Q&A: Degrees of Holiness
Degrees of Holiness
Question
When people say that the Temple Mount is holier than the Western Wall, or than the Neveiot Hermon Regional Council, what do they mean?
Is holiness something that simply exists, but we just don’t know how to measure it with physical instruments? Or is holiness just a matter of Jewish law—how one is supposed to conduct oneself in certain places, times, and objects? Or is holiness connected to the likelihood that God will hear prayers, as when Solomon prayed in the Temple that God should listen especially closely there to everyone’s prayers?
Answer
This is an open question, and I don’t know how to give an answer to it (I think nobody else does either). In my personal opinion, there is something inherent in the object itself in holiness and impurity, and in that respect holiness differs from a commandment (there is a halakhic difference between sacred objects and objects used for a commandment, regarding storage for burial / genizah).
I vaguely remember an article by David Henshke about Maimonides’ view of impurity and holiness, and it seems to me that he argued there that this is a kind of reality.