
The focus of this portion is on a particular skin disease - tza’raat in Hebrew, often mistranslated to leprosy. The Torah will dedicate most of this and the next Torah portion to diagnosing and reacting to this disease. This leads us to a basic understanding that the compilers and shapers of the Torah lived with a certain amount of fear of this affliction and its potential harmful effects on society.
The Torah empowers the priests to examine and discern whether or not certain skin affections are tza’raat or not. If the priests determine that someone has contracted the ailment, they are commanded to isolate this person outside of the Israelite camp for at least seven days. After seven days another exam is performed and, if they are deemed healed, that person may return to his family and community.
Before the individual is isolated, there are several other steps they are forced to undergo. “As for the person infected with tza’raat: their clothes shall be rent, their head shall be left bare, and their upper lip shall be covered over, and they shall call out, ‘Impure! Impure!’”. (Leviticus 13:45)
This whole process strikes the modern sensibility as cruel, seemingly to literally adding insult to injury. Particularly the last step in which the affected individual is forced to declare themselves publicly as impure, informing everyone of a deeply personal and frightening event they are experiencing.
What reason could there be for forcing someone to have to do this? For big questions like this in Judaism, our first stop for explanations is often the Talmud. We find that this particular verse is discussed and referenced several times.
In one discussion the Talmud explains that this commandment is not meant to be a source of embarrassment and cruelty for a sick person, far from it! Rather, it teaches that the afflicted individual “publicizes the fact that he is ritually impure because he must announce his pain to the masses, and the masses will pray for mercy on his behalf.” The Talmud expands on this and explains that we are meant to extend the same level of mercy even to trees and plants.
To my mind, this is a beautiful reading of this verse. While it might be a painful, exposing experience for the infected to have to share their condition with the public, we learn that this sharing of the truth is the key to keeping the community together even through the most painful and challenging times.
When a friend, or a community member, cries out in pain and in desperation, we must come to their aid. Even when their condition or affliction scares or confounds us, we have the responsibility to show them mercy and love. If not for their sake, then for ours for the times where we will find ourselves in pain and trouble and in need of the help of others.
May we be blessed with the strength to heed the cries of those in pain and show them the mercy and love that will welcome them back into our community.
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