Parshas Tazria-Metzora - Be Kind Too! You're a Web-Rooted Friend

Parshas Tazria-Metzora

Be Kind Too! You're a Web-Rooted Friend

By: Daniel Listhaus

“Hashem spoke to Moshe and to Aharon, saying, 'If a person will have on the skin of his flesh a se'is or sapachas or a baheres, and it will become a tzara'as affliction on the skin of his flesh; he shall be brought to Aharon the Kohen, or to one of his sons the Kohanim...'”

-Tazria 13:1-2

“Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, 'This shall be the law of the Metzora on the day of his purification: He shall be brought to the Kohen. The Kohen shall look, and behold! - the tzara'as affliction had been healed from the Metzora. The Kohen shall command...'”

-Metzora 14:1-4

“Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aharon, saying: 'When you arrive in the land of Cana'an that I give you as a possession, and I will place a tzara'as as affliction upon a house in the land of your possession.; the one to who the house belongs shall come to declare to the Kohen, saying: 'Something like an affliction has appeared to me in the house'. The Kohen shall command, and they shall clear the house when the Kohen has not yet come to look at the affliction, so that everything in the house should not become impure; and afterward shall the Kohen come to look at the house....'”

-Metzora 14:33-36

The whole concept of tzara'as is one that is so foreign to us. With tzara'as as part of reality, one could imagine how it would perhaps be easier to see that even non-physical actions could have bad repercussions, as well as realize that there is indeed a direct connection between the spiritual and physical worlds. lashon harah (evil speech) is spoken everyday by so many people whether it be verbally or over social networks, with seemingly no consequences. It has become a part of society. People push themselves forward, by kicking everyone else backward. We are really disconnected and unmoved by speaking or listening to lashon harah. Certainly no one would want lashon harah spoken about themselves, so why do we say it about others? People do not go around physically hurting others, because they would not want to be physically hurt in return. So why do people easily say things which hurt others' when they would not want that to be done back to them? What intuition is lacking when it comes to lashon harah which causes us to do it without thinking? How could we work on ourselves to start realizing when we are saying or hearing lashon harah in order to stay away from it?

The passuk¹ describes that upon seeing tzara'as, the afflicted person goes to the Kohen and declares, “Something like an affliction has appeared to me in the house”. Rashi² further stresses that even if the person is a talmid chochom (Torah scholar) who knows that what is on his house is certainly a form of tzara'as, still he is not permitted to definitively declare, “An affliction has appeared to me”; rather, he should say, “Something like an affliction has appeared to me”. The reason for this, as the next Rashi³ explains, is because until the Kohen himself declares it tamei (impure), there is absolutely no impurity about the affliction.

The Alter of Slabodka⁴ is bothered by this process. Is this all a word game? If the man who received the tzara'as knows for himself that it is indeed tzara'as, why does he need to play dumb with the Kohen? He should be encouraged to explicitly state the facts: “An affliction has appeared to me.” What is the point of this trickery saying, “Something like an affliction has appeared to me”?

The Alter of Slabodka answers by reiterating Rashi in a slightly stronger way. He writes that because it is the Kohen who must declare that the affliction is indeed tamei, it would be sheker (a lie) to declare prior to that point that you have seen tzara'as. Tzara'as must be declared by the Kohen. It is therefore not possible that you have seen tzara'as because tzara'as does not really exist until it is declared tamei by the Kohen. The Alter of Slabodka continues to write that perhaps some people are bothered by the following question. According to this, that we are so careful about not saying sheker, we have not accomplished anything. How could this talmid chochom say to the Kohen, “something like an affliction has appeared to me”, if he knows that it is tzara'as and will ultimately be declared as such anyway? If the Torah is really trying to be so stringent on falsehood, no lesson could be learned from here, he is lying regardless!

However, writes the Alter of Slabodka, one who is bothered by such a question is being caught up in the same fundamental mistake. Before the Kohen comes to declare it tamei, there is absolutely no tzara'as. It is not like we pretend that we do not know what it is and then when the Kohen makes his statement we say, “Told you so!” It is not like that at all. Rather, the tzara'as does not exist as a tamei affliction until the Kohen declares it as such. This is true to the point that if the afflicted is a talmid chochom who recognizes it as tzara'as, and the Kohen is an ignoramus who does not know all the rules of what qualifies as tzara'as, and consequently declares it tahor (pure), the man is indeed pure. As a matter of fact, this could further be seen from the Torah itself. The passuk⁵ advises that before one calls the Kohen to see the affliction in one's home, one should take some time to clear his house of his possessions in order that they not become contaminated at the time the Kohen determines the tzara'as to be tamei.⁶

