(Leviticus15:14)
Nisan 28, 5778/April 13, 2018
This week's double Torah reading of Tazria-Metzora deals with a number of subjects, each distinct from the other, but with a common thread woven through each of them. One of the common threads today is how strange, how foreign, how far away they all seem to our modern eyes and ears. Nevertheless the intended common thread throughout Tazria-Metzora is that of tahara, translated as purity, and its antithesis, tum'a, translated as impurity. Just what are taharaand tum'a and what do they have to do with the arcane afflictions whose symptoms are described in painstaking detail, and what does any of this have to do with the central and sole focus of the book of Leviticus, which is the service of the kohanim, (the Temple priests), within the desert Tabernacle?
The ability of our eyes to perceive is restricted to a particular spectrum of light. There are many things in heaven and on earth that we simply don't see, yet we know that they exist. Through modern technology man has been able to tap into many of these previously inaccessible light spectrums and see things that we never witnessed before. Modern tools allow us to see bones and organs within our own bodies, and to perceive waves and flashes of energy as they travel through our central nervous system. Other instruments allow us to perceive the farthest reaches of the universe, even to see things that happened unfathomable eons ago. These extraordinary man-made innovations have extended our eyesight, enabling us to see the heretofore unimaginable. Now imagine the reverse: When the Tabernacle, (and later, the Holy Temple), was standing, and G-d filled it, focusing His Presence within the Tabernacle, that endless, uncontainable Presence, restricted and dialed down by G-d, to be sure, so that it could exist within our finite physical world, nevertheless spread forth and emanated beyond the confines of the Tabernacle itself, and illuminated, most powerfully and profoundly, the Israelite encampment around the Tabernacle, and later, the land of Israel around the Holy Temple, and ultimately, the entire world. But within the Israelite encampment, and within the land of Israel, the Divine light was so intense that it literally opened our eyes, enabling us to see that which we could never see before. A new spiritual spectrum was opened up before us and we were able to see physical signs, lesions in our skin, stains within our garments and mold-like manifestations on the wall of our homes. These were physical manifestations of spiritual imbalances and imperfections within ourselves, which now, exposed to the ethereal light emanating from the Tabernacle, were made visible to the naked eye. Because these visible phenomena were symptoms of spiritual turbulence, kohanim were called upon to examine and diagnose them and prescribe the proper spiritual treatment and cure. Because the newly visible evidence of spiritual dissonance were the direct result of the G-dly light emanating from the Tabernacle, the kohanim, whose work was otherwise restricted to the Tabernacle, were called upon to make house-calls.
What were the spiritual infirmities which brought upon these physically visible symptoms? They were not shrouded in mystery, nor did they require some manner of cryptic healing. The infirmities were nothing more and nothing less than the very human failings in which we find ourselves immersed every day: ill-intention and evil speak toward others and about others, insensitivity and lack of empathy, pride and self-aggrandizement. These social maladies have grown pandemic in our day. Its germs are carried in our breath when we speak, in ink when we print and virtually, when we post and tweet. We witness daily how dangerous and even deadly this disease has become. But what we don't physically see, because the Divine light is not today emanating from the Holy Temple, is how intimately and ubiquitously our own expressions of ill-conceived intent effect our own personal domain and our own bodily selves! Imagine, if every tweeter of hate and cyber bullying were to witness a ghastly lesion in their own skin as a direct result of their action, or the discoloration of their new garment or an indelible stain on their newly painted bedroom wall, and had no recourse but to call for a kohen... they might think twice before indulging again in behavior that is destructive to G-d's world and to themselves. The spiritual blemish which is spawned by talk and action that is antithetical to the life and growth and purpose which together are the creative forces which inform and make holy creation, is known in Hebrew as tum'a. The state of being in harmony with the Divine light which illuminates and animates our world is known in Hebrew as tahara. The difference between tum'a and tahara in our lives is delicate, and its proper balance is a daily endeavor. To strive for and to achieve tahara is not merely our challenge. It is our responsibility.
The double Torah reading of Tazria-Metzora is preceded by Shemini, literally "the eighth day" which describes the first day of the establishment of the Tabernacle, the initiation of the Divine service and the entrance of G-d's Presence into the Tabernacle, following the final inaugural preparations made during the previous seven day period. Similarly, the primary prescribed treatment for those mentioned in Tazria-Metzora who have contracted the various symptoms described above was seven days of isolation, followed by immersion in a ritual bath and the bringing of a korban (drawing-near) offering on the eighth day. The similarity is no coincidence. Following the seven day Tabernacle inauguration, or the seven day isolation period of Tazria-Metzora, which encompass a reaffirmation of the six days of creation and the seventh day, the Shabbat, which is the temporal sanctification of creation, comes the eighth day in which the spacial dimension of creation is sanctified. This occurred in the Tabernacle on the first day of Nisan, which was the eighth day following the week-long inauguration. For the rest of us who have stumbled in our small place in creation, the eighth day and the obligation to bring an offering is our invitation to return to all that is good in G-d's creation and to bask in the unfettered Divine light which shines forth from the Holy Temple.
-The Temple Institute
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