"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."  (Soren Kierkegaard)

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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

Outcasts
The parshiot of Tazria and Metzora are dominated by the laws of tzara'at, translated in most texts as leprosy. Many centuries ago, our sages linked tzara'at with lashon hara [gossip]. This year at Beth Sholom, two bnei mitzvah - Yannai Almalem and Julia Morrison - have each written very strong divrei torah about gossip and the social costs of marginalizing people. A recent New York Times article amplifies a strong trend of reporting that describes the disturbing misguided abuse of social media by teens. While people have engaged in mean-spirited name calling from the beginning of time, the painful echo chamber of the internet causes the victims of lashon hara to pay a very heavy price.

In her remarks, Julia references the four lepers who are featured in haftarat metzora. As she notes, these despised men languish in no-man's land because of their disease. By placing the four lepers in a heroic role, the writer of the haftarah challenges us to look beyond the physical disease into the inner characters of the men. We have to ask ourselves what we become when we cast others beyond the margins.

To underscore this last point, consider this poem by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Outcasts
Three women stood by the river's flood
In the gas-lamp's murky light,
A devil watched them on the left,
And an angel on the right.

The clouds of lead flowed overhead;
The leaden stream below;
They marvelled much, that outcast three,
Why Fate should use them so.

Said one: "I have a mother dear,
Who lieth ill abed,
And by my sin the wage I win
From which she hath her bread."

Said one: "I am an outcast's child,
And such I came on earth.
If me ye blame, for this my shame,
Whom blame ye for my birth?"

The third she sank a sin-blotched face,
And prayed that she might rest,
In the weary flow of the stream below,
As on her mother's breast.

Now past there came a godly man,
Of goodly stock and blood,
And as he passed one frown he cast
At that sad sisterhood.

Sorely it grieved that godly man,
To see so foul a sight,
He turned his face, and strode apace,
And left them to the night.

But the angel drew her sisters three,
Within her pinions' span,
And the crouching devil slunk away
To join the godly man.

Leprosy - Power of the Metaphor
In his insightful drash, Yannai spoke about a famous story found in II Kings; the story of King Na'aman of Aram, who was stricken with leprosy. The Hebrew prophet Elisha instructs him to bathe in the Jordan. Na'aman, scorning the lowly Jordan, wonders why he couldn't bathe in the mighty rivers of Aram. But the message is about faith - not about a famous powerful river. The Jordan is the place because the God of Israel [speaking through Elisha] commands it. Faith in God is the vehicle toward salvation.

Surfing the poetry world of the web, I found a fair bit of Christian poetry referencing the leper as an outcast, miraculously cured through his faith in Jesus. Additionally, several writers tapped into the idea of inescapable torment and certain decay.

This next slice of poetry is painful. it is from a blog by a talented writer struggling with the pain of MS. Her blog name is The Gimp Poet.

STONED LEPER
Like a stoned leper in a room full of farm implements

I guard my meat with an exasperated vigilance

I can’t trust my feet to tell my brain where I stand

The signals get lost on their way to central command

The cold water feels like it’s burning my hand

And my touch has become the antithesis of sense.

---------------------
Food for Thought
While we as readers find ourselves at a great cultural distance from the details in Leviticus, the metaphors of pain and alienation as well as hope and faith continue to stir the heart. As we revisit these parshiot and their respective haftarot, it is important for us to consider who we cast out, who we ignore, whose plight or whose sight makes us physically queasy. And we might also consider people whose behaviors cause us to shun them.

...And then there's Charlie Sheen
So, if his words and actions don't sound or smell or feel like moral leprosy, then what does?! And what is the cultural meaning of millions of people who thirst for the newest tweet or the latest joke or image of this tormented soul who has certainly done more than enough damage to his associates, friends and family? For those of us craning our necks for a better view of the bleeding wreckage, what does this feed-the-beast story say about us?

...And then there's Bashar Asad and Moammar Gadhafi and the militay junta that rules Myanmar and the Fascists who rule Iran and...This crew and their lust for power, coupled with their tendency toward cruelty and torture help redefine moral repugnance.

We may be far past the days of kohanim inspecting the skin of the lepers, but the parshiot of Tazria and Metzora might have more to teach us than we're willing to admit.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron

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