On an evening earlier this week, our sixteen-year-old son came to a troubling realization and an incredibly profound comment, linking recent events to a 70-year-old black and white movie. Each day since Pesach, we have all cough snippets of the Derek Chauvin trial going on in Minneapolis. We watched two events involving police and issues of DWB (Driving While Black), one in Virginia, and another fatal incident in a Minneapolis suburb. There has been increased reporting and discussion of hate crimes directed at Asians. Also over the past few days, we along with numerous Jews throughout the world observed Yom HaShoah, (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaZikaron (Remembrance Day for Israeli Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism), and finally Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day). After all the homework, studying, and writing our son and I took a break. As we turned on the 11pm news, we happened to see a twenty-something Sidney Poitier and a thirty-something Richard Widmark in the 1950 black and white movie No Way Out. Poitier plays a doctor and Widmark plays a racist two-bit criminal. The doctor is confronted with the ethics of whether he should treat and save the life of the racist who means him harm or not. The language contains numerous racist epithets that were not “bleeped” out, and we were startled to hear. In one particularly raw scene, a racist woman is watching the doctor (played by Poitier) treat her husband. She makes a reprehensible comment and then spits upon Poitier. Our son watched, tears welled up in his eyes and he commented that it is 70 years later and racism is an impurity in the soul of the racist as well as society.
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 (offerings) 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 that 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 a 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. Afterward, 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.
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 (Arichin 16a). All of these physical occurrences are accompanied by a spiritual component. 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 including petty jealousy, alienation, and increased erosion of community and society. This spiritual sickness diminishes the holiness within the individual and the holiness within the community. By removing the contaminated offender from the community two positive results occur. First, the welfare, integrity, and holiness of the community are 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. Second, the contaminated offender experiences isolation and concern from others, in other words, the contaminated individual had an opportunity to heal. This is exactly what he/she lacked and brought those shortcomings upon the community with such negative consequences.
So how do we understand the concept of Tamei and Tahor- Purity and Impurity in the modern world? Both the Torah and Talmud recognize that health and sickness are not confined to the world of physiology. There are some things in this world that can cause one’s soul, one’s mind, or one’s spirit to become unhealthy. The same can be said for society as a whole. The language that the Torah describes the non-physiological aspect of an individual as Tamei and Tahor -Purity and Impurity or “healthful and unhealthful”. Our son understood that racism and prejudice are among those negative attitudes and feelings that cause people or society to become spiritually “unhealthful” or impure and if left unchecked, leads to the endangerment and physical suffering of the minority. For Judaism and Torah, that impurity left unchecked renders a sacred community unholy.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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