Shalom Friends;
This week, our Parshat HaShavua, Tazria-Metzora is being sponsored by Dr. Edo and Atara Lavi and family of Baltimore Lilui Nishmas for the Yahrtzeit of Atara’s Father Eliezer Chaim ben Shlomo Zalman and dedicated for the safety of the Chayalim, as well as for the good health and security of kol Am Yisrael. To the Lavi family, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShavua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to subscribe, and hopefully to sponsor a Parshat HaShavua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
Subscribe to the Israel and the Sin of Expulsion blog, to ask questions or to sponsor a Parsha Vort at: olehchadash@yahoo.com
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Rabbi Shmuel Goldin writes in his sefer “Unlocking the Torah Text”, Sefer Vayikra as a summary and context on Parshat Tazria (page 81, 114-115) :
After a… section reviewing the laws of tumat yoledet (impurity resulting from childbirth), Parshat Tazria quickly turns its attention to the primary topic…: the diagnosis and treatment of tumah brought about by the plague of tzara’at, biblical leprosy.
The Torah reviews, in great depth, a wide variety of physical ailments, conveying critical information to the Kohanim who will be responsible for the identification and management of afflictions falling into the category of tzara’at. Included in this review are afflictions affecting persons, garments, and dwellings.
The Talmud lists, in the name of Rabbi Yonatan, seven sins that cause the affliction of Tzara’at: evil or damaging speech, murder, perjury, sexual immorality, arrogance, robbery and miserliness. [Rabbi Goldin citing Talmud Bavli 16a]
In a similar (albeit more poetic) fashion, the Midrash cites six phenomena, drawn from the book of Mishlei [Rabbi Goldin citing Mishlei 6:16 – 19], that trigger the illness: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that spill innocent blood, a heart that ponders thoughts of violence, feet always ready to run for an evil purpose, false testimony (that results in the spreading of lies) and the sowing of discord between brothers. [Rabbi Goldin citing Midrash Rabbah Vayikra Perek 16, posuk 1]
To the minds of the Rabbis, few crimes are as damaging to both victim and perpetrator as the crimes of slander and damaging speech.
Our Parshat Tazria states:
“When a man has in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab or a bright spot, and it is in the skin of his flesh like a nega (“plague”) of tzara’at; then he will be brought to Aaron the [Kohen Godol], or to one of his sons the [Kohanim].” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 13, posuk 2 as rendered to English by Aharon Yaakov Greenberg in his sefer, “Torah Gems,” Volume 2, page 283)
“Torah Gems” continues with commentary (ibid) :
…The law of Tzara’at, which according to our sages (“Torah Gems” citing Arachin 15), afflicts a person who is guilty of lashon ha-ra — slander. The reason for this juxtaposition is because people are more concerned about not eating non-kosher food than they are about “eating up” a person through slander. This we learn from the juxtaposition that “eating up” a person is no less a sin than eating a worm. (“Torah Gems” citing R’ Yisrael Salanter)
Rabbi Hershel Reichman provides comments on our Parshiyot Tazria-Metzora in his Sefer, “Living the Chassidic Legacy — Lessons Based on Shem Mishmuel, Volume Two” (pages 409, 414 – 415) :
The posuk [Rabbi Reichman citingTehillim 51:12] says, “Lev tohar bera li Elokim v’ru’ach nachon chadeish b’kirbi = Create for me a pure heart, Hashem, and renew within me a good and proper spirit.” Dovid’s [HaMelech] first request is for a pure heart. He asked Hashem to clear his heart from the accumulated baggage blocking purity from penetrating. We need an internal cleaning of our spiritual veins so that the Holy Words of Hashem can reach our hearts. Once we have been purified, we can then speak the second request, “ru’ach nachon chadeish b’kirbi.”
We beg Hashem to give us a pure, clean heart so that the Holy Words of Torah can penetrate deep into our hearts. We want the excitement of Torah and being Jews. We want to serve Hashem and sing His songs.
This purification and renewal essentially amounts to Teshuva, a return to Hashem. We purify ourselves from our past and then begin with new commitment and new drive.
