Tazria Metzora. Death and Life

This has two halves that make a whole.


Part one is from Rabbi Abraham Bukspan.

"וְהַצָּרוּעַ אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ הַנֶּגַע בְּגָדָיו יִהְיוּ פְרֻמִים וְרֹאשׁוֹ יִהְיֶה פָרוּעַ וְעַל שָׂפָם יַעְטֶה וְטָמֵא טָמֵא יִקְרָא. כָּל יְמֵי אֲשֶׁר הַנֶּגַע בּוֹ יִטְמָא טָמֵא הוּא בָּדָד יֵשֵׁב מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה מוֹשָׁבוֹ". (ויקרא יג:מה-מו)

הדברים נראים ככפל הלשון. הפסוק משמיענו ש"כל ימי אשר הנגע בו יטמא", וחוזר ואומר "טמא הוא". מה ביאור הדבר?

ישנו הבדל מהותי בין טומאת צרעת לכל הטומאות; נגע הצרעת אינו 'טומאה' בעצמו, אלא הוא מורה שהאדם בכללותו הינו טמא. הצרעת היא טומאה רוחנית ביסודה, ובאה כתוצאה מהחטא (ערכין טז.). מראה הנגע הינו אך ביטוי חיצוני של נגע רוחני פנימי וטומאת הנפש הנמשכת מכך.

מסיבה זו חייבה התורה את המצורע להכריז על טומאתו, מה שלא מצינו בשאר הטומאות. כי כאשר יגע האדם בדבר טמא, אין הטומאה חלק מעצמותו - אלא היא חיצונית, שבאה עליו מהדבר הטמא. מגעו בגוף המת, לדוגמא, גורמת לטומאת המת להתפשט בכל גופו והוא זקוק לטבילה במקוה בכדי ליטהר.

לא כן הדבר בטומאת צרעת - אלא להיפך!

מקור הטומאה הוא בתוככי האדם עצמו. מטבע החטא שהוא מוליד טומאה בעצם גוף האדם, כטומאת המת והנבלה עצמם. מראה הנגע שבידו אינו אלא סימן חיצוני לטומאתו הפנימית ונגעו הרוחני. הטומאה אינה מתפשטת מהמראה שבידו לכל גופו; גופו טמא במהותו ומראה הנגע הוא רק סימן וביטוי חיצוני לכך.

משום כך חייבה התורה את המצורע לשבת בדד מחוץ למחנה; מוכרחים להגן על כולם מפני האיש הזה, מפאת היותו מקור הטומאה הממארת במהותו. ולכן גם ציוותה אותו התורה שיכריז המצורע על טומאתו (רש"י יג:מה).

וזה גם ביאור כפל הלשון "יטמא טמא הוא" - שאל תדמה בדעתך שהצרוע הינו טמא מפני שיש בגופו נגע, לא כן - אלא הוא טמא כי "טמא הוא"! הוא ועוונותיו הם סיבת הטומאה. טומאתו הינה שורשית ואישית. הוא גרם לה בעצמו, ורק בידו לתקנה.

ונראה שזוהי כוונת רבינו האבן עזרא (פסוק מו) במילותיו השקולות: "כל ימי אשר הנגע בו יטמא - כי טמא הוא באמת".

כי טומאת המצורע - טומאת המהות היא.

*

Part two is from Rabbi Yisroel Raisman from Rav Pam.

Rav Pam would often describe his mother, someone who never spoke Lashon Hara, but not because she learned Hilchos Lashon Hara, not because she learned the Sefer Chofetz Chaim. It was because she looked at people with a good eye, she always looked to see a person in a positive way.

The trick to avoiding Lashon Hara is not to fight it every single time, but to battle the root cause of Lashon Hara. 

The root cause of Lashon Hara is the bad eye with which a person looks at others. When a person has complaints about others. That’s the problem, the problem is we don’t look at people with a happy enough eye, with a happy enough face. We don’t Fargin other people. 

*

Combining the two parts, one can discern that the living death of Tzaraas and the guarantee of life of Shemiras HaLashon are opposite ends of one spectrum.

Shemiras HaLashon per se, i.e., refraining from Lashon Hara, is not the opposite of Tzaraas. The Shemiras Halashon of Rav Pam's mother, the Ayin Tov that allows you to see the good in other people, to be happy at their success and to mourn their failings, that Ayin Tov that is the real essence of not saying Lashon Hara, because you respect the other person and wish him well. That is the opposite of the spiritual corruption of Tzaraas.

The contrast is between the teva of jealousy and not fargining, on the one hand, and true joy at another's happiness on the other. That v'ahavta is the reason for the bracha of oheiv yomim and lir'os tov, or arichus yomim and a pleasant life, precisely the opposite of the spiritual corruption of the metzora that brings removal from society and death of the body piece by piece. It brings me'urav im habriyos/daas habriyos nocheh and chiyus to the entire body.