The Alter of Slabodka definitely makes himself clear that it would be incorrect for the talmid chochom to say, “An affliction has appeared to me”, and that the Torah is teaching us a lesson of the requirement to stay away from sheker (falsehood). However, let us stop and rethink through this again. though. There is no doubt that honesty is of utmost importance and a pillar of the Torah. After all, the seal of Hashem is emes (truth)⁷. However, is that really being compromised here? At the end of the day, what is really wrong with the afflicted person calling it tzara'as? Let it be his personal opinion. Imagine that you are sitting watching a court case and, after listening to both sides, you turn to the guy next to you and say, “That man is definitely guilty.” Is there really something so wrong in stating this? Granted, if the person sitting next to you is the Alter of Slabodka he might say, “How could you say he is guilty? The jury has not yet declared him as such!” But, would that really be a valid complaint, or is there in fact a bigger fuss about accuracy when it comes to tzara'as than even the most radical truth-tellers would generally make?

Furthermore, let us take a step back for a moment and recall the bigger picture. The whole reason for this necessity to say, “Something like an affliction has appeared to me”, stems from the fact that the Torah insists that it be only the Kohen who has the ability to declare tzara'as to be tamei. Why is this necessary? The entire parshiyos of Tazria and Metzora are filled with descriptions of the Kohen specifically being the one who is commanding and declaring. Why is it so important and why is there such an emphasis on it? Why not eliminate the middle man and let the people declare tamei for themselves?

The Medrash⁸ relates a story of a certain peddler who was traveling through a few cities near Tzipori. He went around announcing, “Who wants to purchase an elixir of life?” Soon, he had attracted a small crowd around him. Rebbe Yannai happened to be sitting there and said, “I would like to buy some”. The peddler turned to him and said, “You and those like you have no need for this product.” However, Rebbe Yannai kept bothering the peddler to sell it to him. The peddler then took out a Tehillim and showed him the following passukim: “Who is the man who desires life, who loves days of seeing good? Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from from speaking deceit. Turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.”⁹

It seems from these passukim in Tehillim that the two elements which needed required to stay away from lashon harah are to come close to Torah¹⁰ and to pursue peace. As a matter of fact, the Kli Yakar¹¹ explains that this is precisely the reason why when it comes to tzara'as, it could only be declared tamei or tahor by a Kohen.¹² One who involves himself in lashon harah is someone who causes fights and mistrust. Such people destroy society by tearing its members apart from each other. Therefore, Aharon's special middah (trait) of shalom (peace) must be the one to set the example.

The mishna¹³ states that Hillel used to say, “Be among the disciples of Aharon, loving peace and pursing peace; loving people and bringing them closer to the Torah.” These two elements of coming closer to Torah and pursuing peace are the two fundamentals of establishing a successful society. Torah represents emes (truth). Trust and honesty are needed in order to build real relationships and friendships. Additionally, in order to have a successful culture, just being “un-annoying” is not enough. Passiveness is not real peace. Passiveness would allow for a world where everyone absolutely despises each other, yet no one wants to violently express that hatred. Rather, real peace is the pursuit of peace. Just sitting around being a bobble-head is not enough, one has to go out and be actively kind and helpful to others with the others' best interests in mind.

This was what was so special about Aharon HaKohen. The passuk¹⁴ testifies that at the time that Aharon passed away, the entire B'nei Yisroel cried for thirty days in mourning. Rashi¹⁵ there comments that all the men and women felt a personal connection to Aharon because he was someone who would pursue peace, save marriages, and instill love between two people involved in an argument.

Speaking lashon harah is not something that one wakes up one morning and decides to do. Rather it is something which either feels right or wrong to us depending on the level we are on. The setup for this failure stems from a lacking in emes and a deficiency in pursuing peace. Emes and the pursuit of peace is what keeps society healthy; defining the contrast, however, is where it gets tricky. It is not enough to just not say or allow for sheker, nor is it enough to not get on others' nerves. Instead, we must do as Hillel prescribes in Pirkei Avos – we must pursue peace and bring others closer to the emes of Torah. This means to actively encourage emes and to take action in creating peace.

Perhaps this is why these two points are so specifically stressed throughout the subject of tzara'as. To pure oneself from tzara'as, one must focus on the two middos – emes and shalom – he is deficient in, which allowed for him to feel comfortable speaking lashon harah in the first place. This is why the Torah chooses here to emphasize the distance we must go to stay away from sheker, and why the Torah takes the task of determining whether an affliction is impure away from the talmidei chochomim, and instead puts it in the charge of those who represent shalom.

