It’s a question that Rabbi Avin tackles in Vayikra Rabbah, and his answer is both insightful and, frankly, a little bit comforting.
Rabbi Avin uses a parable. Imagine a king with a wine cellar. He hires guards, some are nezirim (Nazirites, who abstain from wine), and others are… well, let's just say they enjoy a good vintage. At the end of the day, the king pays everyone. But he gives the drunkards double the wages he gives the nezirim. Understandably, the nezirim are a little miffed. "We all guarded the wine equally!" they protest.
The king explains: "They are drunkards, accustomed to drinking wine. I'm paying them extra because it's harder for them to resist temptation."
Rabbi Avin uses this story to illuminate a profound concept. Angels, those "supernal beings," don't have a yetzer hara, an evil inclination. They’re inherently holy. As Daniel (4:14) tells us, "By the statement of the holy ones." They have one level of holiness. But us? We're a different story. We grapple with temptation every single day. Our struggle is our sanctity. Because we have to actively fight against the yetzer hara, we have the potential for a double measure of holiness, if we overcome it. That's why we're commanded, as it says in Leviticus (19:2) "Speak to the entire congregation of the children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy" and again in Leviticus (20:7) "You shall sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy." It’s not a given; it’s a challenge, a process.
So, the next time you're struggling to do the right thing, remember Rabbi Avin's parable. Your struggle isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s an opportunity for greater holiness. The very fact that you're striving, that you're fighting the good fight, means you're already on the path.
Rabbi Avin offers a second, equally beautiful analogy. Think of a province that crafts three crowns for its king. What does the king do? He places one crown upon his own head and the remaining two crowns upon the heads of his sons.
Similarly, the supernal beings, the angels, crown God every day with three sanctifications, saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isaiah 6:3). But what does God do? He places one of those sanctifications upon His own head and the other two upon the head of Israel. Again, we see those words from Leviticus: “Speak to the entire congregation of the children of Israel [and say to them: You shall be holy,” and]: “You shall sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy.”
According to this teaching, God shares in the holiness we actively create. He acknowledges and elevates our efforts to sanctify ourselves.
It's a powerful idea: that our striving, our conscious effort to be holy, is not just for ourselves, but a gift we offer back to the Divine. It's a partnership, a collaboration in the ongoing work of creation. It makes you think, doesn't it?