As Jaden mentions in his D’var Torah one of the peculiarities of Parashat Tazria is the examination and validation by Priests of scaly infection called in Hebrew nega tzara-at – plague of infection on body, garments and buildings.
There is hardly anything in the Torah about healing or of a medicinal nature. So why would the whole two Parashot be dedicated to such a detailed inspection of scaly infections by Priests? What’s going on here?
In Parashat Tazria the Priest’s role is not that of a doctor, their main concern is the state of people’s physical and moral purity. Pure and impure were two very important categories in the ancient Israel. It is not the scaly infection that the Priests are concerned about spreading. It is the impurity that comes with the spread of infection they wanted to avoid.
6 chapters later, right in the middle of the Torah, God calls for Holiness through Moses. You and I are Holy because we are made in the imagine of God; you and I are Holy because we have special and loving relationship with our God. But, the Torah makes it very clear that it is also our responsibility to maintain that holiness and so priests were in charge of helping people to maintain both their physical and spiritual purity, their inner and outer holiness, not only as individuals but also as a community.
Holy ness is a big word. It is an unusual word for us, modern people. What is being holy? According to the Biblical Judaism a state of purity, physical and moral, is a tool to achieve holiness.
The reason ritual, physical and moral purity was deemed so important for ancient Israelites is because, we are told in the Torah, it preserves God’s presence among us[1], Shehinah (a Hebrew word for God’s presence) dwells among us.
Did you know this?
God’s presence dwells among us when we maintain our purity, external and internal, and that will lead us to that special state of energy, which will connect with and maintain God’s presence among us.
What is fascinating about this relationship with God and the Universe is that we’ve got to maintain this purity both as individuals and community.
And that’s the tough part.
Let’s start with physical purity. We are affected not only by external factors like hereditary diseases, modified genes and polluted environment but also by choices we make through our life and lack of will power. It seems to me that the more we develop as our post-industrial civilization, the worse our habits become.
Many of us lead sedentary life-styles and don’t exercise enough, quite a few of us lack discipline with our diets, our weakened physical state weakens our mental state and we don’t cope well with stress which we all experience to some degree.
Many of us, and our children in particular, are glued to a screen. We know it is not good for our mental and physical health, we know that it makes us more stressed and anxious but we still do it.
Add to this the negative news being shouted at us by the news channels, lack of sleep for some of us and our state of mind and spirit are full of negativity.
People start turning against each other and blaming others when the problem is actually within. And then our moral purity evaporates and so does God’s presence. We are still alive but we just exist. Or as Jewish philosopher Erich Fromm puts it: “lack of wellbeing” is on full display in our society, which is a professional way of saying we are in balagan.
Erich Fromm in his interview in 1960 went as far as to say that in modern society many people feel well only because we medicate ourselves in many ways[2] from over-consuming chocolates or crisps or alcohol, or constant stimulations, or any other addictions we might develop in our lives lacking purity and wellbeing.
Maintaining purity in our modern society or in our lives today takes some will power and perseverance. It is almost ironic that the secret to more balanced, healthier and harmonic lives is in our hands. God’s presence in our community is in our hands.
Are we willing to maintain that presence? Are we willing to extend that presence to the rest of our society?
First, we need to be there together as a community. Some of us are in total control with our lives and some of us are getting there.
It is easier than you think. For example, I train my will-power by talking to chocolate. Last conversation took place on Monday. I managed to resist more than half of the creamiest and most delicious dark chocolate filled with cherries by telling it that my body is a Temple and as much as I would love to consume all of it right now, I value the sanctity of my body and mind more. It worked because I have been training myself for years now.
The following day I shared my success story with one of my colleagues at the office when she told me that she’d had a stressful day and needed chocolate. I tried to talk to her the way I talked to my chocolate without any success. Then she shared with me the cause of her problem. I went to the shop and bought her chocolate.
The way to purity is also a road of failed attempts and perseverance. Again, again and again, as individuals and as a community. Small steps, lead to big changes. Small daily victories and their celebrations are as important as the total radical change in one’s state of purity. Will power is much more under our control than we would like to admit sometimes.
As a community, let’s start with small changes in our Kiddush by introducing more vegetables instead of crisps; and to help with this, I am going to make it my personal crusade to work my way through the entire stock of crisps in the shul.
We are humans created in the image of God, we need to regularly remind ourselves that we are not mindless consumers or easily manipulated creatures.
Let us maintain our positive focus, our strong commitment and strengthen our will power on our way to the state of personal and communal purity so that God’s presence will dwell among us and so Jaden and his friends will enjoy a very different level of connection with the Divine and beautiful world around us.
[1] The Tora, a modern commentary, General Editor W. Gunther Plaut, Union for Reform Judaism, 2005, p.734.
[2] Erich Fromm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhbSUeL-foU&t=533s
