Be Holy!

That all became clear when Yahweh called upon His people to “be holy as [he is] holy.” Could they share His essence? Of course not! Were they to be holy simply by being “separated” to Him in some sense? That is not what the context of the covenant conveys. When Yahweh calls on His people to share His holiness, as in Leviticus 19, it is inseparably linked with unselfish moral and ethical behavior. All of that came to be contained in qadosh, which had once been morally neutral. Yahweh’s holiness burst the word open with new meaning.— Lectures in Old Testament Theology, page 230