Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 30 Nisan, 5783
Day 15 of the Omer

We are now into our third week of the Omer with the theme of compassion. Here is what Chabad talks about:

“Tiferet – compassion – blends and harmonizes the free outpouring love of chesed with the discipline of gevurah. Tiferet possesses this power by introducing a third dimension – the dimension of truth, which is neither love or discipline and therefore can integrate the two.

Truth is accessed through selflessness: rising above your ego and your predispositions, enables you to realize truth. A clear and objective picture of yours and others needs. The imbalance of love and discipline (and for that matter, any distortion) is a result of a subjective, hence limited perspective; introducing truth, by suspending personal prejudices, allows you to express your feelings (including the synthesis of chesed and gevurah) in the healthiest manner.

This quality gives tiferet its name, which means beauty: it blends the differing colors of love and discipline, and this harmony makes it beautiful. For tiferet to be complete it needs the inclusion of the following seven facets: love of compassion, discipline of compassion, compassion of compassion, endurance of compassion, humility of compassion, bonding of compassion and sovereignty of compassion.”

As I reflect on the portions today, they seem to be around offering compassion in a very embarrassing time. How do we provide this compassion during the pain of separation? How do we bring restoration and reconciliation? That is where we are.

For today, we combine the elements of Chesed and Tiferet – the love of compassion

From Chabad:
“Examine the love aspect of compassion.

Ask yourself: Is my compassion tender and loving or does it come across as pity? Is my sympathy condescending and patronizing? Even if my intention is otherwise, do others perceive it as such? Does my compassion overflow with love and warmth; is it expressed with enthusiasm, or is it static and lifeless?

Exercise for the day: When helping someone extend yourself in the fullest way; offer a smile or a loving gesture.”

This is some practical advice for us as we go into this new week of thematic learning. Reminding ourselves this is all leading us to the giving of the Torah on Shavuot. The Torah is helpful for us. It guides us. It is compassionate. It is loving.

These are my thoughts. What are yours?

From my commentary a year ago:
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 5 Nisan, 5782

Good morning! Today, we move away from people getting Tzara’at and into HOUSES!!! Yes, we see the first cases of mold in houses in the Torah.

Now I’ve shared thoughts on how the different lesions related; to the heart, the mind, our words. I’m wondering how the house connects.

My initial thought is the house is more about lesions that impact a community – a family. How do we deal with those lesions?

I could be completely wrong in this – but it’s something I’m reflecting on. What are YOUR thoughts on what the house might symbolize in our lives?

Ok let’s dig in:
God is speaking to Moses; when you go into the land of Canaan, there will be placed Tzara’at lesions on houses in the land.
Rashi writes:
“It is good news for them that tzara’at lesions are to come upon them! Throughout the entire forty years that the Jewish people were in the desert the Amorites had hidden away treasures of gold inside the walls of their houses and, as a result of the tzara’at lesion, a person would demolish his house (see verses 43-45) and find them”

So what might be a negative is actually for our good. In each moment it is difficult to judge whether something is bad or good!

Rabbi Schneerson wrote this;
“According to Hasidic thought, tzara’at has an extremely sublime spiritual source, which was “misdirected” and “fell down” to become the most severe of all types of ritual impurity. This idea is expressed most poignantly by the case of tzara’at of houses, for when the Jewish people destroyed their houses only to find hoards of Amorite gold, they had a clear, visible indication that there is a great degree of goodness “locked up” in the affliction of tzara’at.
And this is the inner reason why the laws of the tzara’at of houses are recorded in a section unto themselves (unlike the laws of contamination and purification of tzara’at of skin and clothes which are mixed together). For since the Tzara’at of houses openly reveals a deeper, inner good, it is utterly unique.”

These are some good thoughts as we dig in here!
Now getting back to the text. A lesion on a house is very different because you couldn’t bring the house to the priest. God tells Moses and Aaron the individuals should go to the priest to tell them about the lesion on the house.

Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller wrote this;
“Even a Torah scholar who is certain that it is a lesion should not render judgment with certainty, saying “there is a lesion” Rather, he
should say, “There appears to me to be something like a lesion” (Rashi, 11′ century).

