Community Torah Corner, April 21, 2023

There’s nothing like when a future B’nei Mitzvah student realizes they’ve received the “icky parashah,” Tazria-M’tzora. While the reactions often include groans, some students relish the idea of diving into this text at inopportune moments, like dinnertime.  However, COVID has changed things, and this parashah is now in high demand. What could be more relevant than a text that speaks of mysterious illnesses we didn’t understand, which we treated with weeklong quarantine? 

Tazria-M’tzora provides a framework to understand what many of us, including our GOA students, have gone through over these past few years. Throughout Leviticus, we receive instructs on how to remain in a state of ritual purity (taharah) while avoiding ritual impurity (tum’ah). Here the Torah is concerned with public physical health. There may, however, be an additional deeper concern on public spiritual health. It may be that the priests were the ones making “medical” evaluations, not because of the physical health issue but because of the concern that the sick person could impact the overall spiritual life of the community. A person with an unknown illness would be in no mental state to offer sacrifices and their physical presence, with the appearance of a potentially contagious illness, could affect the state and readiness of others.

How many of us can focus on prayers, studies, or anything else while sick with the flu? How many of us can focus when we suspect the person next to us of having a highly contagious illness?

The unknown is scary and discombobulating. The Torah recognizes this. Keeping the ritually impure away from the camp wasn’t a consequence for wrongdoing; it was a measure to separate those who could not engage in communal spiritual endeavors from those who could. It may have even given those with the illness time for recovery. And then, when they were ready to return, there was a ritual process to bring them back into the headspace of life.

Over these past few years, we’ve learned that sometimes we must take time away from the community to heal. Tazria-Metzora reminds us that we’re all better off when we take time for recovery, allow others to take time off for recovery, and approach those suffering from trauma with kindness and compassion.