The pasuk states: “When you come to the Land of Canaan that I will give to you as an inheritance, I will place a tzara’at affliction on a house in the land of your inheritance” (Vayikra, 14:34).
Rashi explains that this “affliction” is really a blessing. Citing a Talmudic text, he writes:
This was a promise of blessing to them that these plagues would come upon them (Sifra, Metzora, Section 5 4; Horayot 10a), because the Amorites concealed treasures of gold in the walls of their houses during the whole 40 years the Israelites were in the wilderness [in order to hide them from the conquering Israelites], and in consequence of the plague they would pull down the house and discover them” (Rashi, 14:34).
The Rebbe Reb Bunim used to tell his chassidim the following story about the holy Jew, Reb Isaac ben Yakil of Cracow.
Reb Isaac was very, very poor. He never knew where his next meal would come. He and his wife always made do with the little that they had and their faith in Hashem never wavered.
One night he dreamed that there was a treasure buried under a small bridge in Prague. Reb Isaac took this dream to be a sign from Hashem, and he immediately sold whatever he could in order to buy a ticket to Prague.
It was a very hard journey, but he finally made it to the bridge in Prague that he had dreamed about.
Reb Isaac didn’t want to start digging during the day because he didn’t want to share his treasure with other people, so he waited till nightfall. When it was completely dark he started to dig. After much strenuous labor he found nothing whatsoever. All his efforts were for nothing. He had wasted time and money and he found no gold. He broke down and started to cry. As he was crying a policeman noticed him and asked what was wrong. Reb Isaac replied that he had just spent all his money to follow a dream and find gold under the bridge but there was nothing to show for it. Just an empty hole with no gold. The policeman started to laugh. He said, “I also had a dream where I found gold. But my gold was buried under the stove of a man named Reb Isaac who lives in Cracow. You don’t see me running off to Cracow to find Reb Isaac?”
Reb Isaac understood this to be a message. He ran home and looked under his stove and sure enough there was gold under his stove.
The traditional haftora for Tazria tells the story of Aramean general, Na’aman who was afflicted with the biblical condition of tzara’at—a skin disease. Na’aman was unable to find a cure for his condition, so out of desperation he went to the prophet, Elisha, and asked him for advice.
Elisha did not even leave his house to speak to Na’aman. Instead, he sent a message to him and told Na’aman: Go and immerse yourself seven times in the Jordan River and your skin will be restored to you and you will be cured” (2 Kings, 5:10).
Na’aman was very upset at this suggestion. Na’aman had expected to come outside of his house and act like a holy shaman—“to go out and examine him, to pronounce the name of Hashem, to wave his hands over the skin disease, and then cure the condition” (2 Kings, 5:11).
Na’aman said I know of much better rivers than the Jordan River. Indeed, “the Parpar Rivers of Damascus are better than all the rivers of Israel” (2 Kings, 5:12).
In the end, Na’aman’s servants prevailed upon him that since there was nothing to lose, he should at least give Elisha’s suggestion a chance. “So he went down and immersed himself in the Jordan River seven times, according to the word of the man of Gd, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was rid of the tzara’at” (2 Kings 5:14).
Do you have any good stories for an upcoming parasha? Please email me rabbishmuel@ostns.org
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Ears, Fingers, Blood and Toes
Background:
This week we read a double parsha, Tazria-Metzora. Most of this parsha is devoted to the laws of tzara’at, a mysterious physical/spiritual condition that causes discoloration of the skin. Tzara’at is mysterious because we don’t know what it was or what caused people to get it. We don’t know what it was because the symptoms do not definitely correlate with any known medical conditions. We don’t know what caused it because the Torah doesn’t tell us!
There was an elaborate process for someone to be both diagnosed with tzara’at and later purified from it. If someone was found to have tzara’at, they had to leave the camp until their condition had healed. It seems like it would have been really difficult emotionally to have tzara’at. For that reason, a lot of the rabbis believe that tzara’at was a punishment a person would receive for speaking lashon hara, or saying something bad about someone else.
Chapter 14 describes the purification process. As verses 14 and 17 explain, part of this process involved the kohen taking blood from the korbanot the metzorah had to bring, and putting that blood on the metzorah’s right ear, right thumb, and right big toe. The kohen then did the same thing with some oil. This seems like a pretty strange thing to do!
Because this seems odd, some of the rabbis read it symbolically. The Alshich explains that these three body parts correspond to the actions that result from speaking lashon hara. When someone (let’s call him Reuven) speaks lashon hara to another person (let’s call her Rivkah) Reuven’s words enter Rivkah’s ear. Then, Rivkah will be so upset to hear about the person Reuven is discussing that she will use her hands to kill that person. Finally, the dead person’s family will seek to avenge their blood, and run on their feet to kill Rivkah. And that is why the kohen puts the blood on the metzorah’s ear, thumb, and toe - because when you speak lashon hara, it involves all 3 of those body parts.
Questions:
- What is your reaction to the Alshich’s explanation? Why?
- Not everyone agrees that tzara’at is caused by speaking lashon hara. A few rabbis think it was just something that happened, without a particular reason. How do you think they might explain why the blood and oil go on the ear, thumb, and big toe?
Download a printable version here
When I was a young child, my mother told me something I’ll never forget. “Be kind to others,” she said, “or else God will afflict you with a chronic, progressive bacterial infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. It primarily affects the nerves of the extremities, the skin, the lining of the nose, and the upper respiratory tract. Leprosy produces skin ulcers, nerve damage, and muscle weakness. If it isn’t treated, it can cause severe disfigurement and significant disability.”
It put me on the right track. Darn good parenting. Is it just me, or does reading parshas about diseases with unknown origins that afflict people in different ways, that spreads in unknown ways, and causes extended periods of isolation for those possibly inflicted, seem a bit redundant? Well, when the parsha gives you leprosy, invite someone to lead Tot Shabbat in your place. This shabbos, in the second installment of Ohev’s ongoing series, Not My Job to Explain My Job to Three Year Olds, we will welcome Dr. Andrew Dauber to teach the kids about germs, infections, and what they can do to stay safe. We’ll ask Dr. Dauber the tough questions such as, “Are cooties real?”, “Do kids still say cooties?”, “Do kids accuse others of having cooties in order to mask their true feelings?” Get ready, Dr. Dauber!
Yoni
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