Metzorah: re-entry

Metzorah: re-entry

The ritual described for the cured leper is filled with symbols that I do not understand.  I do not know the significance of hyssop, I do not even know what hyssop looks like.  I try to envision the ritual.

The most dramatic part of this celebration of survivorship is the bird rite.  A pot of  living water  is prepared.  A bird (pigeon or dove) is ritually slaughtered over the water.  The bird blood  mixes with the water. A second  bird of the same type, a matching bird, is immersed in the blood - living water mixture  (along with the wood,string and hyssop) and then released.  The bloody bird flies away free. 

The living bird is painted with the diluted blood of her dead brother. 

The ritual is a reminder of the escape from from death.  That escape paints the ensuing days of life and freedom.  Is this how a cancer survivor feels?  Is  her escape from death painted with traces of the  previous  blood transfusions  that she carries  in her body for the rest of her life?

The ritual anticipates the concentration camp selection and makes it clear that the life of one person depends on the death of another, either I die to become the source of blood or I am dipped in the blood of my brother. 

The ritual goes on to anoint the survivor with blood from the sacrificial animal. Blood in spotted on his  ear, thumb and great toe.  The blood on the ear means that everything she will hear is now through the filter of potential death.  The thumb manipulates the world, it creates- now in the context of a return from the abyss.  The toe provides direction, it determines where I go: away from death and toward life and  purpose. 

Thazriah: disease

Thazriah:  disease

The bulk of the parsha involves tzorath, a disorder that afflicts the skin, hair, cloth, and homes, A disease that requires isolation and sometimes incarceration.  This is a serious matter, something far beyond the ordinary tumah, contamination. It looks like a disease. Those people or objects that suffer from it are isolated, they seem contagious.

What bothers me about this text is its placement in the Torah.  These are instructions from Gd.  What is Gd doing dealing with health issues? What is the relationship between Gd and disease?

We pray to Gd for healing. Gd  has control over health and disease. Gd has the power to heal.  When the hopeless are cured, is it not the Almighty that performed the miracle? Is it not a demonstration of the power of prayer?

The symmetric conclusion is that Gd played a role in bringing the disease. The idea of disease as punishment is instinctive. We want to attribute a cause to the suffering.  Slander is the commonly quoted etiology  for tzorath, but the Talmudic literture ascribes many additional causes. Some are spitiual:  bloodshed, immorality, false oaths, pride, robbery, and selfishness; others involve careless acts, like walking on eggshells ( Pesachim 112b). We often don't know where adversity comes from, and then we look into ourselves for the cause.  This is not a bad practice. We can usually find something and the malady might be motivation enough to improve it. 

But in our generation, we have fancier ideas about the origins and treatments of disease,  Usually, we do not understand the scientific explanations, but we believe that expert scientists do understand them.  Perhaps incomprehensibility is necessary for a satisfying explanation.  I think that principle is part of  the standard university curriculum. 

The truth: we don't understand the truth. Our ancestors understood a reality that we cannot fathom. We abandon their worldview for a flickering match.

Shemini: holiness and danger

Shemini: holiness and danger

The climax of the parsha is  the death of Nadav and Avihu. They brought a strange fire into the sanctum. They did not follow the prescription for the service.  They wanted to do something original, something creative, something that might make sense to them .  They violated the rules of sanctity  and they died. 

This week, we supplement the parsha with Parah, the cleansing ritual of the ashes of the red heifer. The traditional epitome of the incomprehensible,  The ritual that the wisest of men, Solomon, the builder of the Temple, could not fathom. The inability to properly perform this ritel blocks the construction of  another Temple.   

Were we not in the pre-Passover maftir cycle, the haftorah for parshath Shmini  would include a story of the death of Uzzah, who reached out to steady the toppling Ark as it was transported to Jerusalem.  Uzzah had a normal reaction.  The precious, super-holy Ark of the Covenant was unsteady, he put his hand out and touched it... and died.  He had violated the rule.

Holiness is dangerous, potentially lethal.  The holiness exists only by mutual agreement: between the nation and Gd.  But once it exists, it tolerates very little variation.   It is rock climbing, It is nuclear, it is chemotherapy, it is sex.  

The stakes get higher, the danger becomes greater, as you  ascend.  In the haftorah, Nathan conveys Gd's message to David: Do not build the temple.  Good intentions are not enough.   When the stakes are  so high, it all has to be just so. Holiness generates unforeseen forces that can break trough and kill with minimal provocation. 

Beware of your instincts. 

Curb your enthusiasm