Rabbi's Blog

One of my favorite sources of information is found on highway billboards. Billboards advertise to the drivers in that particular area. Putting aside billboards that are inappropriate to look at, a person must be careful not to get fixated on the board for too long because it's rather important that one should keep his eyes on the road. One of the most dangerous situations occurs when driving with a passenger who suddenly exclaims, "Hey, look at that billboard!" Which, of course, you've passed before you could possibly glance at it. Even when driving at the legal speed limit (which really does occur once in a while), I find myself turning my head to look at a passing billboard and then, as a last resort, trying to get a better glimpse in my rearview mirror. This activity is very distracting and keeps me from concentrating on the road and the oncoming traffic.

Recently, while driving in South Florida, my wife pointed out a few interesting billboards. One of them advertised a surgeon's practice which has performed the most hip replacements in Florida - a place where many senior citizens live. A second billboard advertised a lawyer specializing in "peaceful divorce negotiations". There are, of course, hundreds of catchy phrases and anecdotes to peak a person's interest in numerous billboards. One type which I feel is very telling is the advertising of religion. Whether it is medical, legal, or spiritual, help being sold on a billboard reveals a great deal about our society and our lives today.

One of the major principles the world exists upon is supply and demand. Where there is a demand you can be sure someone or some company will try to supply it. The inverse, of course, is also true: if we did not have that need the supply would not be necessary. Obviously, it's important to be able to supply those needs when necessary, but can you imagine a world where some of the billboard ads I mentioned earlier would not be necessary? Just think of a world without the elderly falling and breaking hips, a world where marriages thrive and people remain together, and, of course, a world where everyone knows about God? Unfortunately this is not the reality of the world in which we live. Nevertheless, we must ask ourselves the question: how can we view these situations in a positive light and eventually remove the need for some of those negative billboard signs?

This week's Parsha Metzora is a continuation, actually the second half of last week's Parsha Tazria. The latter part of Tazria and the former section of Metzora deal exclusively with Tzoraas/spiritual leprosy. The primary investigator and decisor who determines whether or not the color and form seen is in fact Tzoraas is the Kohein. It is interesting to note that in Vayikra 13:3 the Passuk states: "V'Raah HaKohein Es HaNega B'Or Habasar V'Seiar BeNega Hafach Lavan UMaray HaNega Amok Mei'Or B'Saro Nega Tzaaraas Hu, V'Raahu HaKohein V'Teemei Oso." - "The Kohein shall look at the affliction on the skin of his flesh: If hair in the affliction has turned white, and the affliction's appearance is deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a Tzaar'as - an affliction. The Kohein shall look at it and make him impure." The obvious question is, why is the line discussing the Kohein looking at the 'Nega', the affliction, repeated a second time? Two important and critical reasons are given that really give us deeper insight to our world and to the messages of advertising on billboards.

Let's analyze what the Kohein sees. Tzoraas/Leprosy is found in three different areas, the skin of a person, his clothing, and the walls of a house. In each scenario the affected area is relatively small in comparison to the rest of the surroundings. There is more healthy skin, more unaffected material, and more clean stones in the house compared to the affected areas. The Kutna Rav, Yisroel Eliyahu Yehoshua Trunk explains that the first time the Kohein looks is to see and examine the area and to consider it a Nega Tzoraas. This, of course, brings a lot of negative attention to the person concerned because we know, as it states in Gemara Erchin 16a, the reasons and sins why the leprosy has come. Despite the small affected area which may or may not become a full blown leprosy, the Kohein looks at the rest of the body which is NOT affected by Tzoraas. The second idea belongs to Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk in his master work the Meshech Chochmah. In this work he says the second looking of the Kohein takes into account two other factors that are removed from the person's body: time and circumstances. The fallout from a defining and halchik Tzoraas requires isolation from the Jewish camp. The leper must be quarantined and is required to live away from everyone else. A consideration by the Kohein must be made because there is the possibility that the person might be around for a different reason. Case in point is one of the first laws in Hilchos Aveilus/mourning. In Yoreh Deah Siman 342 a case is discussed where either the mother of the bride or the father of the groom dies on the wedding day itself. At that moment they become mourners, but the practical Halacha is that they go through with the wedding and enter the seven days of celebration known as Sheva Brachos , delaying the mourning until a week later. In essence, the halacha takes into account the time and circumstances of the situation. It is the responsibility of the Kohein to review and not just look at the obvious, glaring affliction.

Most advertising and selling of a product is based upon the demand created by society's problems and perceived needs. We as a society need to fix the initial problems and underlying causes for those problems in order to avoid or eliminate the need for people to supply these services. If, for example, everyone ate healthier food and was not overweight, we would not need the plethora of diet plans offering guaranteed success in becoming healthy. This, of course, is just one example. When it comes to God and religion, if we turn people on rather than off to religion we would not need so much 'outreach'. Outreach is a beautiful gesture but is still only a demand created by the sad need across the entire spectrum of Judaism today.

The message of this parsha could not be more vital for every one of us. We ALL, myself included, are always drawn to the negative of any given situation, whether it be physical or spiritual in nature. If the situation is different than what we are accustomed to, we look askance at it and deride the negative component of the person concerned. It is our duty and our individual and collective responsibility to look beyond and around the obvious that draws our attention. It is part of the old cliché of not looking at the glass half empty but rather half full. If we concentrate our attention on the positives of a person, we can create and maintain healthy Neshamos - complete souls that ARE NOT BROKEN OR SEPARATED FROM the system which runs our world.

Ah Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky

*Rav Yisrael Eliyahu Yehoshua Trunk (1821-1893). Born in Plotsk, he received most of his teaching from his father, who was niftar when the boy was just 11. As a teenager, he spent 3 months with the Kotzker Rebbe, whose direction he followed for the remainder of his life. When he was twenty, Rav Yisrael Eliyahu Yehoshua founded a yeshivah and served as rav in Shrensk for seven years. Later in Vorka, his fame as a posek grew. In 1860, he moved to Kutna, which lies near Gustenin and Zichlin. The first record of Jews in Kutna is a document from 1513, in which King Zigmund of Poland grants a year's moratorium to the gentile debtors of three Kutna Jews - Moshe, Shlomo and Liebke. Rav Yisrael Eliyahu Yehoshua published several sefarim, including Yeshuas Yisrael, on Choshen Mishpat, Yeshuos Malko, and Yavin Daas. His only son, Rav Moshe Pinchas, succeeded him as Rav in Kutno. The demise of the Kutna kehillah came when the Nazis finished liquidating its remaining Jews on March 26, 1942.