We often see righteous fulminations against extravagant weddings and vacations and homes, all expressed as distaste with such crass exhibitionism, such boorish vulgarity, such heartless selfishness. The vast majority of such diatribes are based not in mussar or even in "good taste," but just green eyed jealousy or a sense of inferiority.  Oh, that's disgusting, look at his private jet, oh, look at the Olympic pool in his basement, of, look at his Saville Row suits and million dollar jewelry.... why doesn't he give his money to the poor, or pay the rabbeim, or......

If, lu yetzuyor, a Rothschild would say that he is opposed to such extravagance and will henceforth not wear million dollar jewelry or buy a hotel in the Alps for a pied a terre for the occasional yomtov or fly in the Philharmonic for a Bar Mitzvah, it might mean something. If it's just you or me burchering, it's most probably just jealousy. If the interest on the cash in your CD were ten million dollars a year, and if you were giving the right amount of tzedaka of your money and your time, if when you made that wedding you paid for the weddings of three poor yesomim, you would be entirely right in making a fantastic extravaganza for your simchos. There would be absolutely nothing wrong with it. That's how you celebrate.  You're happy! You want to go overboard! You want to express your excitement and joy!  If you, the complainer, want to be rich, and you are not, that's not the fault of the rich. It is because you are not smart enough, or not disciplined enough, or not driven enough, or too timid to commit, or, of course, you don't have the siyata dishmaya. Or, as Reb Moshe once said to someone, maybe you had a tzadik ancestor that prayed that you should not have the nisyonos of wealth.

Instead of working on other people's middos, work on your own. If you see someone doing an aveira, then give him mussar.  If you see someone and it looks like they're having too good a time, they're being so self indulgent - just try to not be a metzora. Be a Tov Ayin hu yevorach and be happy for him.

Coincidentally, this point was limned by Rabbi Dr. Nachum Stone of Maalei Adumim in his shul bulletin, which I reproduce in entirety.

Parashot Acharei –Mot and Kedoshim   

Nachum J Stone

.ויקרא 18:3

כְּמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ־מִצְרַיִם אֲשֶׁר יְשַׁבְתֶּם־בָּהּ לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ וּכְמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ־כְּנַעַן אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מֵבִיא אֶתְכֶם שָׁמָּה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ וּבְחֻקֹּתֵיהֶם לֹא תֵלֵכוּ׃

In our parsha we read"  and their customs do not follow”

When a passuk is written with an abstract clause, it can't be interpreted literally. One cannot “walk” in a set of laws or behaviors. This invites a wide range of interpretations. Some interpret, not to follow the laws of the gentiles. Some interpretations are hairstyle, behavior, architecture, dress, fashion. Rambam following a number of Talmudic citations rules “all the above”.

[11 avoda zara 1-3]

Rashi quoting the medrash halacha explains

ובחקתיהם לא תלכו. מַה הִנִּיחַ הַכָּתוּב שֶׁלֹּא אָמַר? אֶלָּא אֵלּוּ נִימוֹסוֹת שֶׁלָּהֶן — דְּבָרִים הַחֲקוּקִין לָהֶם — כְּגוֹן טַרְטִיָּאוֹת וְאִצְטַדִיָּאוֹת,:

 “their theaters and circuses” in other words, their leisure activities. Rambam did not bring this at all in his longer list of forbidden activities.

As we (hopefully) enter the last stages of our CoronaVirus isolation, I think that we can better appreciate Rashi’s interpretation, which seems to be more metaphoric or abstract than Rambam. 

 To a large degree, many of us have been forced into almost full-time leisure mode. What did we do with our time? A lot of everything, of course. The mix of activities are on a continuum of spiritual, intellectual, mundane, mindless and perhaps even embarrassing. The choices we made to a large degree indicate our values. 

Rashi is instructing us to avoid the entertainments that do not promote or perhaps are even in conflict with our ideals and mores. As we emerge from our isolation, we can use the opportunity to evaluate how we used our time.

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In today's (Wednesday) Daf, Shabbat 54b, the discussion surrounds a certain cow who walked about on Shabbat improperly adorned with a decorative ribbon. (It is forbidden to have one’s animal carry an unnecessary burden in the public domain on Shabbat.) The cow is identified as belonging to Ribi Elazar ben Azariya, even though it was not his. The gemara explains that Ribi Elazar ben Azariya is assigned responsibility for the cow, which belonged to a neighbor, because he didn't protest the inappropriate decoration. The leaders of a community are responsible for the behavior of the collective.

Each of us has a leadership role to play within our families, communities, employment. And that is leading by example. Certainly, no one should stick their noses into anyone else's affairs. We must all get our own priorities in order. Have we taken steps to welcome God into our lives? Does our behavior properly express the purpose of our being?

As we strive to make our day-to-day lives reflect the ideals of Judaism, we help each other and all of Am Yisrael. When we accept Rashi’s advice to limit our adoption of entertainments of the gentiles, we can start walking in the Godly path.