Passover is coming in two weeks. In an effort to reduce stress and give you a little more time to clean out your chametz, Shabbat Beineinu (musical service and dinner) is happening on April 15th. Let us (and by "us", we mean City Bakery) do the cooking.
Put the lesson of Passover into action before Passover even starts. Take care of the other. Deliver food to the elderly and homebound on April 17th.
Check out JUST JUSTICE(just for teens) event on April 16th.
Scroll down for full details and to RSVP.
This week we find ourselves in Parashat Tazria (Leviticus 12:1-13:59). It deals with some unappetizing matters using pretty graphic details. This is not the portion to read while snacking on sweet strawberries or ooey gooey babka. Definitely not the portion a young person dreams of being assigned for Bar/Bat Mitzvah studies. I would recommend having a glass of water handy.
The portion opens with the miracle of birth, focusing solely on what happens to a woman after she gives birth. So much for the miracle. There is a lot of blood and a lot of other fluids coming out of her body. If she gives birth to a boy, she must be apart from the community for 33 days. If she gives birth to a girl, 60 days. Why? It's unclear. One might say this is the first example of paid maternity leave. Go Torah!
The explanation offered, which isn't really an explanation, is that the time away (somehow) relates to the purity of blood, being clean and unclean and clean again. It's not totally clear. Any ideas?
Immediately following the after birth protocol, the Torah launches into a fairly detailed accounting of various skin lesions known as Tza'raat, most commonly translated as "leprosy". However, this is a modern contribution to understanding the text. There are many translations where the Hebrew is maintained throughout. There are a bunch of related symptoms including; mispachat, baheret, siet and neket, that are also not translated. Pretty confident that whatever they are, they ain't pretty. Perhaps none of these terms are translated in an effort to make the content more palatable(?). Another Torah mystery.
There are very specific guidelines around dealing with Tza'raat. The infected person is removed from the community, quarantined. Only the Kohen can have contact. Only the Kohen can determine when the person is no longer infected and may return to the community.
So who gets this Tza'raat? The most famous example is Miriam. This is her punishment for talking behind Moses' back. Miriam is caught engaging in lashon ha'rah ('evil tongue') and God strikes her with the white, oozing skin lesions (right about now you want to take a sip of that water). Side note: Aaron also engages in lashon ha'rah but he isn't afflicted. What's up with that? Yet another Torah mystery.
There were a lot of things that happened during the time of the Torah that wasn't understood. The body does a lot of strange things. Blood, other bodily fluids and white lesions had to have been pretty scary situations. What is the natural course of action when something is scary? Send "it" away. Get rid of "it". Put "it" somewhere where nobody has to see "it". And then when "it's" all better, "it" can come back.
As with all of Torah, we are invited to "unpack" the hidden meaning and find a lesson that is relevant to our lives today. Not so easy with this one. Here's my take away; I have read this Torah portion as an adult every year for close to 20 years and I don't have any better understanding of why a woman is cast away after giving birth or what Tza'raat is or any of the related symptoms.
I always find myself drawn to the same thing. No matter when, why or for how long a person is sent away, there is always a time when that person is fully healed. Once this happens, they are welcomed back into the community. Nobody holds "it" over their head. In this parasha, only the Kohen can judge. Only the Kohen has the ability to engage the person and only the Kohen can determine when she/he is fully healed. And everyone else, they are not judge or jury. They must accept the Kohen's ruling. When the time comes, they must welcome the person back into the community. In many ways Parashat Tazria is about forgiveness.
If only we could find a way to mirror this behavior, "dye-ei-nu"! Think about how many times someone we know has been cast out, shunned, isolated from the community for one reason or another. Think about the tremendous damage caused by gossip, speculation and sometimes pure nastiness. Think about the wounds that all of this causes and how difficult, how nearly impossible it is for someone to truly recover, truly heal from the situation. What if our role were simply to forgive?
Mekor Ha'Chayiim, Source of Life, as we move into Shabbat and make our way closer to Passover, let us begin an intentional process of reflection. Let us look inward examining our need to judge and our ability to forgive. Let us consider the wounds we have caused and those we have healed. May we arrive at Passover with a renewed commitment to honor the blessing of freedom through deeds of kindness and compassion for the other.
May Shabbat be peaceful and full of blessing.
Shabbat shalom u'mevorach,
Laurie
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