The Gemara [Rabbi Reichman citing Arachin 16b] states that tzara’at can come as a result of several types of sins. Primarily, though, it comes on account of motzi sheim ra, the sin of spreading negative stories about someone. The word metzora is similar to the words: motzi ra.
Lashon hara, speaking badly about other Jews. is basically an expression of unjustified hate. It is not clear that hatred is ever justified. The Gemara [Rabbi Reichman citing Pesachim 113b] asks: How is it possible for a Jew to have an enemy? The Gemara answers that it is permitted to hate a great sinner. But the Tanya answers that this is based on a contradictory verse: “Do not hate your brother in your heart” [Rabbi Reichman citing Sefer Vayikra Perek 19, posuk 17]. This posuk does not make exceptions for sinners.
The Tanya explains that one can hate sinning, but one can’t hate the person who commits the sin.
Torah now relates in our Parsha a point profound in our time, yet not focused upon by many commentators;
“If the tzara’as will erupt on the skin, and … will cover the entire skin of the afflicted from his head to his feet, wherever the eyes of the Kohen can see — the Kohen shall look, and behold! — the affliction has covered his entire flesh, then he shall declare the affliction to be pure; having turned completely white, it is pure. And on the day healthy skin appears in it, it (the affliction) shall be impure.” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 13, posukim 12 – 14 rendered to English in “The Sapirstein Edition, The Torah: With Rashi’s Commentary” )
With these posukim in mind, the case of tzara’as erupting on the skin, and covering the entire skin of the afflicted from his head to his feet, everywhere visible to the Kohen, The Artscroll; Stone Edition Chumash provides a commentary citing R’ Hirsch, z’l on Sefer Vayikra, Perek 13, posuk 13 (page 613) :
Rabbi Hirsch explains it…by his interpretation of the Metzora’s quarantine as a means to shock him into recognizing his moral shortcomings and repenting.
…Someone whose entire skin has turned white is so morally corrupt that he’s too convinced of his rectitude to think of changing. There is no point in continuing to isolate him. By telling him … that all hope for his ability to improve is gone, Torah shows him dramatically how low he has sunk.
This author has made a point through the years, which bears repeating yet again; a number of years ago, a National Council of Young Israel weekly Parsha sheet (the parsha sheet subsequently misplaced by this author) spoke of how Israel, in the depths of it’s corruption and idolatry during the reign of King Achav, nevertheless won all of it’s wars.
The Encyclopedia of Biblical Personalities, by Yishai Chasidah, brings a citing from Mesechta Megillah 11a:
Three men ruled over the entire world — Achav, Nevuchadnezzar and Achashveirosh. The world was comprised of 252 provinces and Achav ruled over them all. (Esther Rabbah 1:5)
The Rav who prepared the above-referenced Parsha vort was indicating that, just as an individual whose affliction covered his own body because there seemed no hope for repentence, so too, when the spiritual level of the nation seemed beyond rectification, they waged war successfully while being largely Ovdei Avodah Zorah. But yet, later on, when the Avodah Zora was more covert during a period of mass Teshuva, we lost Bayit Rishon.
One might follow-up on this equation by asking what the moral of this is for the Jewish people in contemporary times.
The contemporary Jewish State, largely unified, fought 3 wars, in 1948, 1956 and in 1967 winning each one convincingly, particularly 1956 and 1967 when they won overwhelmingly and completely, although subsequently, the US president Eisenhower compelled Israel to relinquish. Sinai. To recollect and understand how complete Six Day War victory was is to recall reports of relative hands full of Israel soldiers chasing hundreds or thousands of Arabs in confirmation of biblical prophesy, the Arab windows drapped in white sheets of surrender pleading for their lives and thousands of Egyptian combat boots found in Sinai when Arab soldiers shed them in order to run, for their lives faster, from the oncharging IDF.
