TAZRIA_Leviticus XII – XIII

In the opinion of numerous scholars of the religious and social reality of our people, Shabbat and Kashrut are the two fundamental pillars of our tradition. Like many other generalizations that are fragile in the face of serious questions, they also succumb to careful analysis. However, it has pragmatic use because it serves for an early analysis of the religious status of the individual or a community. These pillars of tradition are a kind of barometer that serve to measure the degree of observance of our Laws. 

We assume, generally, that people who observe Shabbat and Kashrut also comply, with other Mitsvot. We take no risk if we infer that people who are meticulous with the numerous laws of Shabbat, also hear on Rosh HaShana the sounds of the Shofar, which is the horn of a lamb, and refrain from eating Chamets, which are the fermented foods forbidden on Pesach.

Since Kashrut distinguishes the Jewish home daily, this Mitsvah has unique importance in our tradition. In addition, an entire food industry has sprung up around it. Especially during the celebration of Pesach there are many necessary preparations in the homes and Kasher lePesach foods play a decisive role in all our communities. This word, usually pronounced as kosher by Americans, has been integrated into the English language, at least the one used by all, Jews and Gentiles, in the great urban centers of the United States. Taref, or terefa, means “not kosher”, forbidden food. These two words kosher and taref, therefore, play a unique and significant role in the home and community life of the contemporary Jewish world.

If we go back a couple of millennia, the time of the existence of the Beit HaMikdash, which is the sacred Temple of Jerusalem, we find that kosher and taref are not ubiquitous in everyday life and do not play the decisive role of our day. Tame, which means what is ritually impure; and tahor, which is ritually pure; are the two key concepts that grab the attention and daily concern of Jewish society at that time.

The service and ritual of Beit HaMikdash, whose surroundings encompassed the bulk of the religious cult of the time, made compulsory the consideration of these two ritual conditions of a Jew. The entrance of the parishioner to the Temple precinct and his possible participation in one of the rituals depended on his state of “ritual purity” at that time. To move from a tame state to the tahor state, several steps had to be completed that would include offering sacrifices and ablutions in a mikve, a ritual water pool, as indicated for each particular situation.

Our weekly chapters begin with an analysis of this world of tahara, of ritual purity, with a description of the disease nega tsara´at, erroneouslyusually identified with leprosy. If we start from the point of view that the Bible is not a text of medicine, we may ask ourselves, what place does a detailed treatise on this contagious tsara´at disease occupy in a compendium of moral principles? Apparently, in the conception of the Scriptures, contracting this disease is not accidental, but the punishment for dubious or certain immoral behavior. 

In Shemot (Exodus) IV, 6, we read, “and added the Eternal: put your hand on your chest now. And he (Moshe) puthis hand on his chest and removed it as leper, snow-white.” In the next verse, God makes leprosy disappear, which is a demonstration of extraordinary powers that Moshe could use to convince Pharaoh to allow the Hebrews to leave his land.

This is God’s second demonstration to Moshe. The first was to throw his cane to the ground to become a snake. What is the purpose of the second demonstration with leprosy? Some suppose that the test of leprosy was a punishment for Moshe, because in the first verse of this same chapter we read, “and Moshe replied: “What if they (the Hebrews) did not believe me and did not listen to me and said that the Eternal did not appear to me?”

This lack of trust in the people that comes from Moshe’s words is the cause of God ordering, even momentarily, the scourge of leprosy on Moses’ hand. In the Talmud, Resh Lakish states that anyone who suspects a person who is not guilty suffers corporal punishment and cites as evidence Moshe’s leper´s hand.

In Bemidbar (Numbers) XII, 1, the text reads: “And Miryam and Aharon spoke against Moshe because of the Kushit (Ethiopian) woman he had taken as a woman.”  Some verses later we read: “This is not the case with my servant Moshe, who is greatly faithful to Me. With him I speak face to face, in clear vision…. And when the cloud retreated from the tabernacle behold, Miryam became a leper, with skin white as snow…” According to this account, Miryam’s leprosy was also due to having spoken out against Moshe.

It follows from the two cases cited then that tsara´at is an affliction resulting from some moral failing which is not linked to an action, but rather to slander or misperception of the moral caliber of others. However, this tsara´at manifests itself as a physiological disease and a Kohen has the function of diagnosing and then indicating the required treatment. According to certain shades of color and appearance, the mourner is instructed if it is necessary to leave the community camp for a reasonable period, until the wound heals according to Kohen’s opinion.

