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Parsha Perspectives

by RABBI ELAZAR MEISELS

זאת תהיה תורת המצרע ביום טהרתו והובא אל הכהן

“This shall be the law regarding the person with tzaraas, on the day of his purification he shall be brought to the kohen.” (Levitikus 14:2)

Parshas Tazria and Metzora discuss the laws of various forms of tumah [spiritual defilement] that result from an assortment of discolorations of the body, clothing, or one’s home, as well as from bodily certain discharges. Removing the impurity is not always a simple matter. A long series of processes must be implemented before the metzora can become purified, and not always is success on the first try guaranteed. Many weeks can sometimes pass and many attempts may need to be made before the Kohen can declare the afflicted party free of the spiritual malaise.

Though we know that these impurities are spiritual and not subject to the laws of nature, one cannot help but wonder why it is so difficult to remove them. As they are hardly visible to the human eye, why does it require this extensive effort to purify oneself?

This question troubled me for a long time until the following story was brought to my attention by Mr. Sam Tucker, whose company supplies precious metals to its customers. The precious metals he sells are not the typical gold, silver, or platinum. His are ultra-refined metals that are valued far in excess of the aforementioned varieties. His client list is largely drawn from the U.S. military which requires these metals for top-secret projects, NASA, and assorted others involved in specialized research. A single item can run in excess of $250,000 and he needs only a few orders each year to maintain profitability. The primary expense lies in refining the metal to such a degree that no amount of impurity can be detected. Thus, special procedures are implemented to ensure such purity and under no circumstances may anyone in his employ override the required protocol.

Usually, all goes well and the orders are delivered without a hitch – but there was one time when things went terribly awry. During one of our study sessions, I discovered that disaster had struck. One of his workers, a highly-trained employee, accidentally allowed the tip of one of his fingers to come in contact with the two-inch strip of metal that was being prepared for a client. This was an emergency and Sam knew it. Immediately, he rented out a special lab and hired an expert in removing all traces of impurity. The expert toiled at his job for two weeks attempting to remove any traces of human contact. Special chemicals and equipment were required for this task and throughout, Sam knew no rest. The total bill for the repair was $57,000!

He was finally assured that all was well and that the product was ready to be delivered to the client. Unwilling to risk shipping it via a third party, Sam hand-delivered the item to his client in Washington and returned home with an assurance that payment would be following shortly, as soon as the product cleared quality control. When two weeks passed and payment was still not forthcoming, he phoned his client to inquire about the delay. The response he received was, “Oh, Mr. Tucker, we’re sorry to inform you that we are still unable to forward payment. It seems that quality control detected a slight trace of human contamination and we’re unsure whether this item will still be acceptable for our purposes.” It took another few weeks of agonizing and lost sleep before quality control decided to accept the metal and forward payment.

If incidental human contact that lasted less than a single second required such superhuman intervention to be removed, it should come as no surprise to us that spiritual contamination, too, cannot so easily be removed. The neshamah [Jewish soul] is a highly precious entity that must maintain an elevated degree of purity in order to achieve maximum effectiveness. The slightest sin stains it enormously, and only through intensive cleansing can it truly be removed.

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Parsha Talking Points

by RABBI ELAZAR MEISELS

1. COLOR-BLIND

“And if there shall be a tzaraas affliction in a garment, in a woolen or linen garment.” 13:47

Woolen or linen garment – All garments or useful implements of these materials including curtains and tablecloths, can become contaminated. – Maimonides, Tumas Tzaraas, 13:8

Woolen or linen garment – Our sages taught that only the wool of a kosher animal can become contaminated by tzaraas (a spiritual condition with physical manifestations often mistranslated as leprosy). A mixed garment follows the majority of the wool. – Rabbeinu Bachya

Tzaraas affliction in a garment – Only a natural colored garment can be contaminated with tzaraas discoloration. A dyed garment cannot become contaminated. – Toras Kohanim

Sforno explains that afflictions of the garments are an unnatural phenomena and not a result of any physical defect in the garment. Their occurrence was limited to a time in our history when we, the Jewish nation, were in perfect accord with the Almighty and were fitting hosts to His Divine Presence. When an individual sinned and displayed contempt for the Divine Presence, the Almighty would signal this by afflicting his garments with unsightly discolorations. Nachmanides adds that this is the reason that only an un-dyed garment could be afflicted. A discoloration on a dyed garment would quickly be dismissed as a defect in the dying process and the signal would be missed. Unfortunately, concludes Sforno, once the generations deteriorated and this was no longer an effective means of communicating with the people, the Almighty discontinued this practice and today there are even people who deny that it ever existed.

