This week we read Tazria-Metzorah, a double portion all about disease. Sounds fun, right?
Every now and then we like to share the works of other Torah interpreters. It’s always good to get new and different perspectives. One of the most fun things about studying Torah is that a whole group of people can read the same portion but they each can have their own interpretation of it. So for this week, we wanted to share with you two different perspectives on the same portion.
Cantor David Berger discusses his experience with his own ailment in his d’var Torah “It’s Important To See the Whole Person, Not Just the Illness.” This portion goes into great detail about a specific skin affliction and how those who have it are treated. They are essentially ostracized and sent away until they have healed. These people were only seen as their illness and were treated poorly because of it. While it should be noted that the particular skin ailment in question only occurs after someone has gossipped, does that then make the treatment of these people justified? Cantor Berger goes on to talk about how patients and doctors fail to see each other as “whole people” and explains, “When medicine is just one more transaction in our life, no different from buying dish detergent, then neither doctor nor patient can see each other.” However, people are more than just their illness and we need to start viewing them as “whole people”
Rabbi Dvora E. Weisberg, in her d’var Torah “The Curative Power of Ritual”, writes about how the tzaraat in this portion can be related to our experience with COVID-19 today. Leviticus talks about the response the Israelites should have to this strange skin affliction. Part of that response includes isolation. Someone who is found to have this disease “shall dwell apart; his dwelling shall be outside the camp”. Sound familiar? Our first responses to COVID-19 were similar to the responses portrayed in Leviticus. While the disease portrayed in the Torah and COVID-19 are not exactly the same, our community responses to both have overlap, and the emotional toll they take overlap as well.
We have talked about Tazria-Metzora a few times in the past (three times to be exact).
The first time we covered it was way back in 2017 for our first blog HawkTorah. In this post, simply titled “Parshat Tazria-Metzora” we gave a synopsis of the whole portion and then focused on tzaraat and how gossiping and other forms of harmful speech can be damaging to our lives today.
We talked about the portion again the following year in the post “Parshat Tazria-Metzora 2.0” also for HawkTorah. This time we focused on the part of the portion about childbirth and the idea that it’s okay to take a step back after a traumatic experience to take care of yourself. We related it to a certain ice queen and how her isolation helped her learn to understand and even love herself.
Last year in our post “When Someone Gets Hurt” we focused on how objects afflicted with the plague were handled. We then took a trip to North Shore High to talk about how to handle toxic relationships.
Until next time, stay safe, wear a mask, and wash your hands!
Love,
Amanda & Marissa
