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Whats Wrong With Slander?
The Rambam writes that when people denigrating others, eventually they will laugh at scholars too. Next they deny the Prophets’ validity. Eventually they will make jokes of Hashem and deny His existence. They will turn atheist.
Its not Lashon harah – the harm done to the person slandered – that is so significant, but nature of disrespect. Its the habit of denigrating others. (He links it to leitzanus).
And the end result is denial of all, even Hashem.
Very interesting!
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The Halachik Act
A woman conceives and gives birth to a boy, or a woman conceives and gives birth to a girl. Her experience is much the same, yet the halachik outcome radically differs.
For it is an altogether different halachik event.
Our lens is just that; our take on things. It is not the only, nor the paramount, arbitrator of reality. Our view uses senses and intellect. Halacha, however, views things looking different as being the same, and things looking identical as being very different.
Inasmuch as the Halachos of having a girl are different from having a boy, we conclude that the act of bearing a boy is essentially different from that of bearing a girl. Experientially identical, Halachikally they are two entirely different happenings.
The Torah here mentions conception; ‘a woman who conceives and bears a son…’ Why does conception matter?
Part of the cause of Tumas Yoledes is conception itself. The Torah is not merely pointing out WHY a woman becomes Tamei, not only WHEN.
To me, the takeaway is the recognition that as things have legal meaning and social meaning, they also have Halachik meaning. Halacha is a self contained system with definitions of its own. Never confuse it with our own feelings or moralities.
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The Dynamics Of Tzaraas
What’s the difference between tzaraas on a person, house or clothing? One difference is that human tzaraas is white, but tzaraas on a house and clothing is red or green. Another is that a person turned totally white is tahor, with the appearance of healthy skin considered a Nega. To my knowledge, the same does not apply to tzaraas on clothing or a house. If they turn totally green they are still Tamei.
Why?
Perhaps the two tzaraas’ are different in principle: A person develops tzaraas because there is something wrong within him. He is sick. The tzaraas is a symptom of illness. Tzaraas on a shirt or wall is the opposite – they are not sick, rather tzaraas growing there (like fungus) CAUSES impurity.
As a result, the sign of tzaraas in a human is relative: on normal skin white spots signal something amiss. On white skin a skin-colored spot is the sign. Something doesn’t fit in – part of his skin is different from the rest.
The Nega on a shirt or wall is static, always the same, and it is green and red. Those are the colors of the Nega growing there. Its not sickness, so its not relative to the norm, nor does it matter that it turned all green.
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Integrity
Why indeed? If one white spot causes impurity, why if that spot grows to cover his entire body is the metzorah suddenly pure?
Not only does white stop becoming the sign of impurity, but if part of his skin clears he becomes impure again. Not because he his white spot no longer covers his entire body, but rather because he has a pink nega – the normal skin! Normal skin signals impurity!?
Nega is discoloration. When a nega covers the entire body its pure because the person now has a new skin – a white one. He has no discoloration.
When a pink spot appears, this white-skinned fellow is impure. There is discontinuity in his skin. (This explains why a human tzaraas is white, but garment tzaraas is green or red. Clothes are naturally white, so abnormality is green or red).
This applies to man’s spiritual makeup as well. A fellow can be thoroughly good, and he can be thoroughly bad. Both are whole. Being bad is a sad state – but consistent. However, a good person always slipping up on certain things indicates something amiss. A screw is out of place.
None of us are whole. But we can and ought to be whole in certain areas. In those areas we ought to be consistent. If not, there is cause for concern.
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Who Needs Tzaraas??
We have no tza’raas today. Surely we are better off without it; who wants pain?
A. Well, a good many people. Would you buy a car with no warning system? Nothing to tell the driver when gas is low, oil missing or the engine overheating?
A person feeling no pain does not know when something is wrong with him. He is in a very precarious situation.
Tza’raas warns us. Its indicates where we stand spiritually. We have lost our system, and are much the worse for it. Imagine how much better we would act if we received heavenly biofeedback!
B. The Zichru Toras Moshe explains that Shabbos is a sign Hashem made the entire world. How? For Shabbos is something we all plainly feel. We feel Shabbos coming in, we personally sense its holiness. At any rate, HE did.
Do you and I feel that??
He experienced spirituality that we don’t. We might not miss that. A person blind from birth does not miss sight. Yet he is poorer for his lack. How richer and more satisfying would our lives be could we actually sense holiness?
We lack dimension to our lives. This impacts experiencing life and sensitivity to spiritual change. It is all part of the same system. With the decline of our spirituality we lost much life, and also lost our sensitivity.
Sadly, spiritual disease no longer makes us feel sick; we have lost tza’raas…
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Is it Responsible or Responsable?
This parshah introduces ritual purification via sacrifice – bringing a korban. This is the case by a woman who gives birth, a zav/zavah and a metzorah. This is surprising, because a korban is external, it doesn’t really touch the person directly at all. Conceptually, how might it bring tahara?
A closer look reveals that the purification here refers only to eating kodashim-korbanos or entering the Beis HaMikdash. Normal purification, such as for eating trumah and so on, was already done using a mikveh. So this purification is really a reconciliation with Kodesh, in its various forms, something that fits in well with a korban. It’s really a kaparah, more than a tahara. Indeed, invariably one of the sacrifices are a chatos or asham.
Why indeed would sick person or a woman who gives birth need a kapparah? What sin did they commit – bringing a child to the world??
(Rashi’s explanation that a woman in labor swears never to have more children sounds more drash than pshat, methinks)
There are different forms of gift, and they correspond to different korbanos. A gift that a guest brings along to enjoy with his hosts is like a shlamim, which he eats from too. An olah is a tribute, a honor gift. And a chatas or asham is a peace offering, clearing up problems and bad feelings.
Not all chatos is a function of sin. Sometimes a disconnect comes about because of the impurity itself and to reconnect with Kodesh one needs to clear away debris. That too is appropriate to chatos.
Its the old paradigm; being responsible and setting matters right again need not imply guilt, rather it means that one is Response-able. Able to respond and make things good again…