Комментарий к Вайикра 20:26

ואבדל אתכם מן העמים להיות לי ‎ AND I HAVE SEPARATED YOU FROM THE PEOPLES THAT YOU SHOULD BE MINE — If you hold yourselves apart from them then you will be Mine, but if not, you belong to (become subject to) Nebuchadnezzar and others like him. Rabbi Eleazer ben Azariah said, “Whence do we know that one should not say, "My soul loathes swine’s flesh”, or, “I have no desire to wear clothes which are a mixture of wool and linen”, but one should say, "I would, indeed, like them, but what can I do since my Father in heaven has imposed these decrees upon me”? Because Scripture states: “I have separated you from the peoples to be for Me", whichyour separation from them (from their doings) should be for My sake — that one should keep aloof from sin and take upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven (Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 12 23).

והייתם לי קדושים, "And you shall be holy unto Me, etc." The reason the Torah adds the word לי in this verse may best be understood in connection with the comment of Torat Kohanim on this verse that one should never say: "I cannot eat pig's meat," but one should say: "I would love to eat pig's meat but alas, G'd has forbidden it to me." Similarly in our verse G'd does not want us to be holy because we detest the various phenomena in this world G'd has prohibited to us, but He wants us to be holy because He has commanded us to be so, i.e. לי. This is also the reason this verse appears next to the commandment to separate between the ritually pure and the ritually impure mammals and fowl (verse 25).

The Torah added: כי קדוש אני, "for I am holy," to tell us the reason we must keep our distance from the impure creatures. G'd continues to explain this concept of separation. He has separated us from the Gentiles; it is no more than fitting then that we separate ourselves from the impure species. We have reason to bless the Lord for having set us apart from both human and animal impurity.