Parshat Tazria

1998

Introduction

Well, one wonders why we have nearly an entire parsha dedicated to purifying an unfortunate skin condition. No doubt any adolescent would be sympathetic, but one may safely assume that what is being dealt with here is more serious than a few zits.

The rabbis also ponder why the attention to these issues. It must be that these conditions were common enough so that the Torah needed to address them. The rabbis looked throughout the Torah in order to ascertain why might one be afflicted with the skin condition, Tzara?at.

Take a look at the following verses:

Numbers 12:1-10

1 Now Miryam spoke, and Aharon, against Moshe on account of the Cushite wife that he had taken-in-marriage, for a Cushite wife had he taken.

2 They said: Is it only, solely through Moshe that YHWH speaks? Is it not also through us that he speaks? And YHWH heard.

3 Now the man Moshe is exceedingly humble, more than any (other) human who is on the face of the earth.

4 And YHWH said suddenly to Moshe, to Aharon and to Miryam: Go out, the three of you, to the Tent of Appointment! The three of them went out.

5 And YHWH descended in a column of cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent; he called out: Aharon and Miryam! and the two of them went out.

6 He said: Pray hear my words: If there should be among-you-a-prophet of YHWH, in a vision to him I make-myself-known, in a dream I speak with him.

7 Not so my servant Moshe: in all my house, trusted is he;

8 mouth to mouth I speak with him, in-plain-sight, not in riddles, and the form of YHWH (is what) he beholds. So why were you not too awestruck to speak against my servant, against Moshe?

9 The anger of YHWH flared up against them, and he went off.

10 When the cloud turned away from above the Tent, here: Miryam has tzara?at ( a skin contion) like snow! When Aharon faced Miryam, here: she has tzara?at!

YOUR CHUMASH NAVIGATOR

1. What was the reason Miryam was stricken?

2. Was the claim against Moshe addressed?

3. Did it matter at all that what she was saying was true?

4. Why isn?t she and Aharon entitled to their opinion?

The rabbis saw that tzara?at was the result of malicious speech. When they spoke on this parsha, Rabbi Jannai recounts the following story:

THIS SHALL BE THE LAW OF THE Metzora. This is alluded to in what is written, Who is the man that desires life (Psalms. 34:13). It is like a peddler who used to go round the towns in the vicinity of Sepphoris, crying out: ' Who wishes to buy the elixir of life?? and drawing great crowds round him. Rabbi Jannai was sitting and expounding in his room and heard him calling out: ?Who desires the elixir of life?? He said to him: ?Come here, and sell me it.? The peddler said: ' Neither you nor people like you require that [which I have to sell].? The Rabbi pressed him, and the peddler went up to him and brought out the Book of Psalms and showed him the passage, ? Who is the man that desires life.?

What is written [immediately] thereafter?--Keep your tongue from evil, depart from evil and do good. Rabbi Jannai said: Solomon, too, proclaims, Whomever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles (Proverbs 21:23). Rabbi Jannai said: All my life have I been reading this passage, but did not know how it was to be explained, until this hawker came and made it clear, ? Who is the man that desires life...? Keep your tongue from evil, etc.? It is for the same reason that Moses addressed a warning to Israel, saying to them, THIS SHALL BE THE LAW OF THE MEZORA, MeTZoRA is an acronym for MoTZi shem RA (one who sullies the reputation of another.)

YOUR MIDRASH NAVIGATOR

1. What is the peddler doing? Is he trying to trick people?

2. Why does he refuse to sell to Rabbi Jannai?

3. Why does Rabbi Jannai insist that he sell it to him?

4. Do you think the peddler realizes that he is selling something of value, or is it a trick?

5. Is Rabbi Jannai happy with what he has been sold?

6. Why?

A malicious tongue creates a hideous result for everyone to see. Lashing out toward others will only bring scars to one?s self. The rabbis sees the maker of malicious slander as the most wretched of people, and yet there seems to be an awareness that it is common for many, maybe most?even the best of us, to become one who maligns others. So it is necessary to have a ritual which separates us from the camp until we have control and can rejoin our community as a supportive constructive member.

Take a look at the next midrash which talks about Abraham as he is about to survey the land of Israel for the first time:

R. Berekiah began: Your ointments have a goodly fragrance (Song of Songs I, 3). Said R. Berekiah: What did Abraham resemble? A vial of myrrh closed with a tight- fitting lid and lying in a corner, so that its fragrance was not disseminated; as soon as it was taken up, however, its fragrance was disseminated. Similarly, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham: ?Travel from place to place, and your name will become great in the world?: Thus the verse says: Go forth from your land."

Abraham spreads the fragrance of benevolence, compassion and good speech throughout the land, and his name is made great by virtue of his goodness. He is the example of how a holy people should behave when travelling the sacred space of Eretz Yisrael. It is that fragrance we, as Jews are mandated to internalize, and as we bless each other on Medinat Yisrael?s 50th year, let us use this opportunity to speak well of each other and make the land as fragrant as when Abraham first surveyed her borders.

Prepared by Rabbi Avi Weinstein.