God… be holy, because I am holy.” Not our definition, not what feels right, but His.

Is there anything in my life that I am offering to God that He never asked for? Am I building my walk with Him around what feels right to me, or around what He has actually said? If the fire of the Lord were to meet what I am doing, would it remain?

Shabbat Shalom,
Moran