Articles with the tag: tazria

G-d Is Life & Life Is a Miracle

Biblical laws are not always easy to stomach, intellectually that is. Some are even difficult to swallow: they just don’t make sense to the modern mind. This certainly applies to the third Book of the Torah, Leviticus, which is replete with graphic rituals for animal sacrifices. But even within the third Book itself, two sections,  Tazria and Metzora almost sound like ancient hocus-pocus. These two readings detail the conditions of a leprosy-like malady that affected one’s skin, clothes, and even the walls of one’s house.

This spiritual ailment was caused by the conflict between the Divine soul and the physical body in which it was trapped. Throughout history there have been two distinct and opposing ways of confronting this discord:...

Continue reading G-d Is Life & Life Is a Miracle

Speak…but to Yourself (13:46)

When I was a Yeshiva student, somewhere in the era we now call B.C., Before Chasuna (Chasuna means wedding), we were inculcated with the, “lifestyles of the humble and the pious.” Please do not confuse this with the “lifestyles of the rich and the famous.” Among the former were such greats as Reb Issac Homler, the Rashbatz, Groinem and Itche the Masmid. While they all lived in different times and swore allegiance to distinct Rebbes, there was a common thread that bound them all. Their ability to sit for hours alone, meditating and internalizing the teachings of Chassidus until those values became part and parcel of their core personality. In Chassidic lexicon we refer to this as Hisboid’dus. 

So while…

Continue reading Speak…but to Yourself (13:46)

Obviously Someone Needs a Nose Job (13:3)

There’s an old Jewish saying - maybe an hour old -  “Of course, he can’t see anything in front of his nose. With a beak like that, it’s a wonder he sees at all.”

Actually, this thought first occurred to me last week at the Shabbat table. One of the guests was explaining the complex process of how the images we see are transferred specifically to the back of the eye. He subsequently raised the question,  “Why then doesn’t the back of the eye see the front of the eye?”

This point is strikingly similar to this week’s Biblical portion that deals with the disease of Tzora’as, commonly misinterpreted as leprosy. Actually, tzora’as was an affliction unlike any other physical…

Continue reading Obviously Someone Needs a Nose Job (13:3)

The Covenant of Love (12:3)

This week’s reading begins with the command that has forever been a distinguishing mark of Jewish identity, circumcision. The traditional name for this act is brit milah, literally, “The covenant of circumcision.” It is the only command that explicitly binds the Jew to G-d. Clearly this mitzvah carries immense significance. More importantly, it is less a state of doing than a state of being.

That circumcision, for males, is the primary way in which Jews enter into the Mosaic covenant was already apparent, even to others, in the days of the Patriarchs. Recall the episode in which the prince Shechem abducts and rapes Jacob’s daughter. Dina’s brothers respond,  “We can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised….

Continue reading The Covenant of Love (12:3)

The Perfect Rose (12:2)

That the Torah is not some pristine, lily-white document that shies away from the more animalistic nature of man is well documented. Beginning already in Genesis, we come across fratricide, incest, mass executions, adultery, and a host of other undesirable characters and their moral lapses. Simply put, the Holy Scriptures are not for the squeamish or the prudes among us. It deals with life with all of its glory, and at the same time, all of its gore.

A corollary of this Torah attitude is the willingness to set forth mitzvot (commandments) whose purpose is to sublimate the physical drives of man. A case in point is the laws of kosher that appear in last week’s Biblical portion. Eating, as…

Continue reading The Perfect Rose (12:2)

Wherein Lies the Greatness (12:2)

The titles of the weekly Torah portions are not merely labels to differentiate one portion from the next. Each title written in Hebrew, the holy language, clues us in to the essential theme of the Parsha (Biblical section). It is then surprising to discover that the name of this week’s Biblical section is Tazria and not Isha.

Let me explain. The opening verse usually provides the title word. The first sentence this week is,  “If a woman (Isha) conceives (Tazria) and bears a child…”  Now, if we were to compare the contrast between the Biblical chapters of this week versus last week, we would realize that they both deal with the laws of purity. However, the previous week the subject…

Continue reading Wherein Lies the Greatness (12:2)

Nature Vs. Nurture

Counting Up and Down: Nature vs. Nurture

Why, in the counting of the Omer do we move down instead of up? Why do we move from chesed of chesed down to malchus of malchus? Why not move up from malchus to chesed and then finally to the 50th Gate,  bina?
On the second day of Pesach, a special offering was brought, the Omer. Until then, the new grain crop was forbidden. The Omer was harvested amidst much fanfare. Briefly: On the day before Pesach, agents of the court would go out to a barley field near Jerusalem and tie together fistfuls of barley stalks. At the end of the first day of Pesach, inhabitants of all nearby towns would assemble….

Continue reading Nature Vs. Nurture

Speak, but to Yourself

When I was a Yeshiva student, somewhere in the era we now call B.C.,  Before Chasuna (Chasuna means wedding), we were inculcated with the “lifestyles of the humble and the pious.” Please do not confuse this with the “lifestyles of the rich and the famous”.