2. RECLAMATION PROJECT

“This shall be the law of the Metzora on the day of his purification…The Kohen shall go forth to the outside of the camp; the Kohen shall look and behold the tzaraas affliction has been healed from the afflicted. The Kohen shall command and for the person being purified there shall be taken two live clean birds, cedar wood, crimson thread, and hyssop.” 14:2-4

The Kohen shall go forth to the outside of the camp – Why does the Kohen have to go to the Metzora if he is already clean of the tzaraas? This teaches us how to accept a penitent. Instead of vilifying him for his past sins, or allowing his reputation to be tarnished, the Torah makes it possible for him to reclaim his good name. Once he has purified himself, instead of asking him to go to the Kohen, the Torah insists that the Kohen go outside all three camps and visit him. This will cause a public outcry as people wonder why the holy Kohen is leaving the encampment and word will spread that so-and-so has repented and been healed from his tzaraas. Many will honor the Kohen and join him in his mission and all of them will witness the final purification ceremony and acknowledge the innocence of the former Metzora. – Sifsei Kohen

Chasam Sofer wonders why the Torah elaborates and writes, “and behold the tzaraas affliction has been healed from the afflicted.” Would it not have sufficed to write merely, “and behold the tzaraas affliction has been healed?” Isn’t it obvious that it is the afflicted who was healed? He explains that this entire purification process was only necessary because the person allowed it to reach a point where he was finally afflicted. Had he willingly accepted the early warning signs of affliction and repented then, the entire ceremony would have been unnecessary. His refusal to immediately correct his flawed behavior is what caused this to occur. Thus, the Torah highlights the fact that he was afflicted to emphasize the point that this needn’t have been the case in the first place.

3. HOME INVASION

“When you shall arrive in the land of Canaan that I give you as an inheritance, and I will place a tzaraas affliction upon a house in the land of your inheritance. The one to whom the house belongs shall come and declare to the Kohen, ‘Something like an affliction has appeared to me in the house.” 14:33, 34

Within these verses lies an allusion to the future destruction of the Holy Temples.

• “I will place a tzaraas affliction upon a house in the land of your inheritance” – This refers to the Holy Temple; the house within our land.
• “The one to whom the house belongs” – This refers to the Almighty, to whom the Holy Temple belongs.
• “And declare to the Kohen” – This refers to the Kohen Jeremiah who ministered to the Jews during the time of the Destruction of the First Temple.
• “Something like an affliction has appeared to me in the house” – This refers to idol worship which was prevalent in those times or to the idol statue erected by Manasseh. The presence of this vile abomination caused the Almighty to destroy His House.

- Midrash Rabba 17:7

One might think that this destruction would be of a permanent nature never to be undone. In response to this, the Midrash adds, “After declaring the house contaminated, the Torah writes, ‘And they shall remove the stones that contain the affliction and they shall cast them outside the city onto a contaminated place.’ This corresponds to the Jewish nation being exiled from the land to Bavel, a contaminated place. Yet, they would not remain there forever for as the verse says, ‘They shall take other stone and bring them in place of the stones…’ The damage will be undone and the people will be returned to their land.”

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Partner Talk

HOW ABOUT A RINGTONE INSTEAD?

by RABBI ELAZAR MEISELS

Dear Rabbi,

In anticipation of my upcoming wedding, I’m studying the laws of the Jewish wedding with my study partner. I learned that in Jewish tradition, the bride and groom do not exchange rings and that it is only the groom who gives a ring. Could you explain why it is the groom who gives the ring?

Kyle R.
Dear Kyle,

Mazal Tov on your upcoming wedding and my sincerest wishes that you and your kallah (bride) succeed in building a beautiful Jewish home from which you’ll derive much happiness and nachas (Jewish pride)! In theory, you are certainly correct that any object of at least a minimal value may be used for the marriage ceremony. Assuming the bride accepts it and agrees to marry the groom in exchange, the marriage is a valid one. Nevertheless, it has become customary to use a ring and there are many reasons for doing so. Here are a few:

• G-d’s abode on earth, the Tabernacle, was built using wooden planks. These planks were not laid horizontally, but stood on the ground vertically. Each plank was notched twice at the top and a ring was used to bind the plank to its neighbors using the outer notches of each. Just as Gd’s abode was held together through the use of rings, we use a ring when joining a man and wife together as they embark on the building of a Jewish home. This symbolizes our desire that the Divine Presence rest upon them just as it rested upon the Tabernacle.
• Sefer HaChinuch [Mitzvah 552] explains that the ring on her finger will serve as a constant reminder that she is already committed to her husband. [Perhaps we may add that it will remind others of that fact as well and dissuade any interest they may have in pursuing her for the object of marriage.]
• In one of the first recorded incidents of potential adultery in the Torah, Joseph is confronted by Potiphar’s wife, who sought to seduce him. Fearing that his will to abstain from sin would collapse before her advances, he fled from the house although it meant leaving his garment behind, which she would then use to prove his guilt. Yet, Joseph understood that the temptation to commit adultery was so powerful that he had not a moment to lose. This attitude is what saved him from sin and positioned him to later rise to astronomic power in Egypt. The words of the verse [Genesis 39:18] describing his heroic actions are, “And he left his garment with me and he ran outside.” The numerical equivalent of this verse is 481, which is equal to the numerical value of the Hebrew word for ring, “taba’as.” Thus, a ring is used to remind us of how vigilant we must be to withstand temptation in this area.
• A chain is made of many rings linked together to form a significant sequence. By using a ring, we are indicating our hope that this woman, too, will produce worthy children who will also add to the chain of Jewish families that traces its lineage all the way back to the Patriarchs and Matriarchs and carries on their legacy.

