Shabbat Greetings
This Shabbat, we take the time to express our gratitude for our Religious School Faculty. Each and every one of them are dedicated to teach our children about their Jewish heritage. They each create a classroom filled with knowledge, inspiration and lots of fun. This Shabbat also marks the end of my 44th year of when I began teaching 7th grade. I began co-teaching 7th grade at Temple Beth El in San Antonio during my 10th grade/Confirmation year (I was 15). I continued at Temple Emanuel in Dallas during college, back to San Antonio for grad school, in Cincinnati during rabbinical school and ever since I have been ordained as rabbi since 1993. In a month, I will celebrate my 60th birthday – I’ve been teaching 7th grade all these years with the exception of my year in Israel for rabbinical school (1988-1989). Many have commented that teaching 7th graders can be a challenge and in some cases, painful. The irony of the connection to this week’s double Torah portion.
The double parsha read this Shabbat, Tazria-Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33), includes guidelines for the ritual purification of women after childbirth, for lepers suffering from the terrible skin disease, and for those who have had contact with bodily discharges. Yuck! I still remember one of my first Bat Mitzvah students coming into my office horrified after first reading what “her” Bat Mitzvah portion covered. Many of these purification rituals seem quite alien to us thousands of years later.
In particular, one of the directives we read in Tazria has always challenged me. Upon examination and confirmation that an individual Israelite suffers from a skin ailment, the priest must isolate the afflicted for at least seven days and often longer. How could our tradition, which seems to frequently emphasize the power and importance of community, ostracize one of their own? I realize that in Biblical times, these disorders were considered impurities, not simply an illness, but this seems counter intuitive to many of our other Jewish middot (values). How can you isolate those who are suffering?
In re-reading the portion, though, I discovered that I was focused on only the first part of the process. Yes, initially the Kohein (priest) dutifully separates the afflicted, but a large segment of the text details how the Kohein re-examines and re-evaluates the outcast with the goal of bringing the person back into the community. Eventually, the priest offers sacrifices designed to bring those initially deemed ritually impure back to a state of ritual purity. Rabbi Rick Jacobs submits, “the main move in Tazria-Metzora isn’t to cast out, but to bring back in, and to purify those who have been through a difficult and isolating illness, to figure out how ritually to make them feel whole.”
What causes these impurities to occur? The Sages teach that tsara’at (the skin ailment)is a punishment for the sin of lashon hara (evil speech). According to the Sages, Tazria and Metzora are about the power of speech to heal or harm. These two portions deal at length with tsara’at, the skin condition which was a punishment for evil speech. The word metzora, meaning ‘one who suffers from the condition of tsara’at‘, was, the Sages said, a shortened version of the phrase motzi shem ra, one who says bad things about another person (slander). They proved this from the case of Miriam who spoke badly about Moses, and then suffered tsara’at as a result (Numbers 12). Moses mentions this incident many years later, urging the Israelites to take it to heart: “Remember what the Adonai your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt” (Deut. 24:9).
The Rabbis said some powerful things about lashon hara. They said that it is worse than the three cardinal sins – idolatry, adultery, and bloodshed – combined. It harms three people: the one who speaks it, the one about whom it is spoken, and the one who listens to it. The story of Joseph began when he spoke negatively about some of his brothers, and their relationship turned bitter. The entire generation that left Egypt was not allowed to enter the Promised Land because they had spoken badly about it. They Sages said that one who speaks lashon hara is like someone who does not believe in God.
In our day and age social media has become a place overflowing with hateful speech, and we need the laws of lashon hara more than ever! Our faculty work diligently with each of our students as individuals and do their best to not speak ill of them – even our 7th graders! Please come and join with us tonight as we share our appreciation for all of their hard work and dedication to our children.
SHABBAT SHALOM