Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 28 Nisan, 5783
13th day of the Omer
My 51st birthday.
Ok. I am taking a hint. I have tried to post thoughts TWICE this morning, and because I clicked on the wrong spot? they vanished into the ether.
So i am going to receive the universe giving me the sign that i need to hold off on what i am trying to share. I am reflecting on the idea of control.
Stressing about what I cannot control. It’s not helpful.
The key words and concepts I wanted to share were:
Capricious
Malevolence
Bonding
Discipline.
The conception of our wounds.
Moving from the wounds being create to identifying with our wounds.
Healing.
Renewal
Newness
For now, let me share from Chabad on the Omer. Then I will post last year’s commentary. I will trust Hashem to use this in whatever way he needs to.
13th Day of the Omer is about Bonding of Discipline.
From Chabad:
For discipline to be effective it must be coupled with commitment and bonding. Both in disciplining yourself and others there has to be a sense that the discipline is important for developing a stronger bond. Not that I discipline you, but that we are doing it together for our mutual benefit.
Exercise for the day: Demonstrate to your child or student how your bonding with each other is an essential ingredient in discipline and growth.
I’d be curious if any of this lands with you. What are your thoughts? I may be in need of receiving a message from all of you instead of GIVING you all thoughts for the day. It is my hebrew birthday after all!
These are my thoughts on the Portion from a year ago:
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 1 Nisan, 5782
According to Talmud, today is also the day the world was created! Happy birthday world!
The theme of this month is renewal and newness! We have passed through a double Adar, which hopefully brought us all Mazal (fortune, positivity) and now we sit with newness in front of us! It is time to be liberated from our past (like the Jews in Egypt we will remember on Passover this month). Kabbalah teaches that new life force and new potential is now ready to manifest itself!
According to the attached article, “We are not referring to just renewal, but an even more essential power to reveal new insight and spiritual energy altogether.”
For more on this month; read for yourself! But wow! Time to clean up and get ready for excitement!
Let’s dig into the Torah portion;
Yesterday we discussed lesions of the garments.
As I’ve been reflecting on this; in our discussions this week we looked at lesions of our mind and of our heart. I’m reflecting that maybe garments might refer to our speech. Garments are something we wear and are in a sense how we interact with the world around us. I’m internally reflecting on what words we use connecting with what clothes we wear.
When a lesion develops in our speech and how we talk about and to others, and how we listen, I think there is a need to examine it.
What do you think? Ok; now let’s dig in!
To recap yesterdays portion, if a lesion develops on a garment – it was to be shown to the priest. Priest examines garment, quarantines for 7 days.
After 7 days priest re-examines the garment if it’s spread the garment is ritually impure. The garment must be burned.
I’m reflecting on this with speech. If we say something negative about someone – that becomes a potential lesion. Waiting for seven days to see the impact of that speech, and if it spreads to the community (like gossip) than we should be condemning that speech.
Judaism does allow for negative speech in certain circumstances, so we need to be clear on that; but it comes down to the intent of saying something negative about someone (this is referred to as Leshon Harah). But let’s get back to the recap of yesterdays portion;
After the seven days of quarantine, If the lesion has not spread it should be cleaned and then quarantined for an additional seven days. And that is where yesterday’s portion ended.
When it comes to speech, if someone says something negative and it doesn’t spread, maybe there needs to be follow up with kind speech, to try and clean the original leshon harah? Again I am speculating here.
Today’s portion begins with the end of the second quarantine period after the garment has been washed;
– if the lesion has not faded in appearance and it hasn’t spread it is ritually impure; it should be burned.
– if the lesion has dimmed, the priest should tear the lesion out of the garment and burn the portion that had the lesion on it
– but if the lesion returns on the garment, then it needs to be burned
– if the lesion disappears on the garment, it should be washed a second time- and it will be pure.
How does this relate to our speech. If I am speaking about someone – and I realize there is a lesion in my speech, and I have committed leshon harah, I need to examine it myself first, then bring it to a priest (someone I trust) to have them examine it. Then I need to spend time reflecting on why I said it; what is driving me, wash it, and observe it.
