פָּרָשַׁת קְדֹשִׁים

Parshat Kedoshim opens with the basic tenet, "Kedoshim tihyu" you shall be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d, am holy — spoken to the whole congregation of Bnei Yisrael. Perek 19 shows that holiness reaches every part of life, between a person and Hashem and between a person and his fellow. Revere your mother and father and keep Shabbat; do not turn to idols. Leave the peah (the corner of the field) and the leket (fallen stalks) for the poor and the ger (stranger, convert). Do not steal, lie or swear falsely; do not hold back a worker's wages overnight; do not curse the deaf or trip the blind; judge fairly; do not spread gossip or stand by while your fellow's blood is shed; do not hate in your heart, take revenge or bear a grudge — love your neighbor as yourself. Then the chukim (statutes): no kilayim (mixed kinds) and no shaatnez; orlah, the forbidden fruit of a tree's first three years, no divination, no rounding off the corners of the head or destroying the beard, no tattoos, rise before the aged, love the ger (stranger/convert) as yourself, for you were strangers in Mitzrayim (Egypt), keep honest weights and measures.

Perek 20 gives the punishments — for giving children to the Molech, (avodah zara) turning to sorcerers, cursing a parent, and the arayot (forbidden relationships) of Acharei Mot — from death by the court to karet (being cut off) at Hashem's hand. It gives the reason for all of them: Hashem has set Bnei Yisrael apart from the nations to be His, so they are to set apart the pure from the impure and be holy to Him, so that the land does not spit them out as it did the nations before them. Kedoshim is usually read together with Acharei Mot as a double parsha.