Parshas Acharei- Mos/Kedoshim – Holy Closed Circuit

You might have heard, here or there, that a big part of Jewish life is to be holy. Are you there? Yeah, me neither. The fact is that most of us must, must think of passages with commandments for being holy as sources of inspiration and aspiration. I am inspired to aspire to holiness. I want it, and, more than that, I want to want it even more. The ever-prevailing question, however, is how do I truly attain it?

 Talking about holiness is not new, and Parshas Acharei- Mos/Kedoshim is particularly well known for the conversation, for the repetitive instruction to be holy for Hashem is holy. The final such statement, in the penultimate pasuk, has, however, a slightly different tone to it: “And you all shall be to me holy-ones, for holy am I, Hashem; and I have set you apart from the nations to be for Me” (Vayikra 20:26).

 This isn’t the typical commandment to be holy. This is an existential statement about the Jewish nation. You are holy and you are separate from the nations and you are claimed. You, as a nation, cannot be any other way – people may fall away from the nation, but the nation will always be a holy core that is irrevocably attached to Hashem. It is almost like a closed circuit in which one thing leads to another that leads back to the beginning so that all must perpetually exist together. Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsh says: “God has breathed in us with the breath of life emanating from His holy being. This breath of God's holy nature is the cause of our ability to be holy, and the reason for our duty to be holy is against the holiness of God, to Whom we belong, Who has given us the command to be holy; and who only recognizes us being His as long as we do not deny our belonging to Him, but show it by striving to attain holiness.” 

Being holy isn’t easy. It’s about action, and thought, and motivation. It’s about understanding that being set apart from the nations is because in order to be what Hashem needs us to be, we have to be different. We have to have a unique identity as those who are striving to make the ultimate connection, which is not an easy job – and you’re welcome, nations of the world. We know this is not an easy job because this verse comes after a long string of commandments that show us how striving to be holy, to follow Torah, comes into every walk of life – whether that be eating or hiring employees or etc.

It should be noted that Rav Hirsh does not highlight Jewish exclusivity. In fact, quite the opposite, he says on this pasuk: “It is as one who first picks out the best from the lesser good and then goes on an on picking out the good ones; but one who picks the bad out of the good, throws the bad away, and has nothing more to do with them.” So that in no wise does Jewish thought look on the choice of Israel as a rejection of the rest of humanity. It regards the choice of Israel only as a beginning, only the restarting of the spiritual and moral rebuilding of mankind, only the first step to that future where many nations will attach themselves to God, and become His people, and Israel's sanctuary will not only be the central heart of Israel but the centre of mankind who will have found their way to God.”

 Being holy requires separation, but we can never forget our deeper mission, which is to be a light unto the nations to bring them to see Hashem in the world. They won’t always like us. They might often hate us. But Hashem made a promise, and it has remained true, that there is a Jewish nation that holds fast and strives with all of their might to give themselves to Hashem, to live truly holy lives – mind, body, and soul.

 Right now, in the 21^st century, we have many enemies among the nation longing to pull us away, knock us down, and even make us disappear. They will not succeed, and if we want to be part of the reason why, we must act – inside and out – in the path of Hashem.

 

Parshas Tazria- Metzorah – What is the Contagion?

When most people write about or discuss this week’s parsha, Tazriah/Metzorah, they immediately make it clear that the affliction most-often translated as leprosy is a spiritual affliction and not the unfortunate disease carried by the Mycobacterium leprae bacteria. Because of its sever physical manifestation, leprosy was, for most of history, a disease for which people were shunned – which makes it understandable why the disease symptoms described in parsha for which people were sent out the camp was so named. But everything in our mesorah makes it clear that the various types of tzaraas have nothing to do with bacteria or viruses.

 

One might, however, stop and wonder about Vayikra 13:45: ‘“As for the person with an affliction: their clothes shall be rent, their head shall be left bare, and their upper lip shall be covered over; and they shall call out, ‘Impure! Impure!’” Why is the matzroa covering his upper lip? Many answers are given, but the Ibn Ezra notes “He shall cover his upper lip so that he does not harm anyone with the breath of his mouth.”  Was there some sort of contagion to Tzaraas if it was a spiritual affliction?

 

Furthermore, it is most puzzling that the one who is suffering for having spread loshen hara is now meant to walk about shouting “Impure.” We know that lashon hara, gossip and rumors, are toxic particularly because they end up embarrassing someone and thus, from a theological construct, murdering them. So why does Hashem put the matzora in a position to embarrass himself unless he truly is a danger to someone else?

 

Let us take a step back and contemplate what brings a person to a state of a tzaraas affliction. Lashon hara – and lashon hara is generally the result of jealousy. To get to the point of a matzora, not just one with a suspicion of tzaraas, but truly stricken, one must have had a rather decent amount of ill-will.

 

The discussion of the matzora easily makes it seem that one who discovered themselves in this situation went out from the camp, did teshuva, and returned home. But sometimes it took longer than the set amount of days. Sometimes the Kohain declared that the matzora was not yet cured… It was not just that his physical affliction still remained. It was that the negative energy was still eating away at his soul. He was still jealous.

 

Perhaps when this matzora calls out that he is unclean, he is alerting anyone who nears him that he still has an urge to speak lashon hara. The dangerous element that the Ibn Ezra refers to is not germs as we think of them today, but the miasma of negativity, the inclination to feel that this situation in which he or she finds themselves is, perhaps, not really their fault or their responsibility.

 

Until the matzora does true teshuva, the matzora cannot be healed. True teshuva is not only repenting from the lashon hara and fortifying oneself not to do so again, but really, in one’s heart of heart, recognizing why it was done and letting go of what ever pain led the person down that road in the first place.

 

There is a pithy statement that acknowledging a problem is half the battle. Perhaps in the commandment that the matzora call out that he is unclean is the cure to that fact itself. Hashem understands human nature – obviously – and this is the manner is which a person can learn to face the truth of his/her own doing.

 

We don’t have tzaraas today, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to work to take responsibility for our thoughts and feelings. In truth, however, it just means that it is a lot harder to do so.

 

Wishing you all a beautiful Shabbas and hatzlacha on the journey of self-improvement that is living Torah.