Tazria/Metzora תצורע/מצורע

We read a double Torah portion this week, תזריע ומצורע , on one of the more nauseating topics in the Chumash - skin infections, their diagnosis and treatments.

Personally, I am glad that we read both of these portions this week - like a spoonful of gross-tasting medicine, it's better to take it down in one gulp and get it out of the way quickly!

Of course, like all the other parshiot in the Torah, deep meanings are found once we scratch below the surface (if you can forgive the turn of phrase!).

The basic procedure for skin infection is as a follows: A man notices he has a problem. He comes to the priest for a diagnosis. The priest has three options:

1. If the infection is not serious, he can declare the individual ritually pure and everything continues as normal.
2. If he is not sure whether or not the infection is serious enough to denote uncleanliness, he quarantines the infected individual, waits seven days and checks again.
3. He can declare the person unclean, .מצורע a In this case the stricken person must dwell outside the camp, remain unshaven, cover his entire body and call out "Unclean Unclean" wherever he goes.

Based on this very short synopsis, one could conclude the priests are basically performing the function of a doctor. Perhaps they are checking to make sure the infection is not contagious and will not spread to the other members of the camp.

Our sages makes this very clear that this is NOT the case. We are not dealing here with physical illnesses, we are taught that the מצורע is suffering from a spiritual ailment with heavenly origin.

Just what is this spiritual illness? By cross referencing the word צריע, our sages come up with a somewhat surprising answer.

From במדבר, the book of Numbers Chapter 11, Verse 35, we read of Miriam (and Aaron) speaking out against Moses because he married a Cushite woman. Afterwards, God is angry and punishes Miriam.

וְהֶעָנָן סָר מֵעַל הָאֹהֶל וְהִנֵּה מִרְיָם מְצֹרַעַת כַּשָּׁלֶג וַיִּפֶן אַהֲרֹן אֶל מִרְיָם וְהִנֵּה מְצֹרָעַת:

The cloud departed from above the Tent, and behold, Miriam was afflicted with tzara'ath, [as white] as snow. Then Aaron turned to Miriam and behold, she was afflicted with tzara'ath.

From this verse, we learn that Tazria is a punishment for Lashon Ha'ra - evil speech.

An interesting side note: In modern Hebrew, to call someone a black person "cushi" is extremely disrespectful. Not as bad as the English "n-word," but still not very nice at all.

Histrocially speaking however, the Cushites, probably a dark skinned tribe from Kush, aka Nubia near Ethiopia, were considered in a positive light. In Gematria כשית is equal to פַתמַרְאֶה , - beautiful in appearance. Furthermore, Rashi points out the doubling up of the phrase כשית לקח teaches us that Zipporah was both beautiful and pleasant, apparently two qualities that he did not think usually went together….

Anyhow, a midrash from Sifrei Numbers further explains the incident with Miriam::

Miriam speaks out against Moses because she knew that he had neglected his conjugal obligations. She saw that Zipporah, his wife, took no care regarding her personal appearance. Miriam said to her, "What is the matter with you that you neglect your appearance?" She replied, "Your brother does not mind." Thus Miriam knew, and she told it to her brother (Aaron), and they both spoke against Moses.

In some ways, we can understand Miriam's actions. Apart from any personal feelings she may have had about the matter, she was concerned that her brother Moses, being the leader of Am Yisrael, needs to set a good example for the people to follow. If Moses is not fulfilling his legal obligation of sleeping with his wife, this could lead to a insurrection among the people,

However justified her concerns, Miriam's actions are clearly problematic. She takes what she "learns" from Zipporah and goes to Aaron, not directly to Moses - we call this gossip.

Secondly, the information that she passes along is dubious at best. Three choice words from the above midrash tell the whole story - 'thus Miriam KNEW.'

Suspected? Perhaps. Inferred? Possibly. But KNEW? Miriam took one comment and had enough confidence to say with 100% surety the details of the very intimiate situation between Zipporah and Moses ?

I think this happens all the time in modern society - we see someone who is different than us and make a snap judgement about this person, quite frequently to the negative. More than that, we don't take the time to actually get to know the person, we are content to sit in judgement on something that we really know nothing about.

This is bad enough, but using words to pass this judgement on to others compounds the problem exponentially. In the words of our rabbis"A loose tongue is like an arrow. Once it is shot, there is no holding it back."

Rabbi Bradley Artson of the Ziegler School points out that 'the Midrash notes that five times, the word "Torah," teaching, is used to refer to 'tzara'at.' From this superfluous repetition, the sages derive that "one who utters evil reports is considered in violation of the entire five books of the Torah."

In our world, Lashon Ha'Ra has become extremely commonplace. We see it all the time in public discourse, entertainment, and hopefully not too often, in our personal lives.

Rabbi Adam Frank gave over a very nice teaching on this subject a while back. I'll paraphrase: If we see one of our Jewish friends about to take a bite out a pork sandwich, we are quite likely to confront the person. However, when we hear Lashon Ha'ra from a friend, do we stop them?

According to the Jewish Law, lashon ha'ra is a way worse violation than eating pork - yet we are more likely to let it slide by. This week's parsha comes to teach us that our priorities have gotten mixed up somewhere.

Unfortunately, us humans are constantly inclined to gossip. We can see this in the way that the most recent par'shi'ot are laid out:

Last week, we read of the death on Nadav and Avihu, when they brought "foreign" i.e. un-commanded sacrifices before the Lord.

The way that they died, and the whole event in general, was very strange and almost completely unprecedented. Thus, probably quite a tempting topic to gossip about - the topic of this week's parsha.

