Every so often a song will come to mind that triggers all kinds of powerful memories. The other day, while driving home, I heard Paul Simon’s Kodachorome lyrics .“When I think back on all the @&*^$ I learn in High School, it’s a wonder I can think at all”. While the lyrics don’t necessarily remind me of my High School experience; Paul Simon’s lyrics remind me of some of the sillier, non- informative, and ignorant ideas that I was taught in Hebrew School. Personally, I have found that these lyrics are most applicable to misguided teachers that tried to explain the notions of Tamei & Tahor (purity and impurity), women and Mikvah. I can only imagine that the girls in my Hebrew School class would have every reason to hate being Jewish since we constantly heard the constant refrain that girls are “dirty”. Because girls are so dirty, they need to go to the Mikvah.
This week’s Parsha is Metzorah. The discussion and laws for Tamei/ Tahor as it affects human beings is continued from last week’s Parsha, Tazria. We continue to learn intricate details concerning how an individual becomes ritually purified, his/her re-entrance into the camp, and the prominent role of the Kohen Gadol in ascribing a spiritual treatment for a physical expression of a spiritual problem. Besides discussing the laws of the Metzorah, the laws of one who suffers from this skin ailment, the Parsha also confronts the issues of the Metzorah spreading to a house and the method by which that impurity is removed from the house. The second half of the Parsha concentrates on the laws of Taharah Mishpacha, the laws of family purity.
It is in the discussion of concerning woman, mikva, the laws of Niddah, the laws of family purity where such misconceptions of woman being “dirty” were taught. As a youngster, I don’t recall being taught that a man is considered “dirty”. However when we learned the following verse: V’Isha Ki Tiheyeh Zavah Dam Yiheyeh Zovah Bivsarah Shivat Yamim Tiheyeh v’Nidatah – When a woman has a discharge, her discharge from her flesh being blood, she shall be in a state of separation for seven days; unfortunately we were taught that the law of “Separation” the laws of Niddah were because natural human biology rendered her physically unclean. How ridiculous! This is not an issue of physical cleanliness or not. This is really an issue of taking a physical occurrence and elevating it to a spiritual endeavor.
The basis for sanctity in a Jewish Home is the fundamental relationship between husband and wife. As Jews, we strive to elevate the physical realm and physical desire to a spiritual plane. When we are hungry we just don’t put anything into our mouths, we put kosher food into our mouths. We don’t just start eating, we delay our physical desire for the amount of time it takes to make a Bracha and give thanks. The same holds true with the physical aspects of a husband and wife relationship. We create clear and distinct separations between those times when a husband and wife halachically can and should be together and when they cannot, regards of physical desire. Holiness within the husband and wife relationship occurs when they are able to renew their spiritual aspects of the relationship.
It is very easy for us to fall into the trap that the Torah and the Halacha is an obsolete institution. It is very easy for us to think in terms of “clean and dirty”. It is very easy for us to study Torah and think that this is only applicable to the most observant Jews. However the challenge is to derive meaning from that which seems offensive at first blush. The challenge is to apply the Torah’s instructions in an authentic manner. The challenge is to carefully examine and find the beauty in what could otherwise be seen as restrictive and mean. This challenge is perhaps most pervasive in four aspects of Judaism today: Kashrut, Shabbat, Prayer, and the Laws of Family Purity. It is up to us to find the merits and the spiritual beauty. It is up to us to teach our children the intrinsic beauty and holiness of Judaism so that they will not “look back and think of all the #$*&^&% they learned in high school; it is a wonder that they can think at all”.
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