Parshat Tazria

Tzara'a – a Physical or Spiritual disease

This week's parsha deals with an issue which does not seem to be relevant to our modern lives – tzara'at – often translated as leprosy, though the symptoms described in the Torah bare little resemblance to Hansen's disease.

The Torah goes into to great detail describing the symptoms, quarantining the patient from others and the procedure of purification. Indeed, when the patient was in the vicinity of others, he had to call out "unclean, unclean" (VaYikra 13:45)

The assumption to be drawn from here is that in the ancient world, tzara'at was a common highly contagious disease. Nevertheless, the abbis contend that this illness was a physical illness that was inflicted by God as result of sin. How do they come to this conclusion?

Torah brings us two episodes of people with tza'rat:

The first person was Moshe: "put your hand into your bosom," and he put his hand into his bosom, and he took it out, and behold, his hand was leprous like snow" (Shemot 4:6).

The second was his sister, Miriam: "The cloud departed from above the Tent, and behold, Miriam was afflicted with tzara'at, [as white] as snow" (Bemidbar 10).

Both the illnesses were inflicted as resulted of speaking the ill of others, Moshe claimed that Israel would not believe Israel him when he promised them freedom form slavery (see Rashi on Shemot 4:6), while Miriam had spoken ill of Moshe and his wife.

Therefore, even though the illness had a physical manifestation, its origins lay in sin.

Last year's Sedra Short on Parshat Tazria, entitled: "Seven Followed by Eight" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

Another Sedra Short on Parshat Tazria, entitled: "The Sin-Offering of the Mother" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html

Parshat VaYakhel-Pekudei

Raising the Cash

The children of Israel begin and complete the building of the Mishakan in this week's parsha.

However, before they built it, they needed the raw materials that would become the Mishkan. Therefore at the outset, Moshe makes a call for donations: "Take from yourselves an offering for the Lord; every generous hearted person shall bring it" (Shemot 35:5).

The people were so generous that Moshe was told that "the people are bringing very much, more than is enough for the labor of the articles which the Lord had commanded to do" (ibid 36:5) and so Moshe calls them to stop bringing things.

This type of donation is in contradistinction to what the Torah had called for in last week's parsha: "everyone who goes through the counting shall give half a shekel…The rich shall give no more, and the poor shall give no less than half a shekel (ibid 30:13-13).

In our parsha each person could give how much or how little they wanted to do, while in the previous parsha, there was no choice; each person was required to give the same amount.

We find a similar thing in the next two parshiyot. Sefer VaYikra begins by describing the different sacrifices a person could bring should they feel the urge to sacrifice – the whole parsha is described in a voluntary manner. While the following parsha, Tzav, describes obligatory sacrifices.

What is the Torah trying to teach by describing voluntary and obligatory features in the same aspects of worship?

These two features recognize the reality of the human spirit. There are times when we feel deep religious conviction and do not need any prompting in our worship or in our desire to give, while at other times we need prompting and direction, as we do not always feel the urge.

The same rules regulate our prayers. Jews are required to pray three times a day, whether or not they feel the urge to pray. At the same time one can pray at any time of any day for any reason.

We recognize that we need regulation in our lives. Our spiritual yearnings cause us to codify our religion, and yet that codification automatically stunts our desire and often even removes the spiritual urge.

The challenge is to find the medium, to somehow bring spirituality into our regulations, to treat our obligatory duties as if they were voluntary.

Last years' Sedra Short on Parshat VaYakhel-Pekudei, entitled: "The Builders of the Mishkan" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html.