Baruch Dayan Haemet - We are grieving together with Leibush and Dina Hundert upon the passing of their daughter, Tzipporah Yehudit, this last Wednesday. Tihyeh Nishmatah Tzururah Bitzror Hachayim. This week's Pshat is dedicated to her memory.
Pshat:
Tzara'at - erroneously identified as leprosy - doesn't exist anymore, our tradition tells us. This "surface disorder" was imposed by Hashem only in ancient times, when we lived upon our land and there was a Beit Hamikdash and Hashem revealed Himself to his prophets. But if this is the case, then why devote two entire parashiyot to explaining the details of its diagnosis and treatment?
The answer is tied to the following curiosity: The name first of the two parashiyot, Tazria, refers to the holy and blessed occassion of human fecundity, when a woman bears a child. That is indeed the opening to tha parasha, but what follows is, initially a description of the impurity occassioned by that event, and then a long description of the various types of tzara'at that appear both on the natural human vessel- skin - as well as on its artificial cover - clothing. That is, the entire parasha, named after the purity of the propagation of life, is entirely devoted to impurity.
This week's parashah, Metzora, is named for the unfortunate individual who has suffered an outbreak of tzara'at and has been cast out of the community until it passes. However, the lion's share of the parashah, certainly the entire first section, is devoted to the purification of the metzora once the indications have passed. Only then does the parashah turn to the third form of tza'arat - that affecting houses - its diagnosis and cure. The parashah ends with a discussion of the various forms of impurity that result from a reproductive malfunction - male or female.
This, then, is the overarching structure of these two parashiyot taken together: Successful reproduction, the three forms of tzara'at (skin, clothing, home), frustrated reproduction. The first is called a name of purity, while it deals primarily with impurity; the second is called a name of impurity, while it deals primarily with purity. What are we to make of this?
Reproduction comes from the insides. Skin, clothing, housing are all outer containers. Metzora is understood as an altered form of motzi ra - one who, via speech, brings out badness. Speech externalizes thought, perfecting it or corrupting it in the process. Adam and Hava in the garden were naked but not ashamed, they had not yet spoken ill, rather Adam had spoken well and right when he named and praised Woman, they were free of blemish. The snake, a living, writhing tongue of misrepresentation, perverted speech and all that is associated with it, and, instead of greeting it with silence, Woman's retort was a reverberation, and enhancement of that seductive misrepresentation. Adam got into the act, blaming the woman for his misdeed - everywhere misdirection, no true encounter, not even with Hashem, from whom they hid.
Hashem's response: Tzara'at - their bodies of light were made flesh, they were given coverings of skin - both their own and that of animals - and they were cast out of the garden without protection from the elements. No wonder that Kayin, doubly cast out after the murder of his brother, builds a city, a structure, some attempt to recreate, however crudely, the context, the home that was Eden.
Misdirection and misrepresentation of that inner realm is the very definition of tzara'at, and it is automatically manifest, when Hashem's Presence is so immediate that such is demanded, in the disfigurement of the outer container - be it skin, clothing or home.
But we know that pain is a blessing when it warns us of what we must address lest it fester. We tell our kids that a fever is good, because it's the sign that the body is fighting the infection. We tell ourselves that a toothache is good, because otherwise, we would not seek treatment until the situation became critical. And so it is with tzara'at - it demands the kind of attention, precisely because of its disfiguration of the outer sheaths of our beings to which we have devoted inordinate attention, which is ultimately reparative, healing.
We are told that when the Canaanites heard tell of the impending conquest by the Israelites, they took their riches and buried them in the walls of their homes. Here in Israel, the thick-walled stone home have been made for millenia by a sandwich process. In between the two layers of building stone, all the detritus of human life are deposited. Effectively, the problem of waste disposal was solved "intramurally"!
When the Israelites came into the land and one of their homes displayed the signs of leprosy, the affected stones were removed and replaced. In the process, the riches hidden by the Canaanites spilled out, and Hashem "dispoiled" the Canaanites, blessing thereby His people, Israel.
When we reverse the process of motzi ra, when we seek to be machnis tov - bring in the good, seek the cure in the innermost realms, then we discover that that which has been deposited in our innermost recesses as refuse, is converted to precious metals and precious stones. The process of diagnosing and treating tza'arat uncovers our deepest inner misalignments, even to the very sources of propagation life itself. When the intolerable pain is somehow, somehow met unblinkingly with tears and faith, then we are ready to accept the purification and atonement of the ultimate day, Yom Kippur - which is next Shabbat's parashah.
All of this is, though, is completely inadequate, and I offer it only in lieu of the long, irreplaceable hug that Leibush has given so many times, and now I want to give it back to him, and through him, to Dina, to hug them with all the life that, G-d willing, they should be blessed to bring forth in honor and memory of their precious daughter.
Rav Yehoshua Kahan
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Rav Yehoshua Kahan is a teacher at Yeshivat Bat Ayin. He has held pulpits in Knoxville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, and served as educational director of Livnot U'Lehibanot. He blogs on Parashat Hashavua here |