Dear TBZ community:
This Shabbat is Rosh Hodesh Nisan – the beginning of the month of Nisan – and it is also Shabbat HaHodesh, the Shabbat of the new month. This shabbat we read two special additional Torah portions announcing the month that marks the beginning of the first month.
Although Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of our annual calendar, the first month of Nisan marks the start of our biblical calendar when liberation and redemption become possible in our Jewish imagination and Jewish narrative.
This shabbat is also Parshat Tazria and in it we read about God's instructions to Moses about the purification rituals for mothers following childbirth and then God describes to Moses and Aaron the role of the Kohen, the priest – the role of a healer. Here we learn the procedures for the Kohen to identify and respond to those infected with leprosy: afflicted people go to the Kohen to show him their skin and their home and to receive some kind of treatment and healing ritual.
Our teacher, Rabbi Art Green, in his weekly Torah commentary (which he is currently writing) brings a powerful insight to the role of the Kohen and perhaps to the roles of each one of us as potential healers of others, of other human beings, or humanity, he reads Leviticus 13:3 in the following way:
וראה הכהן את הנגע בעור הבשר ושער בנגע הפך לבן ומראה הנגע עמוק מעור בשרו נגע צרעת הוא וראהו הכהן וטמא אותו
“The kohen (read: “healer”) shall look at the affliction in the skin of the flesh. Has its hair turned white? Does it appear deeper than a flesh-wound? If so, it is tsara’at, (= ‘et tsar, ‘a time of woe).’ Look at the person and declare it defiling (13:3).”
Dealing with a person in pain requires two sorts of perception, specific and global. Look at the wound itself. Try to see how deep it is. Is it transformative in the person’s life? Is it turning her/his hair white (literally or metaphorically)? Does it go deep? Can you be of help in lessening the depth of its effect? This question is one for the counselor, lover, or friend, as it is for the oncologist. Can I help to keep it from spreading?
But then the verb ra’ah, seeing or looking, is repeated at the end of the verse. Look again “See him/her” - this time at the whole person. That is the one you are seeking to heal.
Now ask yourself that same set of questions about your own wound and your own process of healing. How deep does it go? How can I keep it from spreading, from taking over all of me as a person? Can I heal it, or must I learn to live with it? Perhaps that too is a form of healing.
There is so much hurt and pain in the world, individually in our own lives, in our families and collectively in our world. Rabbi Art Green reminds us in his teaching that each and every one of us has the potential to face the world with the sensitivities of a Kohen, of a priest. As a Kohen we can find ways to approach healing, to seek healing for others, and to find healing for our own selves.
As we read this portion, and celebrate not only a new month, but also the month, we are reminded that Pesach is almost here and that redemption is also almost here. Our tradition calls us to believe that redemption and healing is at hand, even when it doesn't feel that way, even when we find ourselves confused by the terrible realities that surround us. We human beings can bring healing to others and to the world. Yes, we can not cure all the pain and distress and suffering, but we can be catalizers of healing and perhaps we can bring redemption a bit closer.
Holding hope and believing that there is good ahead of us is not easy, especially in the face of the ravaging of Ukraine and the lives lost in this sensless war, in the wake of the current wave of terror attacks in Israel and the lives lost and injured there, and the trajectory of this pandemic here among us, and across our world.
Perhaps Parshat Tazria is an invitation not to look away, but rather to see the wounds, to see the pain and the suffering, to see the injustice. If we look away, the wound, the pain, the suffering, the injustice can spread, and will worsen. Perhaps Parshat Tazria, can remind us that there are ways for each of us to help, although perhaps we can’t fully stop the ills of the world, at least when we open our eyes to them we can begin to heal them. And perhaps that is what believing in the possibility of redemption means: believing that each and everyone of us is a Kohen, a priest at heart that can look into our wounds, and the wounds of others, of our communities, of our world and do our part to offer some kind of healing.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing.
May we have a joyful and restful Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom,