As an example, in my meditation practice (3 years now – big thank you to Michael Takahara for gifting me this practice) we will sometimes meditate and practice radical empathy. Wishing someone who we may have negative feelings for from our past (think toxic boss) peace, joy, ease and freedom from danger. This would be a way to “wash” our soiled garments. Now; In order to do this, we need to recognize the garments being soiled to begin with.
I have found practicing radical empathy (as opposed to ruinous empathy – read “Radical Candor” on that topic) isn’t about the other person; it’s about washing my soul to be clean and pure. I feel lighter after these practice sessions.
Just something to reflect on.
Oh. One more thing. Probably the most important. The bigger lesion of our words? Is the words we speak about ourselves. How often do we commit leshon harah about ourselves? Speaking negatively (Even inside our head) about our actions, behaviors, motives? This spreads like a lesion in our minds and souls. Practicing radical SELF empathy is another great practice I’ve been learning through meditation. We can “wash” our underwear (under garments) by saying to ourselves “may we be happy, may we be at peace, may we be free from danger, may we be at ease.”
Because like garments – we have the clothes we share with the world (our outer garments) and the clothes we don’t (our under garments). This weeks Torah portion doesn’t seem to distinguish that at all.
So what do you think? This was such a good portion for me to reflect on.
Enjoy your sabbath and the new month! As I do every Shabbat, Haftorah thoughts will be in the comments below!
Haftorah thoughts:
Todays Haftorah comes from 2 Kings 4:42- 5:19.
It recounts the story of the healing of Naaman’s lesions (Tzara’at).
There are two miracles we see in this weeks Haftorah- and for my Christian friends, you may be surprised at what you read.
We start the portion with a man bringing bread from the first harvest to Elisha, the man of God. 20 loves of barley bread, and fresh grain as well.
Elisha tells the man to give it to the people to eat; which is ridiculous because 20 loaves was not going to feed 100 men. It was not enough.
Elisha tells him to give it to the people, and not only will it be enough, “they will eat and have food left over.”
So the man placed the food before the people. They are. There was food left over. Just as God had said.
Now. Let’s sit with this for a moment. We often times believe we don’t have enough – enough friends, enough money, enough food, etc. and yet when we connect with Hashem we can see we have enough and more; left overs! That is amazing as a thought!
Ok. Now on to a second miracle –
Namaan was a commander of the king of Aram’s army, and was well respected! He was strong and willing to fight but couldn’t because he had Tzara’at.
Namaan had a wife who told her mistress that if Namaan’s request was brought before the prophet in Samaria, the prophet would cure him of his Tzara’at.
Namaan went to the king and the King of Aram told the servant to approach the prophet and he would send a letter to the king of Israel to instruct the prophet to cure him.
So Namaan went taking silver, gold, and clothing as a gift for the prophet.
Namaan gave the letter to the king of Israel, but the king didn’t really believe in the prophet and so the king of Israel thought the king of Aram was asking Namaan to be healed by HIM (the king of Israel).
This distressed the king of Israel and he tore his clothes in grief. He took it as a sign the king of Aram was declaring war!
But Elisha heard about this and sent a message to the king of Israel instructing him to send Namaan, so that he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.
Namaan came with his horses and chariots and stood at Elisha’s door.
Elisha told him to wash in the Jordan seven times and he would be healed and pure.
This made Namaan angry. Because Namaan had expectations on how this was supposed to go.
Namaan believed it was going to be a different process. He told himself a story of how it should go;
-Elisha would come out in his honor
-Elisha would stand before him respectfully
-Elisha would call out the name of God
-Elisha would wave his hand towards the Tzara’at
-Namaan would be miraculously healed
That is what Namaan had built up in his head on how this was supposed to go.
But no! Elisha was cavalier and just told him to wash in the Jordan seven times.
Namaan had some good servants around him; “if the prophet asked you to do something really difficult wouldn’t you have done it? All the more so when he tells you to do something easy. You should listen.”
