Weekly D'var

TAZRIA METZORA
Uri Heller

For my mother’s  49th yahrzeit, I chose to share Nechama Leibowitz, a renowned Torah commentator, approach to the Tazria-Metzora parsha (Leviticus 12-15) regarding the laws of tzara'at (skin disease) and taharah (ritual purity), often exploring the underlying meaning and purpose behind the Torah's commandments.

Tzara'at serves as a powerful reminder in the Torah of the interconnectedness between an individual’s behavior, their spiritual state, and the health of the community. It reflects values like accountability, introspection, and the importance of repairing relationships.

Interesting to note is the connection with the Omer:

"Today is twenty days, which are two weeks and six days, to the Omer." The 49-days of  "Counting of the Omer" retraces our ancestors' seven-week spiritual journey from the Exodus to Sinai. Each evening we recite a special blessing and count the days and weeks that have passed since the Omer; the 50th day is Shavuot, the festival celebrating the Giving of the Torah at Sinai.

This Sefirah: Yesod sheb'Tifferet -- "Connection in Harmony"

The teachings of Kabbalah explain that there are seven "Divine Attributes" -- Sefirot --  which we are  to relate to our existence:

 Chessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchut 

("Love", "Strength", "Beauty", "Victory", "Splendor", "Foundation" and "Sovereignty"). 

The seven sefirot are mirrored in the seven "emotional attributes" of the human soul: 

Kindness, Restraint, Harmony, Ambition, Humility, Connection and Receptiveness. 

Each of the seven attributes contain elements of all seven--i.e., "Kindness in Kindness", "Restraint in Kindness", "Harmony in Kindness", etc.--making for a total of forty-nine traits.

 The 49-day Omer Count is thus a 49-step process of self-refinement, with each day devoted to the "rectification" and perfection of one the forty-nine "sefirot." Our purpose is to reach the 49th level. 

 The Purpose of Ritual Purity:

Leibowitz questioned why the Torah dedicates so much attention to laws of ritual purity, particularly in the context of tzara'at, which can be seen as a physical manifestation of spiritual impurity. 

Ritual Impurity after Childbirth: A woman becomes ritually impure after childbirth. If she gives birth to a male, she is impure for 7 days; on the 8th day, the baby is circumcised, and then the woman is impure for a further 33 days, when she may not approach the Mishkan or touch anything that has been consecrated. If a woman gives birth to a female, she is impure for 14 days, followed by a period of 66 days, that is, double that for a male baby.

After the period of impurity, whether for a son or daughter, the woman brings a korban to the kohen at the Mishkan: a chatat offering not due to a new sin, but due to a new awareness of her status . 

We can isolated or get away from interferences to create new awareness. 

This week’s parashah presents a number of conditions that, in ancient times, were seen to render a person “tamei,”  “contaminated” or “impure.” Particularly puzzling is the case of the metzora, a person suffering from the mysterious skin disease of tzara’at;  first commented on with the affliction of  Miriam when she speaks of Moses in a dishonoring way. 

A person so diagnosed by the priest would be required to go into a kind of mourning, sent to dwell in isolation outside the camp until the affliction resolved itself. The Priest serves as the community spiritual leader to mark the person’s reintegration into the community.

Nechama Leibowitz found  it significant that Torah's prescription for a disease that disturbs the integrity of skin is separation. Skin itself is both a separator and a connector. Like clothing, vessels, and houses, each of which could also become infected with tzara’at, skin serves as a defining boundary, differentiating inner from outer. 

The everyday stresses of familial relationships, raising children, earning a living, and participating in community life often compromise our boundaries. When flooded with information, when ingesting too much food or imagery or emotions than our physical system can process, we experience  distress. 

One becomes “thin-skinned,” irritable, more likely to lash out at a loved one or to dishonor or simply ignore my fellow beings. I can’t distinguish what’s emotionally mine from what belongs to others. I become tamei, cut off from the sacredness of life. 