The clothing of the afflicted must be washed, and then sprinkled seven times with the liquid that also contains the blood of a slaughtered bird. These clothes are washed again and the hairs from the body must be removed, immerse in water, go outside the community for a period of seven days, and then could be considered tahor. On the eighth day he had to offer sacrifices accompanied by a ceremony. Why is he required to offer a sacrifice? Does the person have any moral responsibility for getting sick? We must necessarily conclude, according to the perspective of the Torah, one contracts tsara´at for commiting a moral religious misdeed that requires Kaparah, atonement through the offering of a sacrifice.

We also find episodes where leprosy elsewhere in the Bible. King Uziyahu, forexample, is punished with leprosy for attempting to participate in the ritual of sacrifices in the Temple. In Jewish tradition there is a separation between Keter Malchtut, which is the crown of kingdom, and Keter Kehuna, the crown of priesthood. For this reason, Uziyahu was exiled from the community until the day of his death.

If leprosy is considered a punishment, its healing is considered the result of Divine intervention. In the books of the prophets, we are taught that Naaman, the general of the king of Aram, is healed by the prophet Elisha, who instructs him to do seven ablutions in the Jordan river. The prophet’s young apprentice, Gechazi, is infected with the same leprosy, for having received a gift from Naaman against the will of the prophet. In this manner, our tradition gives a moral perspective to a disease that whipped humanity for centuries and which for many was the result of the capricious behavior of nature and the unforeseen anger of the gods that his imagination had created.

MITSVAH: TORAH ORDINANCE IN THIS PARASHA

CONTAINS 5POSITIVE MITSVOT AND 2 PROHIBITIONS

1. 166.Leviticus 12:2,5 The woman’s ritual impurity after giving birth
2. 167.Leviticus 12:4 The ritually unclean person does not ingest Sacred Sacrifices
3. 168.Leviticus 12:6 The offering the woman brings after giving birth
4. 169.Leviticus 13:2 The ritual impurity of the person who has tsara´at (it manifests with a rash on the skin)
5. 170.Leviticus 13:33 Do not cut the hair of a netek lesion (type of tsara´at)
6. 171.Leviticus 13:45 The person who has tsara´at or anyone who can transmit ritual impurity to others should not cut his hair and leave his garments torn
7. 172.Leviticus 13:47 Laws relevant to clothing tsara´at 

METSORÁ

Leviticus XIV – XV

WILL THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER AND WILL THE UNJUST BE REWARDED?

As noted previously, nega tsara´at, the disease erroneously identified with leprosy, was a terrible scourge for humanity. The Torah echoes this concern, by dedicating entire chapters to its diagnosis, prognosis, and healing. The Kohen, the priest who performs medicinal functions in this area, additionally deals with the “leprosy of clothing” and the “leprosy of houses”. The process of curing this ailment involves being excluded from community living, regular inspection of injuries and eventual offering of some sacrifices.

Any reflection on this subject requires answering first and foremost the following question: why does the Torah dealwith a disease? We conceived the Torah asa guide to our spiritual, moral, and social behavior. All the narratives it relates must direct to a moral teaching. Because the Torah is not a book of history, and from the perspective of this same Torah, when man and woman were created, they were endowed with an intellect that allows them to investigate and discover. They can create, manage, and face the challenges of nature and discover its primary mechanisms. This includes, of course, the possibility of finding remedies and healings for the evils that afflict them.

Our Chachamim understood this difficulty and suggest that Nega tsara´at is not an additional physiological disease, but an external manifestation of moral deviations that particularly concern the mastery of insult and slander. According to this conception, Tsara´at is a kind of Dorian Gray portrait that highlights the spiritual state of the mourner. It would be appropriate to investigate whether in the vision of Judaism, diseases are accidental in nature and the result of certain bad physical habits, or whether they constitute a punishment for mistakes made in the field of ethics and worship.

It is possible to document, through biblical texts, the argument that disease is a punishment for disobedience to the Word of God and for committing aberrations of a moral order. We can cite, for example, the death of the son born of the union between Bat Sheva and King David. Let us remember that the King sends Uria, Bat Sheva’s husband, to certain death in the front lines of battle, so that he can take to himself his beautiful wife. (This reasoning should lead us to consider a problem that causes great dismay, which is the death of a newborn, a wholly innocent being.) 

King Achav dies during a battle because he had taken over the vineyard of Navot and so on. What is the purpose of punishment? Are we faced with manifestations of vengeance, because of the harsh character of the God of Israel ,as some detractors of our faith think? Punishment can perhaps be regarded as a warning, which is sometimes relentless, but whose primary purpose is to prevent the error from being repeated.

The biblical book of Iyov (Job) can be seen as an attempt to respond to the problem of the suffering of a humanity that on numerous occasions cannot find a cause-and-effect relationship between crime and punishment. Iyov rebels at the suggestion of one of his friends, Elifaz the Theimanite, who tells him, “You have to remember: Who died innocent? Or when was a righteous person destroyed? According to what I have seen, those who sow iniquity and misery harvest the same”. (Job IV; 7.8). 

