I was reluctantly anticipating this week’s Torah reading, the double portion of Tazria-Metzora. Even a month ago, when it was clear we’d be in this mode for a while, I knew this week would come while we were still at home, while we were still forced to be away away from each other and our normal lives, while the pandemic was the background of our lives. This week’s parashah is the Torah text on disease and isolation. It explicitly discusses quarantine and the need to separate from others until a disease passes. It’s felt a little too close to home this week, and I’ve been searching the text for some type of meaning.
One of the parts that I’ve been stuck on is that a person who is afflicted, in the Torah’s case, with a skin condition called tzara’at, must declare themselves as unclean. Vayikra 13:45-46 describes the person that has the infliction: they rip their clothing and uncover their head, and they call out, referring to themselves, “unclean, unclean.” For all the days that they are inflicted, they must separate themselves, alone, outside of the camp.
The rabbis of the Talmud (in Moed Kattan 5a) debate why the person who is inflicted must call it out. Isn’t it enough that they are sick? Must they draw attention to themselves? They wonder if the person calls out, “tamei tamei, unclean, unclean” in order to let others know to stay away, or if they are letting people know they are suffering so they can pray for them, so the community can reach out. Their conclusion, of course, is that it’s both - that’s why they say the word twice, to indicate the dual purpose.
Our situation asks us to simultaneously distance ourselves, to separate ourselves from others, and also, in the same breath, to reach out in prayer to the heavens and to others. One of the messages from the medical community has been that we should each consider ourselves as if we have the virus; this mentality will help diminish the spread of germs. In this time, we are each the metzora, we are each the afflicted person in the Torah. We are each the person having to separate, we are each the person calling out, suffering in our alone-ness and isolated from others. And we are also each the person deep in prayer, the person sending out smoke signals to God and to others. I pray that we are each also like the priest in the Torah, responding to the calls of others. May we have the ability to hear even the silent cries of others, to reach out, and to accompany each other on this journey of separation.
I hope to see many of you as we usher Shabbat in and out, tonight at 6:30PM and tomorrow at 8:35PM. We see that many of you are watching on Facebook (and we love it!) but if you’re able to, please join on Zoom with your video so that we can see your faces as well. Abe and I will be in our home, by ourselves, but we hope, in seeing so many of you, that we are still able to feel connected as a community even while we are apart.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
We will NOT be having services at shul this Shabbat. I hope you will join Abe and me for Hachanah l’Shabbat (Preparing for Shabbat at 6:30PM this evening), and for Havdallah (Saturday at 8:35PM). Click those links to connect on Zoom!
Please check out our website for some Shabbat-related learning resources. You’ll find a study sheet for all prepared by Danny Kraft and mystical readings on the parashah put together by Abe, Geo, and Danny.
