This Lelamed Dvar is also available in your local App Store (iTunes and
Android). I hope you enjoy this Dvar from Dan Lifshitz...
The primary subject of Parshat Tazria is tzara'at, a supernatural skin
disease that, according to the Sages, was a punishment for speaking ill
about other people. A person who habitually spoke ill about others would
be struck with tzara'at and would then be quarantined outside the city as a
divine warning to improve their behavior and make themselves more worthy of
dwelling within the community. Although the symptoms of tzara'at were
fairly straightforward, the official diagnosis could only be made by a
kohen, who would declare whether a given patch of skin contained tzara'at
or not. The Torah describes one type of skin lesion called a "bohak" that
is not tzara'at, but is required to be shown to a kohen as well. R' Moshe
Feinstein asks about the purpose of this - if it is not tzara'at, why does
the Torah trouble people to show it to the kohen?
R' Moshe Feinstein explains based on the insight mentioned earlier. The
purpose of tzara'at is to cause a person to evaluate their behavior and to
make improvements. The trauma of being quarantined outside the city for a
week or more is clearly a strong catalyst for such self-examination,
similar to the way serious illness or loss of a job triggers
self-examination in our day. But we must not wait for such dramatic events
to examine our actions. The law of the bohak teaches us that even smaller
events in our lives should be seen as catalysts for introspection and
self-improvement. We can never know for certain what messages G-d is
trying to send us, but we should always be listening, whether the message
is loud or not.
Shlomo Ressler
Quotation of the Week:
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the
key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when
I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the
assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life."
This Lelamed Dvar is also available in your local App Store (iTunes and
Android). I hope you enjoy this Dvar from Dan Lifshitz...
_______________________________________________
The primary subject of Parshat Tazria is tzara'at, a supernatural skin
disease that, according to the Sages, was a punishment for speaking ill
about other people. A person who habitually spoke ill about others would
be struck with tzara'at and would then be quarantined outside the city as a
divine warning to improve their behavior and make themselves more worthy of
dwelling within the community. Although the symptoms of tzara'at were
fairly straightforward, the official diagnosis could only be made by a
kohen, who would declare whether a given patch of skin contained tzara'at
or not. The Torah describes one type of skin lesion called a "bohak" that
is not tzara'at, but is required to be shown to a kohen as well. R' Moshe
Feinstein asks about the purpose of this - if it is not tzara'at, why does
the Torah trouble people to show it to the kohen?
R' Moshe Feinstein explains based on the insight mentioned earlier. The
purpose of tzara'at is to cause a person to evaluate their behavior and to
make improvements. The trauma of being quarantined outside the city for a
week or more is clearly a strong catalyst for such self-examination,
similar to the way serious illness or loss of a job triggers
self-examination in our day. But we must not wait for such dramatic events
to examine our actions. The law of the bohak teaches us that even smaller
events in our lives should be seen as catalysts for introspection and
self-improvement. We can never know for certain what messages G-d is
trying to send us, but we should always be listening, whether the message
is loud or not.
Shlomo Ressler
_______________________________________________
Quotation of the Week:
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the
key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when
I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the
assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life."