This is because a person, even if he is a great scholar, should avoid speaking about unfortunate events, because words are extremely powerful and merely speaking something negative could help it come to fruition. If you have to speak about something unfortunate, try to refer to it euphemistically.”

Interesting!
Getting back to the text, here’s a synopsis of what should happen:
1. Person should clear out their house before the priest comes to visit so that every earthenware vessel doesn’t become irreversibly impure – in case the priest announces the house is impure
2. Then the priest inspects the house; and inspect the lesion. If it’s dark green or dark red sunken looking stains, deeper than the wall, the house should be quarantined for 7 days.
3. After the 7th day the priest returns – if the lesion has spread in the walls, the stones with lesions on them need to be removed and cast away outside the city
4. The priest should scrape the houses from the inside all around, and what is scraped should be sent outside the city
5. The priest should take other stones and replace them, replaster the house

If the lesion returns and erupts in the house – the priest should return to impeach. If the priest sees that it has spread, it’s Tzara’at – and the house is impure. Which is bad news;
1. The house needs to be demolished and the rubble taken outside the city
2. Anyone who enters the house during the entire quarantine is ritually impure until the evening
3.who ever lies down in the house should immerse his garments in a ritual pool. Whoever eats in the house should immerse his garments too.

Now, however, if the priest looks at the house and sees the lesion DID NOT spread he should pronounce the house ritually pure. To purify the house we follow a similar pattern:
1. Take two birds, a stick of cedar, strip of crimson wool and hyssop.
2. Slaughter one bird and let the blood fall into an earthenware vessel containing spring water.
3. Take the cedar stick, the hyssop and the strip of crimson wool and dip them into the blood water mixture and sprinkle some towards the house seven times.
4. Then send away the live bird outside the city into the open field.
The priest will thus atone for the house and it will be ritually pure.
If the house in this case represents the commmunity, and there are some within the community causing lesions; and those lesions spread, the Torah seems to indicate removing those individuals from the community.

Now this may be a stretch. If those individuals are removed from the community and the lesions return; MAYBE it isn’t the individuals causing the problem, but the community itself? Maybe the community is impure and needs to be demolished.

If we find ourselves as part of a toxic community where lesions are allowed to be, we have to consider the idea of removing ourselves from that community – with the idea that POSSIBLY we are the ones negatively impacting that community (we are impure) or; they are impure. Both are possible and we cannot pass judgment without the idea of time.

There have been communities with a revolving door of problems; old problems removed, but then new problems return. At what point do those communities determine that it might be time to demolish?

Likewise, how often do we demolish communities because we think the community is toxic, when in reality, it was our toxicity that was causing the issue?

Just some things I’m reflecting on this morning! What are your thoughts?

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 6 Nisan, 5782

So. Today things are going to get a little…interesting. We will finish up with Tzara’at of a house and move into a man’s “discharge.” The Torah is going to cover men’s sexual health, y’all.

Just be forewarned!

Ok; the portion begins with closing out our parts about Tzara’at- a netek. The verses reflect on what we’ve studied and say this;

“this the law for every lesion of Tzara’at- a netek, Tzara’at of garments and houses, ” a (white) blotch, a creamy blotch and a white spot- (in order) to render decisions as to (which is) a day of ritual impurity and (which is) a day of ritual purity. (All) this is the law of Tzara’at.”

Rabbi Hayyim ibn Attar wrote this:

“The Sages teach that when God wants to rebuke a person for his misdeeds with tzara’at lesions, He does not strike the body first. First, God strikes the person’s house; if he does not repent, then God strikes his clothing. If he still does not repent, then God brings lesions on the body (Leviticus Rabbah).

If the home was afflicted first, why are its laws mentioned in the Torah last?

Because when the children of Israel were given the laws for tzara’at sufferers, they inhabited the desert and did not own any houses. Since it was not a relevant commandment at that time, it was mentioned last. It turns out, then, that when God said to Moses, “When you come to the land of Canaan … and I place tzara’at lesion on the houses,'” the message was actually a positive one: When you enter the land I will give you all homes, and then, when I want to reprimand you, I will start with your houses and not with your bodies.

A really powerful message. This was a promise; that the Jews would have houses in the promised land; that would get Tzara’at. Something to chew on – when we are struggling – what can we find gratitude in?

And with that thought we Next we jump into a man’s unhealthy discharge.