There are additional sources for this custom, and if you are interested in researching them further, I recommend purchasing an excellent book that discusses all aspects of traditional Jewish marriage, titled Made in Heaven, by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.

I must add that there are a number of important points regarding the ring of which you should be aware of prior to the wedding, and it is important to discuss this matter with a knowledgeable rabbi who can best guide you on the intricacies of the matter.

With warmest wishes,
Rabbi Elazar Meisels

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Soul Talk

One of the primary ways we practice the mitzvah of oneg Shabbat is by fulfilling the obligation to eat three meals, the shalosh seudos.

Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 291:1) writes: A person should be very careful to eat three meals on Shabbat. Even if he is satiated, he should fulfill the mitzvah of eating the third meal, seudah shlishis, by eating the minimum requirement, an egg’s volume (of bread). Only if eating will cause true pain, is a person exempt. A wise person will plan well and not fill his stomach during the morning meal, so that he will have room for the seudah shlishis.

Women are also obligated in seudah shlishis (see Shulchan Aruch 291:6). Mishnah Berurah explains that there are no differences between men and women concerning the mitzvah obligations of Shabbat. Furthermore, says Mishnah Berurah, the source for why we eat the Shabbat meals is based on verses relating to the manna (the miraculously supplied food) that the Jews ate in the desert. Women were equal beneficiaries of the miracle of the manna, and therefore have the same three-meal requirement as men.

Chida points out that the reason we are commanded to eat three meals on Shabbat is to give it honor. During the week, people generally ate (in earlier times) only two meals, one by day and one at night. [Essentially, this is still the case, given that even today most people generally have either a light breakfast or a light lunch.] It is only on Shabbat that we actually sit down to have three bread meals.

In addition, Divrei Emes (by Rabbi Yakov Yitzchok, the Chozeh of Lublin) writes that eating the third meal on Shabbat displays that we have eaten the other meals l’sheim Shamayim (to fulfill Hashem’s will) and not merely to fill our stomachs. Since we do not usually have as much of an appetite on Shabbat afternoon as we do for the other Shabbat meals, by making an effort to eat seudah shlishis, we show that we are eating only because it is a mitzvah. If so, even if part of the intent we have at the other meals is because we are hungry and we love the food served, after we eat the seudah shlishis with a much weaker appetite, we receive credit and reward as if we ate completely l’sheim Shamayim at all the other meals. This is why we popularly call the third meal shalosh seudos, which accurately does not translate as the ‘‘third meal’’ but as ‘‘three meals.’’ When we eat the third meal on Shabbat, it is as if we eat three meals, l’sheim Shamayim, all at once.

Interestingly, Rabbi David Abudraham says that the Torah’s requirement to eat three meals on Shabbat is a safeguard to help us avoid eating too much at the other meals. Since we are aware that we have to eat three full meals on Shabbat, we will make sure not to overeat at the first two meals. Thus, we will spend less time at the meals, and we will not become lethargic and exhausted from all the heavy eating. As a result, we will have more time and energy for the spiritual pursuits of Shabbat.

As Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian writes, it is a mitzvah to honor the Shabbat and to eat more than we do during the week, and we fulfill the mitzvah of oneg Shabbat by eating special foods. But if the eating results in forcing us to take long naps, we don’t honor the Shabbat that way. And if by eating more at the other meals, we end up refraining from eating shalosh seudos, our eating becomes more of an obstacle than a mitzvah!

With permission from Artscroll’s Daily Dose

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Table Talk

FOR DISCUSSION AROUND THE SHABBAT TABLE

א) The Torah teaches us that tzaraas is an indication of a spiritual blemish, but only when it is limited to a portion of a person’s body. A complex ritual is prescribed that is meant to inspire and lead a person to repentance. In a seemingly counter-intuitive ruling, the Torah tells us (13:12-13) that when a person is afflicted with tzaraas on his entire body, he is pure and need not follow any particular protocol or ritual. How could this anomaly in the law be understood? (He’Emek Davar by Rav Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin 13:12)

- Rabbi Elazar Meisels

ב) When dealing with tzaraas on a person’s body, often the first diagnosis can be a pronunciation of complete tzaraas, which requires the person to immediately go through the purification process. But when tzaraas appears on clothing, the Torah always mandates a week of waiting before pronouncing it as tzaraas (Lev. 13:50). Why would the Torah seem to give more leniency with regard to tzaraas on the clothing than to tzaraas on the body? (Orach Chayim 13:50)

- Rabbi Leiby Burnham

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Parsha Summary

Parsha Summaries are coming soon!