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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

Portland’s Light Rail and Parshah Matot Massei

July 3, 2013 by Patrick Beaulier

PortlandTriMetMAX

In this week’s Torah portion, we’re going to talk about zoning laws!

Please, try to contain your excitement here folks.

Actually, the double portion has an enlightening series of commandment regarding how the Israelites should set up their permanent home, and frankly, it does read like an ancient zoning and mass transit “Smart Growth” plan.

Now, about light rail.

I have experience with light rail because I used to hang out in Portland, Oregon a lot. And light rail there is as important as yeast in challah. I just got used to it, and missed it when I moved to Atlanta, my current home.

I never understood why Portland was able to enact legislation for light rail when Atlanta couldn’t. Mind you, I’m not using this website to advocate for or against any issue. I’m really just curious about why Oregon could do it, but Georgia can’t. Frankly, more people benefit from light rail here than out there, and we already have an infrastructure for it.

Then I read an article about the opponents of light rail in Atlanta. Interestingly enough, the key issue was not that they were against public transit, or against the tax increase to pay for it. Rather, they didn’t trust MARTA (the transit authority) to run the new train system.

Trust is key here. Just as the Israelites trusted God, and were therefore able to build Biblical society, so must we understand that today, the only way to get anything meaningfully done is if the will of the people aligns with those in power.

Matot Massei (Circle Pit the Bimah)

Is God Blood Thirsty? (PunkTorah TV)

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Judaism & Belief, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Rants Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, online conversion, Parsha Masei, Parsha Matot, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, weekly torah portion

Parshat Va’etchanan

July 22, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

Religion, for many Jews, is a meritocracy. Where you went to college/yeshiva, what branch of Judaism ordained you, what rabbis you studied under, what level of kashrut, negiah, shabbat you keep. This is a litmus test for how-Jewishly-you-can-be-trusted. The more hardcore you are, the better, even if people think that your understanding of Judaism is bogus. At least you have the spiritual resume to back it up.

But really, is this where holiness comes from? Does a person who goes to a black hat yeshiva really cleave to G-d and the Torah more than someone who went to a community college?

Moses seems to think that our destiny is not in the shul or the centers of learning. In fact, it seems like we’re going to seek G-d from the outside.

Just read…

“And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations to where the Lord will lead you.  And there you will worship gods, man’s handiwork, wood and stone, which neither see, hear, eat, nor smell. And from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
(Deut. 4:27-31)

This doesn’t seem like a really good ad for Jewish higher learning or Israel immersion. In fact, it seems like us Diaspora people have been part of the plan all along.

I’m really turned on by the phrase, “And from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him, if you seek Him.” It doesn’t say, “from the Chabad house, you will find G-d” or “in the corporate offices of the Jewish Federations you will find G-d” or “in the house of some learned scholar of the Torah, you will find G-d.” No! It says that from a place of idol worship, of disconnection from the greater Jewish community, from a place of sin…that is where we will find G-d.

Suddenly, the Diaspora looks a little nicer.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTTbs9_a25E

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Podcasts & Videos Tagged With: d'var, darshan yeshiva, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, Parsha, parshah of the week, parshat, Parshat Va'etchanan, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Torah, torah portion of the week, vaetchanan, weekly torah portion

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