Wow. Let’s stop for a moment. How often do we ASSUME healing will be hard? Dealing with our brokenness is going to be a challenge? Healing our trauma is going to be gut wrenching. We are looking for a miracle. But we have built up in our mind what that miracle should look like.
Now I’m not saying our healing isn’t a hard process, but I begin to wonder if maybe we miss things because solution seems to easy/simple. Do our own expectations get in the way?
Ok; back to the Haftorah.
Namaan bathed in the Jordan seven times and was healed. He had the skin of a young child.
He went back to Elisha. He said “now I know there is no God in the whole world other than in Israel.” And he wanted to give a gift to Elisha.
Elisha refused. He could not accept any gift.
Namaan then asked for earth to build himself an altar for the only God.
And then, he asked Elisha to ask God to forgive him because he was coerced to bow down when standing beside the King of Aram in the temple of Rimmon.
Elisha told Namaan to “go in peace.”
Wow. That’s some story! What are your thoughts?
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 2 Nisan, 5782
Happy first day of the week! We have a new Parsha to study!
This week’s Parsha is Metzora’ which means “Tzara’at sufferer.”
The Chumash I’m reading begins our Parsha with this thought:
“Like the quarantined metzora’, we all need to retreat from our lives, from time to time, away from the “camp,” to do our inner work. By spending some focused time in introspection, the force of our re-integration is so much stronger.”
I’ll confess; as we’ve been reading about the concepts of “impure” and “pure” it is difficult not to connect those with judgments – impure = bad and pure = good.
But what if, like the quote above, it’s just a matter of where we are at in terms of our connection to the community? That if we are bitter and have lesions, we need to retreat and spend time on our mental health so that we can be helpful to building up the community around us as opposed to draining it? There are times for both, for sure, but the idea of taking care of our inner selves so that we can love others seems like a good concept.
Yet society today says we aren’t allowed to do this. We don’t treat mental health the way we do physical health. If someone gets sick (cough cough like COVID) we send them to quarantine and isolation so they can get better and rejoin the community. Yet, when someone is struggling or sick with their mental health we tell them to “suck it up” and ignore the impact that may have on others.
Just something I’m reflecting on going into this weeks Parsha.
Let’s jump in to today’s portion:
God speaks to Moses to tell him what to do when someone is declared having Tzara’at, when it was time to be made ritually pure.
So it is good to know; despite what myths have told us, Tzara’at is something that could/would heal. I think I was always led to believe it would never heal. The Torah indicates otherwise. This is a paradigm shift in my head.
There is a lot written about this I want to share:
From the Talmud;
“Our Sages understood the Hebrew word for tzara’at sufferer–metzora – as a contraction of three Hebrew words, motzi’ shem ra’, which mean “defamer.” They were of the opinion that the tzara’at lesions afflicted people who defamed and slandered others”
This is interesting given what I wrote yesterday about Leshon Harah. The critical nature of our speech and how we speak about others is crucial to our mental health.
Rabbi Isaac Ben Moses Arama writes:
“Speech is a function that elevates humans above the rest of the animal kingdom. Targum
Onkelos translates the verse “He blew into his nostrils a living soul” (Genesis 2:7) as referring to a speaking soul.
There is immense power vested in speech: It can perpetuate good, or be harmful and destroy.
It is this abuse of speech that the Torah wishes to curtail, by writing, “This will be the law of the
defamer-the metzora'”
Interesting – these are all variations on a theme!
And of course, the Rebbe; Menachem Mendel Schneerson has some really deep thoughts to add:
“The Talmud describes the Messiah-as he exists during the state of exile, waiting to redeem the Jewish people-as a tzara’at sufferer (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b). While the Messiah himself is a pure and holy individual, he nevertheless bears the suffering of the Jewish people in exile – “In truth he has borne our sicknesses and endured our pains, yet we held him to be stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4, cited by Talmud, ibid.).
