SONSINO’S TORAH COMMENTS: TAZRIA/METZORAH, Lev.
12:1-15:33, for 4/21/2018
These combined Torah portions mainly deal with various ritual
impurities and discharges. Most of them are obscure.
1. Chapter 13 refers to something called TZARAAT. What is it? It appears on the human body as well as on
garments and walls, and is often translated as “leprosy,” but the original
meaning is not known. Today, most scholars understand it as some kind of a
plague. The ancient Rabbis, playing on words, interpret TZARAAT as MOTZI RA,
namely, a slanderer. For them, the worst sin is “sowing discord among people”
(Midrash Rabba, 16:1)
2. The biblical text also mentions TUMAH? This is often translated
as “impurity.” The fear is that we will be contaminated because of our
association with something that is dangerous.
3. The priests, upon examination, declared affected people either
“clean” or “unclean” (these people were removed from the community).
4. The challenge for us living in the modern world is to turn a
NEGA (affliction, trouble) into an ONEG (joy)—using a play on word.
5. What are the plagues of our time? I would say, global warming, religious
fundamentalism, inequality between poor and rich, curse of racism etc. Can you
add others?
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