Friday, April 1, 2011

Tazria 5771

2 comments:

  1. Dear Rabbi Blake,

    The skin disease Tzara's has nothing whatsoever to do with contagion. The disease came about because of a person's "lashon hara'a" against another person. That is to say, he tried to "separate" his listener from that 3rd party, and in measure-for-measure, therefore brought upon himself the decree to be separated from the community.

    The separation could only be decreed by a Kohain, because the Kohain is a man deeply imbued with love of fellow man, as evidenced by the blessing he makes before he blesses the Jewish people, "Blessed are You ... the Jewish people with love."

    The love of the Kohen could then via osmosis infuse the speaker of Lashon Hara'a to mend his ways.

    One interesting side note - only to prove my point that Tzara'as has nothing at all to do with contagion: The Torah makes the case of a person who suffers from Tzara'as over his entire body. Such a case, you would think is the most extreme case of the infliction - and in this VERY case, Torah tells us, surprisingly, he is CLEAN.

    Why so, when you would think otherwise?
    There are many reasons, but one is, because surely this person, so heavily afflicted, already harbored thoughts of Teshuva - rendering him pure as a result.

    Wishing you well. Have a kosher and happy Passover!

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  2. Tzara'as was also the penalty for exceeding haughtiness, as the story of the gentile Aramian General (Na'aman, I think his name was) attests to. Here too, the measure-for-measure punishment of isolation is incurred, for haughtiness assumes separation of himself beyond his community. The end of the story was, he accepted upon himself the 7 Noahide Laws and took back to his country some earth from the Holy Land, to remind him of his own earthiness, most probably.

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