Next week, we read about Yom Kippur - where we ask for forgiveness.

In seems like this cycle - everyday life leading to gossip, and then needing to ask for forgiveness from others and from God was evident even back in the day.

However, just because human beings have certain tendencies and desires does not mean that we let ourselves off the hook. Quite the contrary - Judaism inspires us to raise ourselves up to a higher level and overcome these lower, animal instincts.

I want to bless everyone today to become increasingly aware of our own language and use our newly refound Passover freedom to become the kind of people we truly want to be.

Shemini / שמיני

Shemini

This week's Parshat HaShuvua, Shemini, occurs the week of Pesach. Amidst all the holiday preparations, and last-minute Hametz binges, it would be almost excusable to overlook this portion and focus on the big event at the end of the week.

However, I believe this Parsha comes to teach us exactly the opposite - don't get so lost in the big events of life and forgot to focus on what is really important - the way we live our lives on a day-to-day basis and the influence we have on those around us.

Before Lana and I were married this past summer, we received a lot of this sort of advice - especially from Jewish people. "Never forget that the ceremony is great and fun, but real life begins the day after." It sounded good at the time, but I am now beginning to understand just how right they were.

The name of this portion is שמיני - meaning Eighth. In this case, the eighth day, after the seven days that Aaron and his sons spent locked in the Temple preparing to take on God's commandments concerning the sacrifices and other ceremonies, and to greet God's presence, the Shechinah, which they hope will descend to the people.

The number seven is considered very special in Jewish tradition. A few well-known examples - seven days of God's creation and thus the week, seven candles in the Menorah of the Temple, and most relevant for us right now, seven days of Passover and Sukkot.

Starting this Friday, we will eat only unleavened bread, perhaps take time off work and concentrate on the seminal event in our people's history - the exodus from Egypt. So what happens on יום השמיני, the eight day? We get to eat pizza, life goes back to normal and that's the end of the story?

Our Parsha doesn't think this is the case. Chapter 9, Verse 2:

וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל אַהֲרֹן קַח לְךָ עֵגֶל בֶּן בָּקָר לְחַטָּאת וְאַיִל לְעֹלָה תְּמִימִם וְהַקְרֵב לִפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָ־ה:

And he (Moses) said to Aaron, "Take for yourself a bull calf as a sin offering, and a ram as a burnt offering, [both] unblemished, and bring [them] near before the Lord.

This is a huge moment - Aaron and his sons have been intensively training for seven days and they are finally let out. Moses tells Aaron to take a male calf and sacrifice it to atone for his sins. If it wasn't already clear, the fact that a calf is chosen tell us that Aaron needs to abone for one particular sin - the building of the Golden Calf in the desert such a short time ago.

Not only this - Aaron is also instructed to take, on behalf of the people, a goat as a sin offering as well a calf and a lamb for a burnt offering. Finally, he needs to make a מנחה, a meal offering.

Serious stuff. You would think that this unusually high amount of sacrificing would get started immediately, however Rashi points out something very interesting in Verse 17.

וַיַּקְרֵב אֶת הַמִּנְחָה וַיְמַלֵּא כַפּוֹ מִמֶּנָּה וַיַּקְטֵר עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ מִלְּבַד עֹלַת הַבֹּקֶר:

And he brought forward the meal offering, filled his palm with it, and caused it to [go up in] smoke on the altar, in addition to the morning burnt offering.

Rashi explains the phrase "in addition to the morning burnt offering" to mean: All these sacrifices Aaron offered up only after he had offered up the morning continual burnt offering.

In other words, the every day offerings need to be offered first, before the special offerings. We give precedence to our every day commandments and roles - they are not to be eclipsed by special occasions - even if we are atoning for perhaps the biggest sin in Jewish history and literally expecting the Schinah to descend!

There is a beautiful lesson here. In order to truly live up to our end of the Covenant, we need to live conscious Jewish lives every single minute of every single day, not just when there are special ceremonies and tasks to fulfill.

One way that we express צלם אלוקים, manifestation of God's image, is to try and make every moment the most conscious and meaningful as possible, and to elevate our daily life into something special and holy. Not an easy task!

In my mind, the timing of this week's parsha couldn't be better. It's a busy time - Jews all over the world are making shopping lists, cleaning their houses, selling their Hametz, etc. Obviously, this is wonderful - the Seder tradition is one the most powerful and compelling ceremonies that we have, and is great for bringing Jews together.

However, beyond not eating Hametz and remembering the incredible story, there is a deeper meaning to Passover that sometimes gets lost in all the 'hubbub.' In Hebrew, the word for Egypt is מצרים, coming from the word צר, meaning narrow. In this light, יציאת מצרים , literally meaning "Exodus from Egypt," is really a metaphor for "exiting from our narrow concepts of ourselves".

When we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, we saw life in a very narrow way - work, food, survival. After we left, we had freedom and limitless possibilities. Of course, our experience at Sinai served to put a cap on this freedom, and some of our actions suggest that total freedom may not be such a good thing after all.

The point is that we no longer saw the world in a narrow way - there was more to life than survival. We needed to choose HOW TO LIVE and how to fulfill our unique potential as humans.

To truly fulfill the meaning of the holiday, we should see ourselves in a different light afterwards - more grounded in out history, more connected with others and with God, who knows? The point is we need to change - simply eating matzah, however hard it is on the digestive tract, is not enough.

The point of Pesach is transformation. Like we learn from Parshat Shemini, it is the Eighth Day, the day AFTER, that is really the most important.

I wish everyone a Chag Sameach and Kashur, but more than that, a blessing of a transformative Pesach experience that helps to change our lives for the better.