Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 29 Adar II, 5784
Parsha Tazria’ – “Conceives”: (Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59)
Second Portion: Leviticus 13:6 – 13:17

Good morning! It is eclipse day! Tonight is Rosh Chodesh Nisan.  A lot of energy is shifting, and I am excited to explore it all with everyone. Today’s portion continues this theme of “conception” – what have we started to gestate that will come to fruition over the next nine months. Before we start to knit together this new work, we have to establish what to do with some sickness or illnesses. Yesterday, we established a quarantine procedure for the lesions. We spent two weeks in quarantine to see if this was going to get worse or better.  Today we find out what happens. Let’s dig in:

6And the kohen shall see him on the seventh day a second time. And, behold! the lesion has become dimmer, and the lesion has not spread on the skin, the kohen shall pronounce him clean. It is a mispachath. He shall immerse his garments and become clean.

So two weeks. If the lesion gets better, they are pronounced clean. They enter the mikveh, and they are clean.  However…

7However, if the mispachath spreads on the skin after it has been shown to the kohen for its purification, it shall be shown to the kohen a second time.

8The kohen shall look [at it]. And, behold! the mispachath has spread on the skin. The kohen shall pronounce him unclean. It is tzara’ath.

So regardless of the medical diagnoses -if the lesion spreads after two weeks, it is determined to be tzara’ath and we go into an entirely new ritual:

9If a man has a lesion of tzara’ath, he shall be brought to the kohen.

10The kohen shall look [at it]. And, behold! there is a white se’eith on the skin, and either it has turned the hair white, or there is healthy, live flesh in the se’eith,

11it is old tzara’ath on the skin of his flesh, and the kohen shall pronounce him unclean; he need not quarantine him because he is unclean.

So if the lesion has spread, the next step is to determine how far along the process he is in.  If there is a white hair in the lesion, or there is health live flesh in the lesion, it is an old leprosy.  He does not need to quarantine because we know he is unclean.

12And if the tzara’ath has spread over the skin, whereby the tzara’ath covers all the skin of the [person with the] lesion, from his head to his feet, wherever the eyes of the kohen can see it,

13then the kohen shall look [at it]. And, behold! the tzara’ath has covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce [the person with] the lesion clean. He has turned completely white; he is clean.

So this is interesting.  If the lesions are over the entire body – he is clean. The leprosy has run its course. However:

14But on the day that live flesh appears in it, he shall become unclean.

15When the kohen sees the healthy, live flesh, he shall pronounce him unclean. The live flesh is unclean; it is tzara’ath.

As soon as live flesh grows INSIDE the lesion, this becomes unclean. And…

16But, if the healthy, live flesh once again turns white, he shall come to the kohen.

17And the kohen shall look at it. And, behold! the lesion has turned white; the kohen shall pronounce the lesion clean. He is clean.

So. What is our takeaway here?

Wounds. Scars. Flesh. Dead skin.

What do I mean by this?

When we have wounds. If they are open and unclean? They are impacting – they are “live.” The “flesh” within the wound is fresh. It’s new. We are unclean and need healing.

Think about this emotionally.

Something traumatic happens at a moment in time. We develop a lesion. A wound. And – every two weeks (years?) we check on this wound – and if the wound is still fresh – it’s not clean and we need to protect it to allow it to heal.  How do we know if the wound is fresh? The live skin inside. The white hair.

What does this mean practically?  It means the wound is still “controlling” us emotionally.  We are emotionally triggered by the wound. It’s fresh.  But when it stops being a wound, and turns into a scar? It is clean. It is healthy.  If I scratch a physical scar? I feel no pain. If I scratch a wound? Ripping a scab off it? Pain. That is unclean.

Flesh – is soft. Dead skin is hard. We need the wound to hardened. If softness develops from within the wound? It is unclean because it is imprisoned by the lesion.   It was born of trauma.  The wound need to heal into a scar. And if the scar covered the entire body, we are clean – because the wound has become a scar.

This is the takeaway. As we are past the eclipse. What wounds have come up for us that need to be healed? Explored? Looked at? What do we need to stop “picking at” to allow the lesion to harden and form a scar.  These are the explorations to remain soft in our journey.

These are my thoughts.  What are yours?

Here is my thought from two years ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 25 Adar II, 5782

Today we continue to talk about Tzara’at (leprosy). Yesterdays portion finished two quarantines of the lesion to try and determine whether the lesion was indeed Tzara’at.

Todays portion opens with the end of the second quarantine – the priest is supposed to examine them on the seventh day of the second quarantine. If the lesion remained the same or spread, he should be pronounced ritually impure. If the lesion has faded and the lesion has not spread, the priest should announce him to be ritually pure. It is merely a discoloration.

However, since he was quarantined, they must cleanse their garments in the mikveh (ritual pool) and then he will become ritually pure.

If, after this process, the discoloration spreads – the process starts over and the priest will examine again.

This is a pretty strict quarantine process.

Next we are looking at lesions where the hair in the lesion turns white. Then the priest determines them to be ritually impure.

If there is healthy looking skin within the white blotch, one should not think this is NOT Tzara’at – this is because of an old wound; but the Tzara’at is still there.

Rabbi Moses Feinstein had something interesting to say about this:

Some people perpetrate gross injustices, but also perform some good on the behalf of others. They justify their wrongs by focusing on their positive accomplishments. In this verse, the Torah warns against such behavior: True, you have some “healthy-looking” skin–you may have accomplished some good in your life. But that does not excuse any injustices that you have perpetrated; those actions remain a “lesion” that stands to be corrected.

That’s a really interesting application to our lives.

Todays portion covers lesions that go over the entire body. In an interesting twist; if the lesions are over the entire body the lesion is ritually pure.

Whaaaaaaat? Let’s stop. This seems confusing. Why?

Rabbi Bahya Ben Asher writes:

“This case is like the law of the Red Heifer, a suprarational decree of Scripture”

This means we just can’t understand it; but we must accept it is true.

Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra had this to say:

“When tzara’at covers the person’s entire body it has completely exited his system and is only on the exterior”

Rabbi Jacob Ben Asher said this:

“Thus the fact that it covers his whole body is a sign that he will soon be completely cured”

The Talmud digs even deeper:

“The Messiah will only come when every government becomes heretical. Rabbah said, “Where do we see an allusion to this in Scripture? From the verse, ‘He has turned completely white, he is ritually pure.” Just as when the affliction has spread throughout the entire skin the person is ritually pure, so too, when all the governments have become heretical, the Redemption will come.

So interesting. What are your thoughts?

But wait. Get this. If the lesions cover the body, and then healthy looking skin appears in the lesion? He becomes ritually impure!

Something to reflect on.