Living during a time of “greed is good” and “on the Internet no one knows you are a dog”, it is no surprise that we have become so insensitive to lashon harah. Shalom and emes seem to be the antithesis of what we are influenced with on a daily basis. One would at least think that a culture where one could make up the perfect profile, and where self-made success is encouraged, should consist of the happiest people on Earth. Yet, that is certainly not the case.

People were not created to live lives of sheker or lack of actively pursuing peace, therefore following such paths cannot and do not lead to real happiness. Rather, it is being honest and caring for others which offers a taste of real happiness. A lady by the name of Elizabeth Dunn led an interesting study in 2008. She and her colleagues gathered a group of students and distributed envelopes to them containing cash and instructions on how it should be spent. Each envelope held either five or twenty dollars along with a note, which either instructed the money to be spent on oneself or on someone else. Later, Dunn and her team measured and analyzed the level of happiness that the participants experienced. Their results showed that the ones who spent the money on others felt much better and happier than those who spent the money on themselves – regardless of whether they had spent five or twenty dollars.

The idea of pursuing emes and shalom is something which we must realize works exponentially. Each person is rooted within a web of friends and acquaintances who in turn are each a part of their own network. So it is not enough to just be not unkind, instead we must actively be kind because we are rooted as part of a web in which one person's positive pursuit of peace could change others', causing an exponential chain reaction. At the same time, we must internalize the dangers that a deficiency in these middos could cause. After realizing the mentality which ruins communities and destroys societies, our task is to work on the middos which will prevent us from reaching such disasters.

May we learn from these parshiyos of tzara'as to work on the middos of emes and shalom, and achieve what Hashem tells us in Nach¹⁶, “You shall love truth and peace”.

1Vayikra 14:35

2Ibid.

3Vayikra 14:36

4Ohr HaTzafun: Chelek Gimmel

5Vayikra 14:36

6Rashi ibid.

7Gemara Shabbos 55a

8Vayikra Rabbah 16:2

9Tehillim 13-15

10See Gemara Berachos 5a which says that there is nothing referred to as “good” other than Torah, as the passuk says in Mishlei 4:2, “For a good teaching I have given you – My Torah; do not forsake it.”

11Tazria 13:3

12The Kli Yakar 13:2 actually maintains that there are three possible reasons why someone would receive tzara'as: For speaking lashon harah, being haughty, or running after money. The Kli Yakar (13:3) then explains why it is a Kohen specifically who declares the tzara'as on someone who did one of these three things. We will focus on the lashon harah part, though it could be applied to all three.

13Avos 1:13

14Bamidbar 20:29

15Ibid.

16Zechariah 8:19

Parshas Shemini - Half and Half: You Are What You Eat

Parshas Shemini

Half and Half: You Are What You Eat

By: Daniel Listhaus

“For I am Hashem your G-d – you are to sanctify yourselves and you shall become holy, for I am holy; and you shall not make your souls impure through any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am Hashem Who brings you up from the land of Egypt to be a G-d unto you; you shall be holy, for I am holy. This is the law of the animal, the bird, every living creature that swarms in the water, and for every creature that creeps on the ground; For distinguishing between the impure and the pure, and between the creature that may be eaten and the creature that may not be eaten.”

-Shemini 11:44-47

The second half of this week's parsha provides the basis of the laws of kashrus¹ – defining which animals are tahor and which are not. The Torah describes that as far as land animals are concerned, the way to tell if they are tahor is if they have split hooves and also chew their cud. One sign does not suffice.² When it comes to describing the necessary signs for fish, the Torah seems to be more generous requiring only fins and scales – resulting in a much larger variety of delicacies than we are allowed by land animals. Additionally, there is a leniency by fish, compared to land animals, which is that the Torah does not require fish to be slaughtered in order to render them kosher. The Torah continues by listing the non-kosher birds, which is also not as long as the list of non-tahor land animals. The Torah then goes on to forbid any type of insect that flies³ and continues to forbid any type of insect which creeps on the ground.

The parsha concludes with the summary quoted above – that we must differentiate between that which is pure for us and that which is not. During this summary, the Torah seems to throw in an unnecessary piece of information: “For I am Hashem Who brings you up from the land of Egypt to be a G-d unto you; you shall be holy, for I am holy”⁴. Why is it that Hashem reminds us this at this particular point? Did we need another dose of memory pills to realize that Hashem was bringing us into Eretz Yisroel? Why now is the Torah mentioning us coming out of Mitzrayim?

