Tazria/Metzora -Torah Portion for 4/17
This week’s double Torah portion is about “cooties,” the ritual impurities caused by childbirth, skin diseases and molds in houses. There are times when Torah gets very strange and this is one of them, as we read this ancient view of disease and its impact on the individual and the community. With text like this, we always have three choices: accept them at face value, reject them or try to find a way to make some sense out of them. Rather than focus on the understanding of disease, look at how the Torah describes a ritual for separation and quarantine of the infected person and the ritual for inclusion. So often in our society, disease sends us into a limbo state, scared, isolated and lonely. Our tradition understands that ritual has deep psychological power and can ensure that even in the most difficult moments we will feel connected to community.
~Rabbi Dean
Tags: childbirth, impurities, ritual, torah, tradition
April 16th, 2010 at 9:08 am
This reminds me of something I heard about the making of swords among the samurai in old Japan. In a non-literate society, the way that complicated techniques are remembered is by making them into rituals. Just in that way, the medical necessity of quarantine during a time when the pharmacopeia was quite limited became a sacred ritual. It helps us to remember to do the right thing, especially when we may be frightened and panicked about what to do.
April 16th, 2010 at 11:36 am
I like to think about tzara’at as a spiritual disease that had physical manifestations in the time of the mishkan