Rabbi's Blog

Every week as I sit down to write a weekly message I scour my library searching for words of Torah that reflect some incident or situation that occurs. Baruch Hashem I have a decent library with many resources to pull from, but nevertheless a challenge. When we walk into a room full of seforim, holy books we are usually on our feet already and there is no need to ‘stand up’ for the Torah that is in the room. This contrasts with when we are sitting in a Shul or Beis Medrash and the Torah scroll is moving around we need to rise for the honor of the Torah. Not only do we stand when the actual Torah scroll is moved but when a Torah sage and scholar enter a room we stand, for they are considered a walking Torah scroll.

This week I had the Zechus/merit to host a Torah giant in the Jewish world. He is Bli Ayin Hara a man in his nineties who arrived at my house at 11:30pm after finishing some business that took over four hours. He left his home at 6:00am to catch a flight to San Diego, mind you he lives in the southeast portion of the U.S. After a brief bowl of cereal, I shared a dvar Torah from a new sefer that I have and within minutes of reviewing a piece on this week’s parsha he came back with some critiques and additions then gave his own understanding of this Mitzva of the Torah. Before I share his insight, the scenario in my home reminded me of a Mishna in Pirkei Avos. It was only last Shabbos that we began this summertime limmud and in the very first chapter Pirkei Avos 1:4 it mentions the following. Yossi Ben Yo'ezer from Tzreida and Yossi Ben Yochanon from Jerusalem received the tradition from them. Yossi Ben Yo'ezer from Tzreida said: "Let your home be a gathering place for scholars, get dusty (wrestle) in the dust of their feet, and drink in their words with thirst." Here I was literally waiting on this great Rov and basking in his light and breath of Torah. A walking sefer Torah knows no age, time or place, the words of Torah are on his fingertips and spew forth like a fountain.

 In the second of this week’s Parshios, Metzora outlines the way to purify one self and possessions that were afflicted with Tzoraas, which I define as a spiritual leprosy (not to be confused with the medical definition of leprosy). In Vayikra 14:2 the Torah states: “Zos T’hiyeh Toras HaMetzora B’Yom Taharaso, V’Huva El HaKohain”. “This is the law concerning the leper when he is purified, and he shall be brought and placed under the jurisdiction of the priest”. Rav Nata Greenblatt YBL”C asks “once a person knows he has Tzoraas wouldn’t you think he would run to the Kohain, why does the Torah need to say, and he was ‘brought’ to the Kohain? At the outset the person sees some type of affliction or discoloration on his body. The process of purification first begins with identifying if the skin condition is in fact tzoraas, if it is leprosy the kohain will deem him a leper on the spot. If the kohain is not sure, then he will quarantine the person for a week and check again after seven days and repeat the process. Rav Nata Greenblatt explains the mindset of the leper.  In the beginning the person doesn’t think anything of his skin condition and does not consider the connection between his neshama/soul and his guf/body, meaning he might have committed one of the sins that bring about leprosy. After he realizes that this skin condition appears to perhaps be leprosy he gets concerned and knows that only a Kohain can decide if it is or not.   At that point a person begins to think maybe I did violate a mitzva that the punishment is Tzoraas and starts to do Teshuva, to repent. Unfortunately, he starts to doubt himself if he did something wrong, he is not sure if he is doing a proper repentance (not knowing if it is Tzoraas or not) and is afraid to even approach the Kohain. Therefore, the Torah demands that ‘he be brought’ to the kohain almost against his will. This is symptomatic of a person doubting their ability to succeed and rather than try they choose to fail. Perhaps they did do something wrong but are unsure how to go about correcting their situation. If they don’t move forward and be encouraged to work on improving and moving forward, then they risk falling further from where they began.

After reviewing the dvar Torah on Tazria for ninety seconds Rav Nata recalled the words of the Rambam as if he saw it yesterday. He quoted a piece that is out of character for Maimonidies. He writes in mussar fashion within the Mishna Torah which deals exclusively with Halacha, Jewish law. In Sefer Tahara at the end of the laws of Tumas Tzoraas 16:10 Maimonidies lays into the root cause of how a person gets to the point of speaking loshon hara. “Tzoraas is the name of a condition that includes many areas that are dissimilar to one another. Tzoraas shows up in different places and on different parts of the body depending on what the sin was. All the signs and indications of Tzoraas was a bewilderment and a wonder that was above nature, something inexplicable. If he remained steadfast in his wickedness then he began to lose everything, his house would be torn down, utensils destroyed, and clothing burned. If he repented fully at any point it would all stop, and life would resume to normal. If he still did not repent, then he will be separated and isolated from the congregation so that he will no longer be able to speak evil against anyone”. How did this all begin? Rambam continues “because he did not remember what happened to Miriam when we were on the way leaving Mitzrayim. She spoke against her brother Moshe who she was older than, and who raised him and put herself in danger to save her younger brother Moshe. She, Miriam did not necessarily speak bad against Moshe but rather just equated him to all the other prophets, and even though Moshe let it pass because he was the humblest of all men, she was punished! How much more so we the average person would be guilty speaking ill of leaders and great people. A person who scoffs and makes fun of everything will come to make fun of the leaders and even Rabbis”.

 This type of behavior gives a thrill to the speaker and gains support of those around him while talking bad about the leaders of the Jewish people and even of our secular leaders in positions of authority. It is easier in the short run to doubt our own growth in Torah and Mitzvos and throw in the towel and make fun of those who are trying to lift us up. One needs to ‘bring himself’ to the kohain or leader and try to gain from their wisdom and insight and not make fun of them and what they stand for. Bring the Torah into your house, open your homes to Torah sages and scholars and bask in the delight of their Torah. Embrace who they are and what they represent, as this is the way to reverse the destruction of the Jewish homes and to build a true Bayis Neeman B’Yisrael