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Parshah Tazria & Itchy Skin Diseases

March 24, 2014 by Patrick Beaulier

ohgrosskid

Icky skin diseases consume most of our attention in this week’s Torah portion, but the cause and effect probably aren’t what you think.

Our parsha goes into great detail about a handful of different skin afflictions, collectively called “tzaraat,” all subject to inspection by the priests. (The theme is expanded in next week’s parsha to include similar afflictions in clothing and houses.) But while tzaraat is usually defined as “leprosy,” the details aren’t hygenic – in fact, the main consequence of tzaraat is “tumah,” being unable to bring sacrifices to the Mishkan — and this only when the tzaraat is in a state of flux (no pun intended). If you’re completely covered in it, the priest judges you “tahor” (pure/clean/) and that’s that, at least until the tzaraat begins to recede.

(When I teach this to 12-year-olds, I describe tzaraat as “spiritual cooties.” My teacher Rabbi Jack Gabriel tells me that expresses it nicely.)

Homiletically, our rabbis and sage have interpreted tzaraat as the consequence of lashon hara – otherly known as snark, gossip, trash talk – in that it makes us unfit to draw close to G?d. In light of the beginning of Genesis, when G?d created everything out of words, we see the importance our tradition places on speech (not to mention writing!).

These days, what with texting and pop-ups and the interwebs, words are a cheap commodity. It’s not always easy to see their sacredness; certainly not in the way of our Torah ancestors, for whom “closeness to God” was a spatial, rather than spiritual, concern. When words lose their sacredness, however, so do we. Snark is easy when sarcasm and creative character assassination are the coin of the media realm. But Jews don’t do things the easy way — we do them the meaningful way. For example: PunkTorah” can be re-rendered into funky Yiddish as “punkt orah” – a point of light. So let light flow from our mouths, and kindness from our words; and may these small actions help bring our banged-up world into holy and peaceful shalom.

Neal Ross Attinson teaches b’nei mitzvah students in Sonoma, California (AKA “Anatevka-among-the-vines”) and blogs at http://metaphorager.net. He feels uncomfortable without a pad and pencil.

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, D'var Tazria & Itchy Skin Diseases, darshan yeshiva, online conversion, parshahah, parshat, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, this week's torah portion

Spies, Tzitzit and the Death Penalty (Parshat Shelach Lecha)

June 14, 2011 by Patrick Beaulier

In Shelach Lecha, this week’s parshah, Moses sends twelve spies, one from each tribe, on a recon mission to the Promised Land. He wants them to find out about the lay of the land and its inhabitants. When the spies return, the first ten tell everyone that the land is “flowing with milk and honey,” just as G-d promised, but, they tell everyone that the inhabitants are fierce, possibly the descendants of giants, and that the Israelites couldn’t possibly defeat them. The spies say, “…We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Num. 13:33). The spies here give us a resounding truth: if we are not confident in ourselves, if we see ourselves “as grasshoppers,” inevitably, others will see us that way as well. It’s like Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

I think it’s useful to read this parshah with the thought in mind of the Nation of Israel being like one person. In her childhood, Israel was enslaved in Egypt. Then, G-d freed her, and brought her out of Egypt “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” In her adolescence, she travels through the desert, and grumbles and rebels against G-d, as we saw in Behaalosecha. This week, we get some of Israel’s sort of teenage angst in that she compares herself to other nations, finds herself lacking and inferior, and feels to weak and unimpressive to challenge them. So, G-d decides that Israel is still too immature to inherit the Promised Land, and gives her 40 years of wandering as an opportunity to develop the maturity and self-confidence that come with time and experience. If we now switch back to the Israel-as-a-nation view, we notice that the generation that does get to enter the Promised Land is the generation that was not born in slavery (plus Caleb and Joshua, the other two spies who gave a truthful report and who tried to bolster the Israelites’ spirits). This suggests that the generation that was enslaved in Egypt had some part of their spirit broken that cannot be repaired; they do not have the strength and confidence to be a free people.

What happens next is that Israel rebels, climbs up a mountain in an attempt to rush into the Holy Land despite the fact that G-d told them they wouldn’t enter it (still sounding very much like rebellious teenagers), and they get trounced by the Amalekites and the Canaanites, “even unto Hormah [a place of utter destruction]” (14:45). And when they are in this state, afraid, angry, sad, frustrated, burying their dead and caring for their wounded, G-d asks Moses to tell them about challah, and about tzitzit—things that their children will be commanded to do once they enter the Promised Land. I think this was G-d’s way of trying to get them to look towards the future, rather than focus on their depressing present, and to think about how their children would someday connect to G-d and live holy lives.

Just before the commandment for tzitzit (fringes), the parshah relates an episode in which a sabbath-breaker is stoned to death by the community, as commanded by G-d through Moses. Right after offering this negative example of behavior, the Torah gives us a tool to help us avoid it—fringes to remind us to fulfill the mitzvot every day. Am I uncomfortable with the idea of stoning sabbath-breakers to death? Of course! ….And I’m in good company. The Rabbis throughout the ages were constantly softening and/or effectively deleting many of the harsh death penalties laid out in Mosaic law, often by making the legal and evidential requirements for such a penalty almost impossible to meet. The thing to take away, I think, is to remember why tallitot exist: as a reminder to keep us from “going astray” (15:39). The Rabbis tell us that the blue thread (tekhelet) of the tzitzit resembles the sea, that the sea resembles the heavens, and that the heavens resemble the Throne of Glory. Every time we look at our tzitzit, or perhaps just every time we look at the sea, or into the sky, we should remember who we are, why we do what we do, and Who it was that made us that way.

Guest post by Michelle Bak.

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, death penalty judaism, individuality, online conversion, parashat, parshahah, parshat shelach lecha, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, spies, tzitzit

Parshah Nitzavim-Vayelech

September 2, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

In keeping with the fact that it’s Labor Day Weekend and everyone is ditching shul to go to the beach, let’s keep this week’s d’var brief and to-the-point.

A double portion of Torah lovin’…

Nitzavim: do good stuff and G-d will reward you. Do bad stuff, and G-d will curse you. The end.

Vayelech: Moses is about to die. He gives the keys to the Jewish people to Joshua and they bro down in a tent with G-d who tells them that the Israelites are going to stray from the Torah.

This whole thing seems like a contradiction. G-d is the King of the Universe. You think he’d have the brains to not waste His time telling the Hebrews to worship Him in Parshat Nitzavim when he knows they’re just gonna go worship idols and eat ham sandwiches over in Parshat Vayelech.

But that’s the horrible thing about being a parent. You look into your newborn’s eyes and you feel this rapture that you’ve brought this life into the world. And you don’t think to yourself, “gee, one day you’re going to be stealing my car, get busted for smoking in the school bathroom and flunk out of college because you were more interested in X-Box than Chemistry 101.”
G-d, in this week’s double portion, is like any other parent, struggling to deal with the fact that His children will, in fact, give him the middle finger…and frankly, already have.

But G-d can’t help it. When G-d looks at Creation, it’s like we’re newborns in His hands. And he can’t help but say, “don’t worry I still love you kid, I’ll give you another chance. Just be good this time, OK?” And yeah, we’re pretty lucky like that.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFHsy5Q-rQM

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Podcasts & Videos Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, Nitzavim, online conversion, Parsha, Parshah Nitzavim-Vayelech, parshahah, parshat, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, this week's torah portion, torah portion of the week, Vayelech

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