In the pages of the Mishnah, Rabbi Yanai expresses the feeling of many of his contemporaries by exclaiming, “It is not within our power to explain the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous”. This is a clear admission of the complexity of the problem and the limits of our reasoning to explain an ever-conflicting reality that is inconsistent with our concept of justice.

Our teacher, Harav Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik, used to teach us, echoing the exegetes, that the disobedience of the Ten Commandments had the inevitable consequence of punishment. It is not essential to punish, externally, disrespect for father and mother. The dissolution of family relationships carries with it its own dire consequences. Whoever commits murder eventually ends up as a victim of a similar action. This is how Soloveitchik argues. Following this guidance in our reasoning, our Chachamim may have understood that Nega tsara´at is a warning that insult and slander do not harm only the injured and slandered, but return to punish the guilty person, that is, the one who insults and slanders.

The fact that the Kohen is the person chosen to “cure” this “spiritual leper” implies that affliction does not have to be permanent, and that punishment is therefore reversible. It is an admonition that tells man, beware of slander, because its result is comparable to the odious leprosy. And just as this leprosy can be “healed” if the Instructions of the Kohen are followed by offering sacrifices that constitute an admission of guilt, the insult can also be atoned for. In this way we can regard Nega tsara´at as a sobering and prevention process, rather than as a permanent punishment for a sin committed.

For the pious, suffering becomes an occasion to obtain God’s attention. The worst punishment for man of faith is the apparent abandonment of God, Hester panim, in the language of the Kabalah. For the authentic religious, suffering is preferable to the indifference of the Deity and would opt for pain over the possibility of Divine apathy. Thus says the Psalmist: “Happy is the man to which You instruct (it can be translated equally from Hebrew, ‘to which You punish’), Oh! Eternal, and you teach him Thy law” (Psalms XCIV, 12).

It can also be argued that suffering develops and allows that the qualities of nobility and even greatness of human beings come to light. Suffering makes us more sensitive to the needs of others and allows us to identify, or at least understand the miseries of the less fortunate. How could we taste the sweet if we don’t taste the bitter? Could we appreciate bliss if we do not know suffering and pain? Yisurim shel ahava, pains of love, in the language of the Chachamim. Hermann Cohen, the great Jewish philosopher once said that “without leid there could be no mittleid”.

People who have deep faith argue that men have a fractional view of reality, that we perceive facts from a very narrow perspective. Therefore, continuing with this argument, there are times when suffering is a benefit and not an ailment. 

I remember the story of a Holocaust survivor. On one occasion, when an exact number of people were gathering to be sent to a forced labour camp, he, at that time a seventeen-year-old, was brutally evicted from his post by someone who possessed greater strength. They assumed that everyone who got on that train car would be saved, despite the forced labour to which they would be subjected. Those left behind would run a different fate, death. But fate was different. That train’s car was headed for the gas furnaces. The young man who was violently and unjustifiably removed from his place survived to tell this story.

Even for those who have a physiological weakness, the emotional and spiritual ingredient plays an important role in the development and evolution of a disease. The traditional interpretation of our weekly reading suggests, on the other hand, that, in certain diseases, the spiritual parameter is essential and Nega tsara´at becomes an external and superficial manifestation of an internal ailment which, in its origin, is a moral evil.

MITSVAH: TORAH ORDINANCE IN THIS PARASHA

CONTAINS 11 POSITIVE MITSVOT  

1. 173.Leviticus 14:2 Ritual of purification by tsara´at
2. 174.Leviticus 14:9 Shave the one affected by tsara´at on the seventh day (part of the purification ritual)
3. 175.Leviticus 14:9 Immersion of the unclean individual in a Mikve for ritual purification
4. 176.Leviticus 14:10 The offering of the individual with tsara´at when cured of his affliction
5. 177.Leviticus 14:35 Laws of ritual impurity of a house contaminated with tsara´at
6. 178.Leviticus 15:2,3 Laws of ritual impurity of the person who has emissions, zav, who is the object and cause of ritual impurity 
7. 179.Leviticus 15:13,14 Offering of the zav when cured of emissions
8. 180.Leviticus 15:16 Laws about ritual impurity of semen, which is ritually impure and causes ritual impurity
9. 181.Leviticus 15:19 Laws of ritual impurity of the menstruating person who acquires ritual impurity and causes ritual impurity
10. 182.Leviticus 15:25 Laws of ritual impurity of the person who is menstruating abnormally acquiring ritual impurity and causing ritual impurity
11. 183.Leviticus 15:28,29 Offering of the zava, a woman, menstruating abnormally when she has already been ritually purified