Each night, when family sits down to dinner, I
insist that we listen to the news. I insist on this for several reasons. First,
I want my children to be aware of what is going on in the world around them.
Second, I want my kids to be intellectually stimulated to ask questions about
what is going on in the world. Finally I hope they will find relevance between
what they learn in school with what they hear on the news. With the news on, we
get to discuss all kinds of issues including the events that continue to
embroil the Middle East. So the other evening, as we are listening to the news and heard about six young men from Minnesota,
all of Somali descent were charged with terrorism as they were caught trying to
leave the U.S. and join ISIS. Each of our children wondered how anyone could
become so filled with hate that they would join ISIS. As our kids watched the
news and heard about the verdict in the case of the Boston Marathon Bomber,
again, they wondered how someone could become filled with so much hate that
they behave like that. Then our children attended the community Yom HaShoah commemoration.
One of our daughters was asked to escort one of the survivors to light one of
the 6 candles that symbolize the six million Jews. The woman along with the
other 5 honorees, shared their stories. Again my kids wondered how people could
become so filled with hate that six million Jews were systematically wiped out.
This time they were able to answer themselves. People can become infected with
hate and evil in a variety of ways: including ignorance, prejudice, alienation,
and numerous other reasons for hate and evil to infect one’s soul.
This week we combine two Parshiot: Tazriah and
Metzorah. God tells Moshe the laws of purity and impurity as it relates to
birth. God instructs Moshe about the appropriate korbanot (sacrifices) that a
mother should make as she re-enters the camp. God also instructs Moshe about
Tza'arat, or for lack of a good translation; leprosy. Throughout the rest of
Tazria and Metzora, we are told all about Tzaarat. We are told what it is. We
are told how it is diagnosed. We are told how it is treated. We are told how it
spreads. We are told what to do in case it spreads.
Basically,
Tazriah is a type of Tza'arat, a type of skin ailment which is commonly thought
of as leprosy. However this skin ailment is not treated by the resident
dermatologist. Even if they had dermatologists in the Torah, we would not bring
someone suffering from Tazriah to the dermatologists. Why? The skin ailment was
not a symptom of any type of physical malady. Since the person with the skin
ailment appears before the Priest, the Kohen, we know that the skin condition must
be spiritual malady and not a physical one. Adam Ki Yiheyeh V'Or B'Saro S'Eit O Sapachat O Va'Heret V'Hayah V;Or
B'Saroh L'Negah Tzara'at V'Huvah El Aharon H'Kohen O el Achad Mi'Banav Ha'Kohanim
- If a person will have on the skin of his
flesh a swelling, a rash, or a discoloration and it will become a scaly
affliction on the skin of his flesh; he shall be brought to Aaron the Kohen, or
to one of his sons the Kohanim (Lev. 13:2-3). The rest of the Parsha
teaches us the appropriate protocol for treatment. The Kohen checks again to
determine if that person has become ritually impure. If so, they must be sent
out of the camp in order to avoid the risk of the skin ailment spreading to
others. The quarantine would last for seven days. Afterwards, the Priest would
check again, if there was no contamination the person was brought back into the
camp, However if the contamination remained, then the quarantine would continue
for another seven days. Then the process would begin all over again. We also
learn that if this contamination spread to the clothes or vessels; then
everything would be burned and destroyed.
While we know that this skin ailment is caused by a
spiritual malady, and we learned how to treat the malady, Torah does not tell
us the cause of the spiritual malady. For anyone who has ever suffered from an
ulcer understands that emotional stress causes physical ailments. Anyone who
has suffered from depression understands that emotional stress causes physical
ailments such as low energy, lack of sleep etc. So what spiritual sickness that
exhibits physical ailments do we learn from the Book of Leviticus? On one hand
the Book of Leviticus concerns with the ritual slaughter and laws of the
Tabernacle. On the other hand, these laws are based upon the ethical behavior
which must exists within human relationships and in our relationship with God.
In the Talmudic Tractate of Arichin, which primarily focuses upon the laws of
valuations; we learn that the skin ailment is a punishment for the sins of
bloodshed, false oaths, sexual immorality, pride, robbery, and selfishness (Talmudic Tractate Arichin 16a). All of these physical occurrences have a spiritual aspect. These
occurrences all demonstrate the offender's failure to empathize with the needs
of others. It is fascinating to think that in an ideal community, we are not
only concerned with our own well-being. We should also be concerned about
others as well. Our failure to do so leads to a spiritual sickness. It leads to
an artificial sense of self-importance, it leads to a sense of entitlement, it
leads to a petty jealousy, it leads to the alienation of others and it
eventually leads to erosion of community and society. By removing the
contaminated offender from the community two positive results occur. First the
welfare, integrity and holiness of the community is spared from spiritual
sickness. This is the primary concern since we fear that God will cease
dwelling in a community that becomes spiritually sickened or spiritually
dysfunctional. The second positive result is that the contaminated offender has
experienced the isolation and concern from others. This is exactly what he/she
wrought upon the community with such behavior.
Certainly we can understand how
emotions can affect ones physical well-being. The Torah reminds us that our
spiritual shortcomings can also affect our physical well-being. Our psychological well-being, our spiritual
well-being, and our physical well-being, according to Tazriah/Metzorah must
reflect life. Just as important, we need to have life affirming rituals that we
can engage in when we are confronted with things that threat our life affirming
existence. We eliminated impurity. We don’t eliminate the person.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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