The Decay From WIthin?

The Decay From WIthin?

There is a very challenging reading from our Torah assigned this week. It is a so-called double portion of Torah to be read in synagogues this Shabbat. Tazria-M’tzorah is a difficult portion and the fear of many a Bar Mat Mitzvah students for it is a reading that discussed the pries’s role in examining and dealing with a variety of skin eruptions. This has often been mis-translated as leprosy, but it is really a focus on outbreaks of disease that can impact someone’s skin and even, as the end of the reading discussed, buildings.

What does this possibly have to do with twenty-first century life? More than we maybe wish! Classic interpretations from Jewish tradition equates these outbreaks with what is called “lashon ha’ra” or gossip. These commentaries discuss the fact that gossip can hurt and even kill. Indeed, we all know situations where social media and cyber-bullying have hurt, sometime even been the catalyst to have someone commit suicide. Words can hurt.

But also there is this idea of these skin eruptions as being a metaphor for moral behavior. This is like a person becoming infected with these outbreaks and becoming sick. These are not infections caused by outside forces, rather they are from within. What happens to a society that begins to rot from within itself? What happens to a society when the moral/ethical compass breaks, where the good of the individual surpasses the good of the community, where fear of the “other” replaces civility? History is filled with instances of empires, cultures and movements that were destroyed not from any outside force, but from a gradual decay from within.

Once again, an ancient text “speaks” to us. Our challenge? Are we hearing the voice of history?

Rabbi Richard F Address

jewishsacredaging.com