Parashiyot Tazria and Metzora (Leviticus 12:1 - 15:33)

by Rabbi Janet Burden of Ealing Liberal Synagogue and West Central Liberal Synagogue

Summary

The portions  both deal primarily with the laws of tzara’at, a plague of leprosy:  leprosy of skin, of garments and even of houses.

Commentary

With this reading coming so soon after Pesach, part of me wants to say, “Enough with the plagues already!”  Wouldn’t you think that after all the Israelites had been through, God with give them a bit of respite?  But no.  Despite the fact that they were supposed to be blessed in the land that God was giving them, the Leviticus text still states quite clearly that some individuals were going to suffer.  Why? Our ancestors believed that all sufferings are the direct result of our sins, punishments sent from God.  Fortunately, we are no longer trapped by this primitive understanding of cause and effect.  If my flat gets rising damp, I know that the likely cause of it will be something structural in the building – not my personal moral turpitude.

This is not to say, however, that we should become complacent and assume that the cause of everything negative that happens lies outside of us. That is the danger inherent in abandoning a system (however wrong-headed it may be) that encouraged self-reflection in response to personal suffering.  Sometimes we don’t see the causal relationships that do exist.  Sometimes we are responsible for the plagues that infect both our personal lives and our society.  If we eat badly and don’t exercise, we are likely to get ill.  If we live in a society that tolerates racism, we are likely to suffer from outbursts of violence, and so on.  

These kind of personal and social ills I think we should treat precisely like the prescription for dealing with the tzaraat of buildings. We need to identify the cause, isolate the problem and then work to eradicate it.  Sometimes that might mean tearing down certain structures in our thinking and rebuilding them afresh.  Sometimes, even if our intentions have been good, we need to reassess the effects of our choices and our actions.  We need to be willing to be appropriately self-critical:  not blaming ourselves for things that are not of our making – but willing always to accept responsibility for when we’ve gotten it wrong, and work to try to put it right.  And we need to do this on the personal level, the communal level and on up through the ever-expanding circles that form the complex realities of our lives. 

Rabbi Janet Burden

Ealing Liberal Synagogue &

West Central Liberal Synagogue