God tells Moses and Aaron “if any man has an unhealthy, watery venereal discharge from his body, his discharge is ritually impure.”

In thinking about the concept of discharge, Rabbi Schneerson immediately takes us from “jr high boy” perspective on this passage to “deep spiritual and meaningful with this writing;

“In addition to the natural “evil impulse” which God implanted into man (see Genesis 8:21), our tendency to evil is further strengthened by sin.

This can occur at three different levels:

(a) Primordial. The sin of the Tree of Knowledge strengthened the evil impulse of Adam, Eve

and all their descendants.

(b) Acute. In addition to the above, you can choose to “incite” your evil impulse to sin even

more than its own tendency to do so.

(c) Chronic. After doing this for a period of time, the evil impulse will become “addicted to

Is excessive sinful behavior, so that it no longer needs to be “incited.”

A zav is a person who is in a state of ritual impurity due to sickness. In spiritual terms, this

corresponds to the “sickness” of increasing the natural strength of the evil impulse by sinful behavior.

More precisely, the three levels of strengthening the evil impulse described above correspond to the three types of zav.

(a) A person who has a single unhealthy discharge becomes a zav even if it was accidental; This Corresponds to the primordial strengthening of the evil impulse which affects every person, through no fault of his own.

(b) The second discharge must, however, be intentional. This corresponds to the acute strengthening of the evil impulse, where a person actively incites himself to sin more.

(c) The third discharge of the zav could be accidental, so long as the previous two discharges were intentional. This corresponds to the chronic strengthening of the evil impulse, which begins intentionally but eventually causes the person to sin “addictively” even without choosing to do so.

Nevertheless, the Torah provides a means of removing even this form of ritual impurity (verses 14-15), teaching us that there is hope for every person to free himself from the confines of his evil impulse.” (End quote)

There is tremendous hope in these passages about a discharge. It is something to keep in mind; freedom and liberation can be had for us: if we only see it and accept it!

Ok back to the portion:

If there is a discharge whether it’s due to discharge running from his body, or clogging up his body, here’s what should happen –

1. Any bedding becomes ritually impure. Any object which he will sit becomes ritually impure
2. If a person touches the bedding, he should immerse his garments and himself in the mikveh and he will remain ritually impure until evening
3. Anyone who sits on an object which the man with a discharge sits, should do the same thing as #2.
4. Anyone who touches the body of the man with a discharge should also do the same thing as #2
5. If the man with the discharge spits upon a ritually pure person, that person should also do the same thing as #2 above
6. Any riding gear upon which the man with the discharge sits becomes ritually impure
7. Whoever touches the gear becomes ritually impure until the evening
8. Whoever lifts up anything contaminated by the person with a discharge should do the same as #2 above
9. Anyone whom the man with the discharge touches without the latter having rinsed his hands and immersed in the mikveh should also do the same as #2 above
10. An earthenware vessel which the man with the discharge will touch inside or move should be broken. Any wooden vessel should be immersed in the mikveh
11. When the man with the discharge stops having discharges, he should count seven consecutive days free of discharges – then do #2 above.

So let’s stop for a minute and talk about #2 above. It seems to be the common theme. Why does an impure person become purified through immersion in water?

Rabbi Aaron ha-Levi writes this:

After immersing himself in the water, he feels as though he were just formed anew-like in the beginning of creation, when the world was entirely covered by water.

Also, immersion symbolizes to the impure person that he should cleanse his soul from sin,

like water, which serves as an agent to cleanse everything it touches.

Interesting thoughts!

The portion closes with the eighth day for the man with a discharge. After immersing himself on the seventh day, God says he should take two turtle doves or two young doves and come before God on the eighth day. He should go to the entrance to the tent of meeting, give them to the priest. The priest will carry out their service – one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and thus the priest will atone for him from his discharge before God.

So there you have it. An unhealthy discharge from a man. Tomorrow, we will cover seminal emissions in general, and then menstruation. Should be interesting reads! The Torah is both spiritual – but it’s also practical!

Let’s close with this. The Chumash I am reading has this spiritual vitamin for us:

“With health problems, physical, mental or spiritual, the cure lies not in treating the symptoms, but in attacking the cause (although the former may sometimes be necessary for relief in acute cases).”

What do you think?