Pent. Lev. 12:1-13:59
Ex. 12:1-20
Two for the price of one! On this Shabbat when in the regular Torah cycle we read the portion in the Book of Leviticus that introduces the subject of skin diseases, we also read from a second scroll, announcing with great excitement the approaching new moon of Nisan, the month of our liberation from Egyptian slavery. The first portion deals with early medical practices administered by the priests of the Israelites -or, as others would have it, psycho-somatic diseases that appeared when the affected person had committed the sin of malicious gossip! Though commonly translated as leprosy, the Hebrew word ‘tzaraat’ did not mean that. In the text it occurs not only in people but in walls and objects, so modern scholars seem to think that it referred to some fungal infection that spread through the skin. Changes in physical appearance, as Shakespeare reminds us, could be scary:
Be woe for me, more wretched than he is.
What, dost thou turn away and hide thy face?
I am no loathsome leper; look on me.
-- (Henry IV part II)
Yet not only to the onlooker but the one who suffered the affliction would be troubled by this ‘not knowing’ what was going on. The priest of old served as the gatekeeper who could declare one ’tamei‘ (impure) and send away to a retreat in silence and then again welcome back: ’tahor!’ (s/he is now clean). On the priest’s word the community accepted back… or did they? Would they not hold on to some engrained prejudice, memories of the past, judgmentally blocking the new reality? Fears do run deep and looks bring associations that are only rarely justified. ’Tamei!’ we exclaim, even while not admitting it, when we profile a particular group. It sometimes seems hard to know what is real and what is paranoid when we make these distinctions. When are we acting to protect our community and when is it simply to scapegoat the ‘other’? There are no priests with the authority to end our fears by decree, to say ‘embrace’ when the gut screams ‘segregate.’ It is only from our own learning on dialogue and tolerance, from digging deep into the texts of our tradition, that we can gain a sense of reason and compassion; extinguish prejudice without letting down our guard; and learn to pronounce ’tahor‘ when others would be quick to say ’tamei‘.
Just as uncomfortable as it may be to look at someone affected by an ailment that changes physical appearance, we should be uncomfortable when we see ourselves afflicted and enslaved by the disease of the soul we call prejudice. Maybe that is the connection, this year, between the Torah portion of the week and our celebrating the month of Nisan, the month of our liberation - a call to work harder to free ourselves from our own baggage of prejudice and live in the light of those who seek redemption for we were all once slaves in Egypt.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Roberto D. Graetz
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