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Parsha Tazria-Metzora – Leprosy and Being Unclean

April 19, 2015 by Russell McAlmond

From reading this week’s parshas we learn about the disease of leprosy and being unclean.  The ancient disease of leprosy is always somewhat scary – even for today’s Jews.  The idea of getting this disease and the physical disfiguring that it can cause is something that all of us would rather stay away from.  We don’t hear much about leprosy today, but is there a modern lesson from these parshas regarding separation and being considered unclean?

Leprosy (or Hansen’s Disease) is still around today with approximately 200,000 chronic cases and 230,000 new cases each year.  Even the US has about 200 new cases per year.  The good news is that those numbers are significantly less than the 1980’s where there were about 5.2 million annual chronic cases – mostly in India.  Medical science has made great strides in curing and reducing the number of leprosy cases.  Over 16 million cases of leprosy have been cured over the last twenty years due to advances in research.

For modern Jews, we know that the Torah was written when there was very little knowledge of medical science.  Separating those with leprosy outside the community (which is not done today) in Biblical times may have seemed like the right thing to do, but it was not correct.  In modern times we don’t separate Jews from the community for leprosy, but we do for other forms of being “unclean.”  We separate Jews who fall in love with non-Jews as being unclean.  We separate Jews whose birth parent doesn’t come from the correct gender from other Jews.  We separate Jews who have chosen to be Jews from ‘born’ Jews.  We have many different versions of what it is to be “unclean” in our community – all of which have no more validity than any other arbitrary separation.

The modern Jew embraces all of those who identify as Jewish with equal respect.  We welcome all non-Jews to our family through marriage and give them the same respect as well.  We do not inspect your lineage or ancestors to make sure you are really ‘Jewish’ based on some ancient bloodline.  Whether paternal, maternal, by choice or simply marrying a Jew, we will not separate anyone from our community of Jews.  If you love Israel, love the Jewish people, and consider yourself part of our community – we will never separate you from us.

We welcome you into our inclusive tribe.

 

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, leprosy, online conversion, Parsha, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Tazria - Metzora, unclean

Parshah Metzorah: Lashon Hara

April 1, 2014 by Patrick Beaulier

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This week’s Torah portion, Metzorah, arrives amidst a number of Torah portions that are quite often difficult to reconcile with modern thinking.

In last week’s portion we learned about the signs of the metzora, a condition that is the result, the Torah tells us, of a spiritual malady which puts the person in a state of ritual impurity.

This week we hear how the person who is recovered from the tzaraath is cleansed by the Kohen, the priest, with an elaborate ritual involving two birds, some spring water in an earthen vessel, cedar, a red thread, and some hyssop.

When a person is declared a metzora, they are forced out of the community. They are shunned and tear their clothes like those who are in mourning. They have to call out “Impure! Impure!” to warn others to keep their distance.

We also learn this week that the affliction that can cause a person to manifest signs of metzora can also afflict a person’s clothes and even their home! This is very interesting.

And this is the message I was able to take from the portion this week:

We are told by the Sages in the Talmud that there may be many reasons for a person developing the signs of the metzora and the tzaraath is a punishment for having an evil tongue, for lashon hara, for speaking behind another’s back.

Now, whether this disease or whatever it was is a literal punishment for someone speaking behind someone else’s back is not for me to say. The Torah says what the Torah says.

However, the truth of the matter as it appears to me is that there is a strong and obvious correlation between what happens when a person engages in lashon hara and when a person is declared a metzora.

Using wrong speech, spreading gossip and being dishonest has consequences. Think about how this can be true. When (and I say when because I do it too, NO one is perfect!) I engage in lashon hara, I am doing something socially damaging. I disrupt relationships and build walls between people. It can affect my relationships, even those in my own home.

By engaging in lashon hara I can endanger my livelihood, losing my friends, and maybe even my job. What I am getting at is that a person who compulsively engages in lashon hara, well, their worldview seems to look a lot like someone who has been declared a metzora: all alone, no job, no friends, destitute.

Our actions, and even our speech have effects that we can’t comprehend. It is well within the realm of possibility to lose one’s livelihood over misspoken remarks. I ask you to be aware of those times we speak out of turn, and to remember the power that our words have, both over the lives of others, and the power that they have over our own lives, and the role of the Kohen, the role of our ability to bring healing and forgiveness and inclusion.

Written by Michael S.

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Your Questions Answered Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, d'var, darshan yeshiva, lashon hara, leprosy, metzorah, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, portion, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Torah, weekly torah portion

Parshah Tazria-Metzora: Man, That Itches!

April 8, 2013 by Patrick Beaulier

This is a family website, which means no fightin’, no cussin’, no drinkin’ and…well…you get the idea.

But sometimes the Torah doesn’t do us any favors in the censorship department. The Bible is filled with sex, violence, and in the case of Tazria-Metzora, a whole lotta bodily fluid.

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And now my friends, the part about menstrual blood!

This is a great thing. When we sanitize the Bible, we leave out the facts of life that everyone needs to know. War is a real life issue. So is puberty. And guess what: itchy rashes are a part of life, too. When we make the Bible nothing but children’s stories and fairy tales instead of life lessons, then we diminish the value of our faith.

So this week’s readings are gross. Well, life is gross. Deal with it. And on a side note, if you do believe you suffer from tzaraat, a skin disease that comes from [Read more…]

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, leprosy, leprosy bible, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, tazria, tazria metzorah, tzaraas, tzaraat

Parshat Tzaria-Metzora: Why Do We Exile People?

April 13, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmQQ76hJsTk

Why Do We Exile People?

The main event of this Torah portion is tzaraat, a mysterious skin affliction that seems to be related to spreading gossip or talking evil (lashon hara). It goes like this: you talk bad, you get some gross white and pink spots on you, and you get exiled. After you’re healed, you get to come back to the community.

The world is a scary place if you are an ancient Hebrew: you have to survive against all the elements of nature, the waring tribes around you, and for unknown reasons, the human body does sick things. How would you deal with that? How would you handle seeing the majority of children die by age ten? How would you be able to live with the knowledge that any tiny skin blemish, cough, or injury could destroy an entire community?

You would sequester: you would hide people away so that the rest of the community could be safe from whatever it is that they have.

If the Hebrews were really as “primitive” as some people think, they would have locked people up and thrown away the proverbial key. But read between the lines: a circumcised baby, a once-pregnant woman and a person with tzaraat were welcomed back with open arms, once their ritual period of removal was over.

So many physical afflictions carry stigma: physical handicaps, developmental disabilities, mental illness, AIDS and sexually transmitted infections to name a few. As a society, we tend to throw away people with these problems. Many would argue that criminality should be looked at as an illness, and people who commit crimes are locked away and have the worst problem integrating back into society.

Perhaps we need to learn something from our spiritual ancestors: yes, there is a time and place for removal. But more importantly, we need to work on bringing people back in. Who’s primitive now?

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Podcasts & Videos Tagged With: bible, Counterculture, exile, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, leprosy, metzora, Parsha, parshat, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Punk, punktorah, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rebel, Religion, skin, Torah, tzaria

Parshat Tazria!

April 20, 2009 by Patrick Beaulier

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYqSCU8TVhQ

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Podcasts & Videos Tagged With: bible, Counterculture, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, leprosy, Parsha, rebel, Religion, tazria, Torah, tzaraat

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