Rashi⁵ on this passuk is bothered by this and offers two explanations. Rashi's first answer is that the passuk is teaching us that the reason Hashem brought us up from Mitzrayim was solely on the condition that we accept His mitzvos. This explanation is extremely vague and does not seem to address the issue at all. Still, why is it written here? It makes sense to mention it in the parsha of tzitzis, for example, which represents all mitzvos. What purpose, though, does this reminder serve specifically here?

Before we further ponder this first answer of Rashi, let us take a look at the second explanation he offers. Rashi writes that if you notice, the passuk says that, “I am Hashem Who brings you up from Mitzrayim” as opposed to the regular, “I brought you out of Mitzrayim”. The reason for this is, as Rashi brings from tana d'vei R' Yishmael, that it would be worth it for Hashem to take us out of Mitzrayim for this mitzva alone – of not becoming impure through creeping things. Although this explanation is more specific it is still hard to understand. What is so special about this particular mitzva that the merit of keeping this mitzva alone is enough of a reason for Hashem to take us into Eretz Yisroel?

The Kli Yakar⁶ is also bothered by this Rashi so he takes a slightly different angle based on the following observation. There seems to be a positive correlation between the harsher terminology the Torah uses to describe the effect that impure animals have on our souls, and the closer the animal is to the ground. Fish, which live in the water, only require to have fins and scales. They do not even need to be slaughtered. When it comes to birds – which are animals of the air, though they have a deep connection to earth as well, also have few restrictions. However, once the Torah enters the area of land animals, it becomes a new playing field. The strict requirements of an animal needing split hooves and must chew its cud, eliminates most animals. Even with this limitation, however, a proper slaughtering is still necessary before a four-legged animal becomes fit to eat. As we get into the territory of creeping and crawling insects, the borders close completely, allowing almost no insect to be eaten for any reason.

The Kli Yakar takes this observation and explains that the area which creatures live in tell a lot about their purity or impurity. The closer an animal lives to the ground, the more impure it is and the worse the effect will be on one's soul if the creature is consumed. This is why even kosher animals require shechita (to be slaughtered), whereas fish, which come from a pure place – water – do not require shechita.⁷ The Kli Yakar then continues to explain that this is the reason why people do not walk on “all-fours”. The reason we walk on two feet is because although half of us is made of dirt and has a pull towards mundane activities and desires, the other half of us is spiritual and turns upward, seeking a closeness with Hashem.

Perhaps with this Kli Yakar we could understand the Rashi better as well. The ultimate purpose of living is to use the mitzvos to live a life of taharah (purity) and become closer to Hashem through them. However, every person must remember that we are constantly in a struggle between the two parts that make up every human being. Part of us knows we are made of dirt and therefore wants to follow impure desires and lifestyles. The other half of us realizes its potential as a tzelem Elokim and seeks the highest levels of taharah. Our job is to acknowledge these two aspects of man and channel our desires away from things which are detrimental to the neshama and instead focus on things which help us grow spiritually in ways we could become closer to Hashem. This yesod (fundamental idea) is perhaps what the Torah is teaching us by specifically choosing this mitzva to say that for this alone it would be worth bringing us up to Eretz Yisroel. Realizing that man in made of half ruchniyos and half gashmiyos and that we must choose which side we will activate and turn our attention towards with extreme care and concern is of utmost importance for man to live a proper life. This delicate balance, which each person maintains, could be effected at every level. After all, even the type of food we allow into our systems. The world and its effects on man are so intricate and part of the deep secrets of the world we do not understand. However, we must understand this, that Hashem has gave us a Torah to guide us on how to live life properly. The Torah tells us that there is a intrinsic difference between tahor and non-tahor animals. Our job is to realize that not only is it true that 'You are what you eat', but even more, that it is our task to realize what is tahor and what is not in order to make sure that we are constantly feeding the ruchniyos half of us, and not the half which is trapped in gashmiyos.

1Really, it would be more accurate to say the laws of tumah and taharah when it comes to food.

2Such as the camel, which only chews its cud, or a pig which only has split hooves.

3Except for a few flavors of grasshoppers.

4Vayikra 11:45

5Ibid.

6Vayikra 11:45

7The obvious question on this, which the Kli Yakar discusses, is if so that water indeed represents a place of taharah (as a matter of fact, we become tahor in a mikvah of water), then why is it that in order for foods to be susceptible to tumah (impurity), they must be wet from water? The Kli Yakar discusses this in parshas Chukas (19:21) and gives a fascinating answer which answers this as well as offers insight into the way parah aduma works. This all almost made it into this week's d'var Torah, but, due to lack of time, perhaps we will save that discussion for parshas Chukas.