Rabbi Art: This week in the Torah 4/2
Weekly Torah Sedra – Tazria – Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59 “He shall be unclean as long as the disease is found within him, he shall be unclean.” - LEVITICUS 13:46This week’s parashah, Tazria, focuses upon ritual/spiritual uncleanness connected to the physical ailment that may have been Leprosy. (There is much scholarly debate about whether it was really Leprosy.)
From a traditional, close reading of the Torah text, there seems to be a superfluous phrase here. Why is it necessary to repeat the phrase “he is unclean”? Of course, as long as one has a disease, that person is considered unclean, and must be isolated in order not to spread the disease.
Each year as we come this part of the Book of Leviticus we may struggle with finding something relevant for our modern sensibilities. One commentator 19th century rabbi may help us in our struggle. The NETZIV (Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin), Rosh Yeshiva of the famous Yeshiva of Volozhin in White Russia, 1817-1893. points out that one might assume that after the ceremony of ritual purification, one might be able to be considered pure, even though the disease is still present. No, he replies, of course not. As long as the disease is present, no ritual purification can help. It is primarily the disease that must be cured.
The NETZIV then applies this same principle to moral failures. Apologizing, repenting, and going through all the moral purification necessary is not enough, he argues, unless and until the failures are removed, and made up. Unless a person changes one’s character, and discontinues the mistake, it is useless to try to purify oneself through regret. This interpretation may not be the p’shat, plain meaning of the text, however, it does allow us a chance to find meaning in an otherwise ancient and arcane ritual. As our sages taught, “turn it [Torah] over and over, for everything is it.”
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Art Donsky
