'Be Holy!' G-d tells us at the beginning of this week's portion.

Seems easy enough, no? Just move to the countryside, meditate about G-d, cut off all ties with the world and become a holy person.

Then the Torah throws a spanner into the works: 'Because I, the Lord your G-d, am holy,' continues the verse. Essentially G-d is asking us to be holy like him, but how is that possible? How can a human being of flesh and blood ever become holy like G-d? Surely that is a task more fitting for angels.

The answer is found in the continuation of the parshah. One might expect that a parshah whose name means 'holy,' and begins with the commandment to be holy, would continue by talking about lofty spiritual ideas. However Parshat Kedoshim deals with such mundane matters as theft, lying, gossiping, bearing grudges and paying workers on time.

G-d is essentially telling us is that becoming holy depends on our daily activities. We do not need to separate ourselves from this world to be holy, quite the opposite - true holiness is using our power of free choice to overcome our urges and follow G-d's blueprint for life. This is why the new JLI course, Beyond Right, explores not laws of Shabbat or Pesach, but the morals behind Jewish civil law.

This is how we become holy like G-d. Because like G-d, only humans have the power of free will, and when we choose to do the right thing then we become holy and G-d-like. In fact, we become even more holy than angels, who do not the ability to disobey G-d.

The medieval Biblical commentator Rashi explains the concept with a parable. A king once stocked his wine cellar with vintage wines for a royal feast. Afraid that the wines might get stolen, the king arranged a special guard for the winery, which comprised of some of the notorious alcoholics in the palace guard, together with some of their teetotal colleagues. Upon conclusion of their assignment, the king instructed that the alcoholic guards should be paid double. 'Although all of you guarded the wines equally, it was a much harder task for the alcoholic guards who had to fight their desires and exercise exceptional self-restraint.'

So too, by using our free choice to serve G-d in our daily lives, we become even more holy than angels who are never tempted otherwise.