Among the former were such greats as Reb Issac Homler, the Rashbatz, Groinem and Itche the Masmid. While they all lived in different times and swore alliegance to distinct Rebbes, there was a common thread that bound them all.  Their ability to sit for hours alone, meditating and internalizing the teachings of Chassidus until those values became part and parcel of their core personality. In Chassidic lexicon we refer to this as Hisboid’dus.

So while…

Continue reading Speak, but to Yourself

The Peddler’s Message

Once upon a time, says the Midrash, a traveling medicine salesman arrived in Tzipori. “Who would like to purchase the potion of life?” he called out. One of the Sages, Rav Yannai replied, “Bring your bag here and sell me some!”  The salesman looked dubiously at this unlikely customer and declared, “You don’t need it. Neither you nor those like you.”

Undaunted, the Rabbi pressed further until the salesman brought out a book of Psalms. Opening the Book to chapter 34, he read, “Who is the man who desires life, who loves days, to see good?” Then the salesman pointed to the next verse which answers the Psalmist’s question “Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking falsehood…”...

Continue reading The Peddler’s Message

The Swallow, the Taste

For as long as men and women have been being born, they’ve had birthdays. Birthday parties are not that ancient, but they do go back at least 3,500 years (the book of Genesis mentions a banquet in honor of a Pharaoh’s birthday back in 1534 BCE). The interesting thing about birthday celebrations is that, for much of our history, they were not in vogue.

This is not to say that there are no sources in Torah for the concept of a birthday. The Talmud speaks of the specialty of a person’s date of birth as a time of empowerment and opportunity for him or her. One of the most important days of the Jewish year is Rosh Hashanah which commemorates…

Continue reading The Swallow, the Taste

The Perfect Rose

(NOT APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN)

That the Torah is not some pristine, lily-white document that shies away from the more animalistic nature of man is well documented. Beginning already in Genesis, we come across fratricide, incest, mass executions, adultery and a host of other undesirable characters and their moral lapses. Simply put, the Holy Scriptures are not for the squeamish or the prudes among us. It deals with life with all of its glory, and at the same time, all of its gore.

A corollary of this Torah attitude is the willingness to set forth mitzvot (commandments) whose purpose is to sublimate the physical drives of man. A case in point is the laws of kosher that appear in last week’s…

Continue reading The Perfect Rose

Obviously, Someone Needs a Nose Job

There’s an old Jewish saying - maybe an hour old - “Of course, he can’t see anything in front of his nose. With a beak like that, it’s a wonder he sees at all.”

Actually, this thought first occurred to me last week at the Shabbat table. One of the guests was explaining the complex process of how the images we see are transferred specifically to the back of the eye. He subsequently raised the question, “Why then doesn’t the back of the eye see the front of the eye?”

Herein lies a point of similarity to this week’s Biblical portion that deals with the disease of Tzora’as, commonly misinterpreted as leprosy. Actually, tzora’as was an affliction unlike any other…

Continue reading Obviously, Someone Needs a Nose Job

Wherein Lies the Greatness

The titles of the weekly Torah portions are not merely labels to differentiate one portion from the next. Each title written in Hebrew, the holy language, clues us in to the essential theme of the Parsha. It is then surprising to discover that the name of this week’s Biblical section is Tazria and not Isha.

Let me explain. The opening verse usually provides the title word.  The first sentence this week is,  “If a woman (Isha) conceives (Tazria) and bears a child…” Now, if we were to compare the contrast between the Biblical chapters of this week versus last week, we would realize that they both deal with the laws of purity. However, the previous week the subject was the…

Continue reading Wherein Lies the Greatness

Candle Power

Try to imagine living in G-d’s presence. A world where bread rains down from your heavens, water flows from a traveling rock, your local sanctuary produces miracles on a daily basis, and Divine punishment and reward are something are something you wittness rather than just believe in. This fantasy state, in fact, did once exist. It occured during the infancy of the Jewish people while they were still living in the desert.

This week’s Torah portion even tells us of a leprous-like malady that afflicted a person with specific spiritual failings. The ritual impurity resulting from this Tzaraas affected not only the individual but also the dwelling in which he found himself.

If such a person entered another’s home without…

Continue reading Candle Power

The Covenant

his week’s reading begins with the command that has forever been a distinguishing mark of Jewish identity, circumcision. The traditional name for this act is brit milah, literally, “the covenant of circumcision.” It is the only command that explicitly binds the Jew to G-d. Clearly this mitzvah which carries immense significance, is less a state of doing than a state of being.

That circumcision, for males, is the primary way in which Jews enter into the Mosaic covenant was already apparent, even to others, in the days of the Patriarchs. Recall the episode in which the prince Shechem abducts and rapes Jacob’s daughter. Dina’s brothers respond, “We can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would…

Continue reading The Covenant