Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 9 Nisan, 5784
Parsha Metzora’ – “Tzara’at sufferer”: (Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33)
Fourth Portion: Leviticus 14:33 – 14:53

Good morning! Today we are less than a week away from Passover (which starts Monday night, April 22^nd) As we start the “cleaning up” process in preparation for Passover, and we clean out the leaven – those things that cause us to stay stuck, there is a lot of chaos around us right now. The purpose of this chaos is to move us towards innovation. If we are stuck, this chaos will move us in the right direction!  With this, let’s dig in:

33And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

34When you come to the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I place a lesion of tzara’ath upon a house in the land of your possession,

35and the one to whom the house belongs comes and tells the kohen, saying, “Something like a lesion has appeared to me in the house,”

36the kohen shall order that they clear out the house, before the kohen comes to look at the lesion, so that everything in the house should not become unclean. After this, the kohen shall come to look at the house.

Yes, the Torah talks about what to do with a mold problem.

How can we relate this to us? The first step with a mold problem? Clear out. If there are things within us that are causing us to suffer, the best thing we can do is move away from them, and bring an outsider to look at it.

37And he shall look at the lesion. Now, [if] the lesion in the walls of the house consists of dark green or dark red sunken looking stains, appearing as if deeper than the wall,

38then the kohen shall go out of the house to the entrance of the house, and he shall quarantine the house for seven days.

39Then the kohen shall return on the seventh day and look [at the house]. Now, [if] the lesion has spread in the walls of the house,

40the kohen shall order that they remove the stones upon which the lesion is [found], and they shall cast them away outside the city, to an unclean place.

So basically, the priest finds the stains, he waits.  They give it a week.

What a lesson for us.

How often do we panic when we think something is going to go poorly. When we see something potentially problematic.  The priest waited seven days, went back, and all they did at that point was remove the stones where the lesions were.

41And he shall scrape out the house from the inside, all around, and they shall pour out the [mortar] dust from what they scraped, outside the city, into an unclean place.

42And they shall take other stones and bring them instead of those stones. And he shall take other [mortar] dust, and plaster the house.

And they take new stones – and replace the old ones. To see if that helps.

43And if the lesion returns and erupts in the house, after he had removed the stones, and after the house had been scraped around and after it had been plastered,

44then the kohen shall come and look [at it]. Now, [if] the lesion in the house has spread, it is malignant tzara’ath in the house; it is unclean.

45He shall demolish the house, its stones, its wood, and all the [mortar] dust of the house, and he shall take [them] outside the city, to an unclean place.

Wow. There is no coming back from a mold problem in the Torah when it comes to houses. And?

46And anyone entering the house during all the days of its quarantine shall become unclean until the evening.

47And whoever lies down in the house, shall immerse his garments, and whoever eats in the house, shall immerse his garments.

The people in the house? They were just unclean until evening.

48But if the kohen comes and comes again and looks [at the lesion], and behold, the lesion did not spread in the house, after the house has been plastered, the kohen shall pronounce the house clean, because the lesion has healed.

And? If the house is not spreading, the house is clean!  Now it is time to ritually cleanse the house:

49To [ritually] cleanse the house, he shall take two birds, a cedar stick, a strip of crimson [wool], and hyssop.

50He shall slaughter one bird into an earthenware vessel, over spring water.

51And he shall take the cedar stick, the hyssop, the strip of crimson [wool], and the live bird, and he shall dip them into the blood of slaughtered bird and into the spring water and sprinkle towards the house seven times.

52And he shall [thus] cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, the spring water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop and the strip of crimson [wool].

53He shall then send away the live bird outside the city, onto the [open] field. He shall thus effect atonement for the house, and it will be clean.

Even when the house is clean there was a ritual cleansing. Two birds. One dies, the other is dipped in the blood and then freed.

A lot around us lately has seemed to be connected to death and rebirth. The Torah here seems to really lean into this.  In order for us to be “cleansed” from what keeps us stuck – we must let go of one thing so that we are free to live another.

Freedom is dying to our ego and old self so that we are free to live new lives of adventure.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

Here are my thoughts from two years 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?