The ritual purification of the tzara’at sufferer that we read of here alludes to the true and final redemption, when the Messiah takes the Jewish people out of exile. From this we can learn:
(a) The Messiah is not a person who will spontaneously arrive with the redemption. Rather, he is found in exile with the Jewish people, and helps to bear their difficulties and sorrows.
(b) The previous Torah portion (Tazria’) contains the laws of the affliction of tzara’at, alluding to exile. The current portion (Metzora), on the other hand, contains the laws of ritual purification of tzara’at, alluding to redemption. The fact that these two Torah portions are usually read together teaches us that we should not perceive exile and redemption as two separate, sequential events. Rather, each commandment that we observe in exile should be actively in fused with the knowledge that it is an act which is hastening the redemption.
(c) In earlier generations the current portion was referred to not as Metzora, but as Zo’t Tihyeh (“This will be the law”), but more recently this name was rejected, by Jewish custom. The inner reason for this change is that the Jewish people became more aware (at least subconsciously) that the Messiah’s coming is very close, and it is therefore inappropriate to refer to this Torah portion, which alludes to the Messiah’s coming, in the future tense (“This will be”).
(d) The ritual purification of the tzara’at sufferer is through the laws of the Torah (“This will be the law (lit. “Torah”) of the tzara’at sufferer”). One of the most effective ways to accelerate the coming of the Messiah is to study the concept of the Messiah and Redemption as it is described in the Written and Oral Torah.” (End quote)
In my head, yes I’m thinking about the ways I talk about others, but I am ALSO thinking about how I talk about myself in my own head. The vitriol I speak about myself inside my brain is definitely a lesion that needs healing; and I’m working on that! Therapy, Torah study, Journaling, davening, and meditation have all been incredibly helpful resources towards healing of my Tzara’at!
Ok. Now that we have all of that; let’s dig into how someone is purified:
1. The Tzara’at case should be brought to the priest
2. The priest should go outside the camp where the Tzara’at sufferer was isolated
3. The priest should examine the sufferer. If the lesion is healed:
– two live birds, a stick of cedar wood, a strip of crimson wool and hyssop should be taken for the person who is ritually pure.
Now. Interesting. Why birds? Rashi writes because birds are constantly chirping, and the
Belief that Tzara’at is caused by gossip which is done by chattering. That is reallly fascinating!
Why cedar wood? Rashi says it is because Tzara’at comes because of haughtiness symbolized by the tall cedar tree. What is the remedy? The individual needs to be humble themselves like the worm used to make the the crimson dye and the hyssop plant which does not grow tall.
That’s really cool stuff!
Ok. Let’s keep going:
4. Upon the priests instructions, one of the birds should be slaughtered – allowing its blood to fall into an earthenware vessel containing spring water
5. The remaining live bird should be taken, with the stick of cedar, the strip of crimson wool and the hyssop (the stick and hyssop should be tied together with the crimson wool) and he should dip them, together with the live bird, into the blood of the slaughtered bird which was mixed with spring water.
Rabbi Samuel Edels wrote this, and I believe it is helpful:
He who desires life can acquire it with his tongue by studying Torah. He who desires death can acquire it with his tongue by slandering and defaming others (Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 15b).
This idea is hinted to by the tzara’at sufferer’s method of purification, where two birds are brought and one is slaughtered while the other is kept alive. The one that is slaughtered suggests that, with his speech, he was capable of bringing upon himself death.
The bird that is kept alive suggests that it is with his tongue, if used properly, that he also can bring upon himself life. (End quote)
The tongue is such a sharp tool in our lives, and how we use it has a deep impact on our soul.
Let’s keep going in this process:
6. The priest should then sprinkle some of the blood/water mixture seven times upon the person being cleansed of the Tzara’at. This is a crucial part of his ritual purification process.
7. He should then send away the live bird into the open field
8. The person undergoing the ritual process should then immerse his garments in a ritual pool.
9. He should shave off all his hair and bathe in the water of a ritual pool. This is a crucial part of his ritual purification process
10. After this, he may enter the camp, but he should remain “outside his tent” (ie seperate from his wife) for seven days.
