Holiness is being aware that you are in the presence of God. That something else is happening, something numinous, trascendent, other. Something that partakes of life and death, good and evil (remember the two trees in the Garden of Eden). An object, a place, a time, a person, is holy because it evokes the presence of God. We cover our heads, remove our shoes, look away in reverence. Unlike some spiritual traditions that see the world divided ontolgically and irretrievably into sacred and profane, here we are told that, by our actions, we can realize the holiness in everything.

Lawrence Kushner, Five Cities of Refuge by Lawrence Kushner, David Mamet