Set apart?

If holiness was an automatic result of being brought into an exclusive relation with a holy God, then as soon as the covenant was sealed in Exodus 24, the nation would be holy and no more commands would be needed. But that is clearly not the case. The people are in an exclusive relationship with God, and yet they are commanded to become holy.— Called to be Holy, page 32

<idle musing>
How many times have you heard people say that holiness just means "set apart"? Well, it does, but it means much more than that—as the quotation above points out. The rest of the Torah/Pentateuch is designed to show us what that "much more" is...
</idle musing>