Let me stop here. It is interesting, that although he can go back into camp, he is not yet supposed to be comfortable. He needs time to reintegrate with the community.
11. On the seventh day being in the camp, he should have off all his hair; not only the hair on his head, his beard and his eyebrows, but he should shave off all of his other visible hair as well.
Rabbi Ephraim of Lunshits wrote this:
“Although all body hair needs to be shaved off, the Torah mentions specifically hair on the head, the beard, and eyebrows, because they symbolize three primary causes for the tzara’at affliction. Hair on the head represents haughtiness; the beard, which surrounds the mouth, represents slander; and stinginess (tzarut ayin, lit. “narrowness of the eyes”) is symbolized by the eyebrows.”
Really interesting stuff!
Let’s keep going;
12. Then he should immerse his garments and immerse his body in the water of the mikveh and then he becomes ritually pure!
But that’s not the end. There is an aftermath. On the eighth day, this is what they should do;
1. Take 2 perfect male lambs for a guilt offering and and a burnt offering
2. Take one perfect female lamb in its first year as a sin offering
3. Take Three tenths of an Ephah of fine flour mixed with olive oil as a meal offering.
4. Take one log of olive oil
The priest performing the Ritual purification should place the Person who is to be ritually purified together with these things before God at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
The priest should take one male lamb and bring it as a guilt offering, along with the log of oil – and wave them as a wave offering before God.
And thus we close todays portion.
Wow. So my biggest takeaway here is we need to be very careful with our speech. And how we talk about others. Because the consequences are grave and lengthy to come back from that.
ESPECIALLY if you are talking bad about yourself. Our internal dialogue is likely harder to cleanse than those things our tongue speaks negatively about others!
What are your thoughts?
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts For 3 Nisan, 5782
I hope you had a great weekend as we go into this week! Yesterday we started off looking at the process of someone with a Tzara’at and how they regain their purity. We connected this with restoring relationship when Leshon Harah (spreading gossip and speaking poorly about someone) is committed; which many believed caused the Tzara’at.
The portion yesterday stopped in the middle of the eighth day rituals after the seven day purification rituals.
The priest next would take the lamb brought as a guilt offering and slaughter it where the sin offering and burnt offering are slaughtered.
The priest should take some of the blood and place it above the cartilage of the right ear of the person being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and the big toe of his right foot.
There is a wonder symbolism here as written about by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsh;
“The tzara’at sufferer, when bringing this sacrifice, is striving for a more spiritually noble lifestyle. Therefore the priest places oil on the sufferer’s ear, hand, and foot, symbolizing that he ought to make improvements to his mind (hearing and understanding), creative actions, and aspiration (advancing).”
This is a beautiful symbolic gesture to remind us of what goes in our ears, what we do with our hands and where our feet take us is very important in our spiritual development!
Next, the priest takes the oil and pour it into the priests palm, dip his finger in it and then sprinkle it seven times towards the holy of holies
Then with the oil in his palm, the priest should place some on the persons right ear, right thumb and right toe; on top of the blood that is there.
Then the rest of the oil in the palm should be placed on top of the persons head thus atoning for him. Nachmanides writes the following:
“The word “atone” is mentioned three times in the verses discussing the sacrifices of the tzara’at sufferer (14:18-20). This points to three dimensions of atonement:
-the guilt-offering atones transgressions committed before he was afflicted with a lesion.
-the sin-offering atones for blasphemous utterances he might have made out of pain during the time he had the lesion.
-the burnt-offering and meal-offering, is a purification for the future, when he returns to his
daily routine, worshiping God more carefully.”
As much as these sacrifices seem clinical, and without reason; there seem to be some deeper connections to be made here!
Finally:
– the priest should then perform the service of the sin offering, to atone for the person being rendered ritually pure from his ritual impurity.
– the priest should then slaughter the burnt offering
– the priest should then bring the burnt offering and meal offering to the altar.
The priest will thus atone for him, and he will be completely ritually pure.
Wow! It is amazing that Hashem provides a way for us to have healing even when our words cause lesions both in our own bodies and others.
What are your thoughts?
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