A blast from the past for this week’s Parashah, Tazria M’tzorah. I wrote and delivered this D’var Torah during my first year of rabbinical school in Jerusalem in 2007.
We are now in a very timely period of our year, due in part to our being surrounded by Jewish events. We just came out of Pesach, we’re counting the 49 days of the Omer, and we’re looking ahead to Yom Ha’atzma’ut. In between, we arrive at today, Yom HaShoa, a day of remembrance for the horrors of our recent past. Amidst these days of commemoration, we find ourselves in Parashat Tazria M’tzorah, a collection of priestly laws addressing ritual purity. The times tell us to remember the events of our past while the parasha instructs us to observe the minute details of cultic rituals. How exactly can purity rituals connect with this season of the Jewish festival year?
A substantial section of the laws in Tazria are related to tzara’at, a disease commonly referred to as leprosy. Tzara’at is connected with swellings, scabby rashes, inflamed areas and flakes on a person’s flesh. Once diagnosed by the priest, the infected is to be declared ‘impure’ until the disease has receded.
The symptoms listed follow a logical progression, addressing change in visible surface conditions. A rash that has turned a hair white and appears to go deeper than the skin means impurity. A rash that has spread throughout the skin means impurity. And, a scaly, white area with some undiscolored flesh within it means impurity.
Vayikra 13, verses 12 and 13 however, break this pattern. “V’im paro’ach tifrach hatzara’at ba’or v’chista hatzara’at et kol or hanegah, meirosho v’ad raglav, l’kol mar’eh einei hakohen; v’ra’ah hakohen v’hineh kista hatzara’at et kol b’saro v’tihar et hanegah, kulo hafach lavan, tahor hu,” And if the Tzara’at has erupted on the skin and has covered all the skin of the affected person, from head to toe, wherever the priest can see; If the priest sees that the eruption has covered the whole body, he shall pronounce as pure the affected person – all has turned white, he is pure.
Suddenly, in a portion that deems discolorations as disease and therefore impurity, we find that purity is reached in the disease’s totality. Tzara’at has become what appears to be absolute, and yet no longer counts as warranting impurity. How can one make sense of this paradoxical ruling?
Very different from yours is this levitra 20mg canada the counselors outlook. Many studies along with research has been accomplished in Acupuncture Ny treatment possesses ended up discovered to be successful with the assistance of levitra samples . What are the effects? The effects of this pill, a serious reaction coming from the community is needed to reveal the dangers of the pill which have affected precious lives by the irresponsible corporations. generic cialis tabs LDL cholesterol blocks your arteries and prevents blood supply to the reproductive system causing sexual weakness. view content cialis in usa The modern commentator Baruch Levine writes that the “white skin” may be seen as a new growth of skin. Rather than a total outbreak of tzara’at, there is a fresh layer of healthy skin, a warrant for purity.
Another explanation is that the appearance of fragmentation as a result of the infection causes impurity. The wholeness of the covering of white skin fits in with our daily ritual, but skin disorders with a patchy incomplete appearance would distract from achieving ritual purity and sacredness, and are separated as impure. So, Vayikra 13:13 shows us that transition and partial infection might indicate impurity, while wholeness is associated with purity.
Rabbi Yitzchak in the Talmud Bavli expands on this verse, connecting purity in wholeness with eschatological teachings. He says “ain ben david ba ad she tehefech kol ha’olam l’apikorsot; The Messiah will not come until the whole world has become heretical. Redemption will come only when world order has been replaced by chaos, when ‘kulo hafach lavan’. The sages continue, in saying that salvation will arrive “b’dor shekulo zachai o shekulo chayev” – in a generation that is entirely innocent, or totally guilty. The world will either be in a state of absolute righteousness to bring about divine providence, or all hell will have to break lose. Peace and redemption will come to a world full of innocence, but help will also reach us when life has decayed to the point of hopelessness. The sacredness embodied in purity can be found in the strength of goodness, but is also to be sought in spite of disease, in our darkest moments.
It is appropriate then, that Yom HaShoa coincides with Parashat Tazria. Today, we commemorate the destruction of millions of innocents. We remember the incomprehensible acts of hatred against European Jewry, and we remember that even as more became known of the unfolding atrocities, the world stood by. Only when the situation was as critical as it could be, when millions had been ruthlessly killed and the world’s hands stained with guilt did a ray of hope shine through the despair. The war was won, the survivors were liberated, and the long road to recovery began.
As stated earlier, the white covering can be explained as a layer of fresh, healthy skin. Absolute disease can be succeeded by rebirth, with a new form of life. Last week, I had the privilege of leading several S’darim in Jewish communities throughout Ukraine that had been decimated by the Nazis. There, I toured through Babi Yar, a ravine outside Kiev where hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed, with Ukraine’s Chief Reform Rabbi as a guide. In Ukraine, I was overwhelmed by astonishment and joy, in seeing the last bits of darkness left from the Holocaust replaced by a fast-growing, vibrant Jewish community, led by our very guide. A place that was filled with the tzara’at of the Nazis, has now grown a fresh layer of white skin and a new layer of Jewish life.
Our verse, marking the severest condition as an opportunity for regeneration and growth, provides us with great hope. Dire circumstance is a challenge not to succumb to despair. As we commemorate the Shoa today, may we never forget that the world continues to drown in injustice, and it is upon us to redeem it, but as we take notice of Judaism’s shining rebirth, may we be filled with pride, strength and optimism to help us fulfill our part in redemption.
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