It’s not a commonly referred to trait. It’s often misunderstood and if a presidential candidate would profess to possess it, the media would hound them as a religious radical. What is it?
Holiness.
It’s not commonly referenced and it’s highly misunderstood.
Put it this way - what do you imagine when thinking of holiness? Most people would answer things that imply being removed and distant from this physical reality. They associate holiness with angels and asceticism.
In reality, true holiness is associated with G-d. And limiting G-d to being distant from this world is incorrect. In fact, assigning any sort of limitation on G-d’s holiness is incorrect. The ultimate expression of holiness is found at the extremes, the highest of the high and the lowest of the low.
While we cannot reach the highest levels of holiness and spirituality - we are limited beings who’ve been placed in this limited, physical world after all - we can however engage and connect with the holiness to be found at the lowest of the low, in this physical world.
In fact, this is the instruction found in the very beginning of this week’s Torah portion. We are instructed to be holy; it’s actually a mitzvah. It’s not instructing us about distancing ourselves from bad and being holy by separating ourselves from the physical world. It’s guiding us to be holy through our daily interactions.
Everything that we do can be done in one of two ways; a selfish, self centered manner or in an elevated, purposeful and G-d centered manner. When we focus on living according to G-d’s will, in accordance with our purpose, we connect to the most elevated holiness possible. Not only that, when we live in such a manner, we experience our true purpose by aligning our physical reality with our souls' preferred state of connection.