This is the weekend, we celebrate the birth of Israel and continue with  the hopes and dreams of the Jewish people since our beginning for Israel to continue as a free and  healthy nation .  Yom Ha’atzmaut is a day of such great simcha, joy, among the Jewish people and the celebration of a holiday that is all about community and family, we see the importance of not forgetting ourselves within all the brachot and happiness that we have. Nechama Leibowitz, in her book on the parsha, draws our attention to the fact that the haftorah uses the word “ye’esof”, or to gather together, to describe someone being cured from tzara at. She asks: why should a word meaning to gather together be used in regards to curing someone from tzara at? 

Tzaraat takes someone away from the community and their family and puts them in quarantine (a concept we are now all too familiar with), so when they are finally cured, they can rejoin the community and return home. 

The purpose of tumah is for one to leave so they can return:enable each person  to come back and be a functioning member of society. And reach for the 49th levels of  self-reflection and serve ourselves, our community and our spiritual values together.

I just returned a week ago Wednesday from the National Holocaust Museum in Washington DC for Yom Hashoa: memorial of those who passed and  heard  from survivors and their families  about the horrors and the ultimate successes of those who persevered from their  past. 

A common theme is they did not carry hate with them. I  had the opportunity to be there to honor  my father-in-law Samuel Ron Rakowsky, who had a an amazing and fulfilling life.

While an  emotional and meaningful experience - two points struck with me the most: 

1.  We want to say it was Hitler who made the Holocaust  happen, but it was the people who followed the program of the Nazis that made it happen whether they were in Germany or pull in from other places of which we all know the history. 

2. The United States knew what was going on but waited until the spring of 1944 through Henry Morgenthau through the War Refuge Board  saw that we  entered  the war and ultimately changed the war’s outcome. 

There’s several issues at hand that to address: Isolationism is an unhealthy state for any community or a nation-state .  Isolation allows you or a country or a community to do things that are not the best interest of the common good.

I see this being true with individuals when they are depressed or substance abusers, etc. they isolate – they lose their  critical thinking, and value clarity which also  explains the history of conflict. 

It’s interesting to learn about the individuals during the Holocaust  who helped save the Jews- they  had both critical thinking  and value clarity. They knew what was right. They stuck with their values even at great Possible harm to themselves.

We are now engaged in a war of misinformation of our news and social media. We are bombarded with information to lead us to think that we know what’s going on that we don’t have to inquire because we’re told.

USC researchers may have found the biggest influencer in the spread of fake news: is social platforms’ structure of rewarding users for habitually sharing information.

Just 15% of the most habitual news sharers were responsible for spreading about 30% to 40% of the fake news.

Posting, sharing and engaging with others on social media can, therefore, become a habit. Misinformation is really a function of creating interest or  popularity over accuracy.

If anybody had a chance to see the October 8 movie, it speaks about the media propaganda on the campus by Hamas &Isis, etc., to create a narrative using holocaust verbiage to justify their position. 

They make it about the Palestine people not about the radicalization of Islam. They don’t focus on how Hamas has controlled their food -their jobs – their housing and dictates to their  own dogmatic needs. 

We are currently all troubled by chaos: we do not know  what is happening  and  it’s unclear on what is going to happen and what is known. 

It’s not what’s promised, but what is observed ( another Jewish value) . To manage Chaos is to be critical thinkers, focused on our values and be a part of the community for the greater good. Demonstrating is a democratic value without, of course, breaking the law and the  Jewish value is to educate ourselves by looking at all sides and  challenge, and have a strong central representation.

• Metaphorical Interpretation:

Leibowitz, like many Jewish commentators, understood the tzara at as a metaphor, suggesting that some homes may be afflicted with malicious gossip, baseless hatred, or sickness within families. 

It is quite fitting that this week's double parsha and haftorah are about a disease like tzara at: a disease that removes someone from the community. 

We go back to what we do want: the seven sefirot are mirrored in the seven "emotional attributes" of the human soul:

Kindness, Restraint, Harmony, Ambition, Humility, Connection and Receptiveness. 

SHABBOT SHALOM.