A great T’shuvah movement took hold in Eretz Yisrael and throughout the Jewish world after the Six Day War. And so, as this author understands, the essence of that National Council of Young Israel weekly Parsha sheet, just as a Melech (King) subsequent to Achav was dedicated to wiping out avodah zora such that its instances became more covert where they had previously been blatant, subsequently, Am Yisrael suffered Korban Bayit Rishon and 70 years of Galut. The great T’shuvah movement after the Six Day War may have caused what may be understood as a collective national tzara’as to recede from covering the entire national body. As a result, along with increasing arrogance born from the rapid, resounding victory of the Six Day War and faulty intelligence, we suffered the invasions of Sinai and the Golan Heights by Egypt and Syria at the outset of the Yom Kippur War.
Increasing derision and demonization of those who settled and built Yehuda and the Shomron, as well as the religious, intensified among elitists and an increasingly leftist-controlled media, as well as among those few who held near monopolistic control over the IDF’s military high oommand echelons, Israel’s judicial system, mainstream media, academia and national capital. Sectors in Israel, including amongst the religious, have become more openly polarized toward each other where, previously, animosity was beneath the surface and subservient to a national unity of purpose. This increasing polarization among the various factions of the people, along with the faulty, agendized military command echelons who viewed Hamas and their terror partners as not seeking war and refused to listen to their subordinate border guards, brought about the barbaric, animalistic terror invasion of Southern Israel on Simchat Torah 5784 — 7 October.
So we learn that as long as the tzara’as covers the entire, visible body, the afflicted is deemed pure, but when affliction recedes and no longer covers the entire visible body, the afflicted is deemed ta’amei (contaminated) and most be quarantined.
That may possibly be the message behind our current national travails as we mark nearly twemty-one years since Jew evicted Jew from Jewish land in Gush Katif and 4 Shomron towns, as well as the many subsequent events of horrendous displays of Jew against Jew to recent times.
This message may also account for the seeming hamstrung western mindset of “no-win” by the IDF in the Lebanon conflict of twenty years ago, subsequent operations in Gaza responding to Hamas, Islamic Jihad rocket attacks up through the barbaric, animalistic invasion of Simchat Torah — 7 October.
Our travails carry the shadow of corrupt political, judicial, bureaucratic, academia and media plans which continue jeopardizing the hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Yehuda, the Shomron, the Jordan Valley, as well as seemingly ignoring the illegal buildings sprouting up in the Negev jeopardizing the Jews living in the Negev down to Be’erSheva..
Now let us deal with the sincerity of an individual’s rectification of the aveirah of loshen hora — Motziya rah, which R’ Hirsch, z’l defined above as “a slander”, and how this author views such rectification when it would seem required on a national scope.
We learn in Parsha Tazria, as well as in upcoming Parshiyot that unity is the very essence of the Kohen.
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah” (page 253) cites the Rabbi of Alexander who cites as the reason why, when one suspected an affliction with tzara’as, that he must go to… the Kohen and not to a scholar, a Talmud Chacham;
One of the traits of Aharon was that he did everything he could to make peace between people.” The Sefer relates how Aharon “exaggerated and told untruths in order to bring about peaceful relationships between people.” When people quarreled, he would tell each side how highly thought of they were to the other. “When someone was told that the other person was speaking positively about him, he automatically felt positive about the other person and this greatly improved their relationship.
This trait of Aharon, his sons, of Pinchas; of conveying and facilitating unity was to be an inherent trait in Kohanim (priesthood) throughout the generations — with the Mishkan (Tabernacle), with both the Beit Hamikdash Rishon and Sheini (both the 1st and 2nd Temple) and down through the Galut to contemporary times. It seems axiomatic; with peace, there is unity — between a Jew and his brother and on a national level amongst all groups and sectors of B’nei Yisrael.
In “Studies in the Weekly Parsha” (pages 726-727), Yehuda Nachshoni cited a quote from the S’fas Emes on our Parsha Metzora;
In everything, there is a mixture of evil and good. And so with man. In general, good overcomes the evil, for there is more good. But one must be careful not to exclude evil from the community… Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit … seek peace and pursue it,’ which means that (the evil) is to be engulfed by the common good, as indicated in the act of taharah of metzora…’ The emphasis is to return to the source and to cleave to the root, and when one is within the common good he can be rectified.
This explanation seems to add meaning to the words of the third and final section of Birkat Kohanim (Artscroll Mesorah Series Birkat Kohanim, pages 80-81); “V’Yaseim L’cha Shalom” — “and may He grant you peace.”
In light of the above, the message of the 2nd posuk of Parshat Metzora seems profound (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 14, posukim 2-4) :
“This shall be the law concerning the Metzora when he is purified: he shall be brought to the Kohen. The Kohen shall go outside the camp, where he shall examine the Metzora to determine that the tzara’as has healed. The Kohen shall then order that for the person undergoing purification there be taken two live kosher birds, a piece of cedar, some crimson wool, and a hyssop branch.”
And, R’ Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah” (page 259) cites and explains an Ibn Ezra on why the purified former metzora is brought by another person to the Kohen:
…After the tzara’as clears up. he will not want to bring the offerings that he is responsible to bring.
When a person has tzara’as, he will definitely claim that of course he will bring the necessary offerings when the tzara’as clears up. But once he is cured, he can easily forget his obligations. Now that nothing is pressing him, he will focus on other things and not on meeting his obligations.
Some people find it difficult to meet their responsibilities. When they need favors from someone or want to impress someone, the might make many promises. But when the time comes to keep their obligations, they do all they can to avoid meeting them. A person with integrity will derive pleasure from meeting his responsibilities and not need others to coerce him to keep them.
This author finds R’ Pliskin’s explanation of Ibn Ezra a bit hard to understand in the context of the metzora; i.e. that it would be possible that one who was afflicted with tzara’as due to his loshen hora — slander, and did genuine teshuvah for his aveirah resulting in his purification, that such a person would avoid bringing the atonement offering to complete the teshuvah/purification process, thus continuing his slander.
But one can easily see the Ibn Ezra’s point that “teshuvah” followed by avoidance of obligations and responsibilities seems part of general human nature, as does loshen hora, and as does slander by way of complacent complicity, i.e. turning away from one’s fellow Jew’s matzav (difficulties) either on a one-to-one level, or on a national sectorial level. Whether it is the Jew who was cheated by a disreputable Jewish merchant or businessman, or the Jew who received committment for work – for a job under false pretenses, the aggrieved and battered spouse, or those who pledged teshuvah for their lack of support and actions regarding the evicted former residents of Gush Katif, but who remain equally silent regarding the possible media-publicized machinations of the government, or who would actively support a repetition of Gush Katif on a wider, larger scale — to make biblical Jewish land Yudenrein, Ibn Ezra’s point and R’ Pliskin’s explanation seem mostly well-taken.
It seems to this author that to bring real peace and unity among B’nai Yisrael, we Jews need to rise above common human nature, answer to a higher authority, and care for our fellows — V’Ahavtah L’re’icha Komocha. Only then will our collective contrition for the previous aveirot be sincere and complete.
In the ongoing Milchemtah Shel Torah, there seems to be an unwritten, unspoken Divine Command to utterly defeat and eradicate Amalek.
May our government and military bring about the total and complete, Final and Decisive victory over Hamas, their 7 October so-called “civilians(sic)” collaborators, Iran and the entire terror cabal, B’Yad Hashem, and become Totally self-sufficient as to manufacture of military equipment and aircraft, weaponry, munitions — heavy munitions, as well as showing independence of actions responding to any threat, regardless of so-called “super powers.”
May we see, from here on, that border guard personnel at all points of possible danger are listened to and treated with respect and dignity. May we see, with Operation Roaring Lions — the joint action by our Chayalim and the United States against the Mullahs of what has been the Islamic Caliphate dictatorship controlling Iran, that Islam and its barbarous terrorist tentacles of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, as well as Qatar, Turkey and Pakistan and all who seek war against the Jews be totally eradicated, both in Israel’s neighborhood, as well as internationally, B’Ezrat Hashem. May we see a government of Israel secure in it’s foremost service of, and emunah in HaKadosh Borchu, B’Ezrat Hashem! And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael. May these words come to fruition B’Ezrat Hashem.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his sixth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, the recent recovery of the remains of Tzvi Feldman as well as the recoveries of the remains of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Chodesh Tov and Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Moshe is available for editing of English language documents, articles, manuscripts and more. Please be in contact with him at olehchadash@yahoo.com for your English language needs.
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