A Thought on Parshios Tazria-Metzora
A Thought on Parshios Tazria-Metzora
"nega tza'aras ki ti'yeh b'odom..."
"...and when an impure sign occurs on a person..." (13:9)
Our two parshios describe the unusual, and now obscure, forms of ritually debilitating impurities known as tza'aras. Verse after verse describe the appearance and effects of those signs on the human body which might signal a deeper malady within the spirit. The Torah also gives the remedies for dealing with tza'aras. The healing generally culminated in one's immersion in purifying waters.
The Rambam (Hilchos Mikva'os 11:12) offers a beautiful insight which we can adopt from looking into this historical process. He begins by reminding us that the concepts of both tuma and tahara - ritual impurity and purification - are not among the rules and laws which are readily understood or accessible to the rational discerning intellect. They are chukim - statutes which are not rooted in our mortal logic but rather are guidelines for our souls.
This is why immersion in a mikva has nothing to do with hygiene and cleanliness, and is in fact dependent as much upon our mind set as it is upon our physical presence within the waters (see Chagiga 18b on how one's kavanna determines whether or not the immersion will have an effect.)
Despite the chok status of these laws, the Rambam finds an insight which we can utilize and generalize into other parts of our personal lives:
Just as one who focuses his mind on becoming pure through immersion
can bring about purification of the body even though nothing has changed
or happened to the body at a physical level, so too can a person bring about
purification of his soul from its own forms of tuma - which includes perverted
ideas and decadent attitudes - once he focuses his mind on abandoning such
thinking and cleanses himself in the 'waters of pure knowledge', for it is through
Torah that HaShem in His compassion cleanses us from all sin and folly and shame.
The Rosh presents a different spiritual view of our verse: He observes that it begins and ends with the letter nun (nega --- kohen.)
Rabbi Eliahu of blessed memory once asked, "Why did Elisha instruct Na'aman to immerse in the Jordan River, as opposed to all of the other rivers (Melachim II 5:10)?"
He answered, "Elisha noted that the name Na'aman begins and ends with the letter nun. He noted that the mitzva to heed a prophet also does - Navi...elav tishma'un - (Devarim 18:15). When the prophet Elisha was asked how Na'aman should heal his nega, he had a vision based on another verse (BaMidbar 32:32) nachnu na'avor...m'ever la'yarden. That verse also starts and ends with nun. This is why he had him immerse in the Jordan.
I pondered this cryptic message of the Rosh, then found in the Sefer HaBahir that the letter nun, which has a bent shape at the begining of a word and is straight when at the end of word, is a symbol for the relationship between the mind and the body. It is the "spinal cord" of the alphabet, symbolizing that everything that goes on in the body is dependent on what happens in the higher mind or brain. When the mind is troubled or not intact, the integrity of the lower body must be affected too.
Perhaps this is the Rosh's message in quoting this Rabbi Eliahu (there are a few possibilities as to which rishon he is referring to). The cleansing of the body in order to rectify the mind and soul was acted out in a deliberate and educating manner by emphasizing the more mystical links between the letters found in the words representing the person, the prophet, the river and the malady.
Wishing you a Shabbos that is purely delightful and clean of all distress. D Fox
"nega tza'aras ki ti'yeh b'odom..."
"...and when an impure sign occurs on a person..." (13:9)
Our two parshios describe the unusual, and now obscure, forms of ritually debilitating impurities known as tza'aras. Verse after verse describe the appearance and effects of those signs on the human body which might signal a deeper malady within the spirit. The Torah also gives the remedies for dealing with tza'aras. The healing generally culminated in one's immersion in purifying waters.
The Rambam (Hilchos Mikva'os 11:12) offers a beautiful insight which we can adopt from looking into this historical process. He begins by reminding us that the concepts of both tuma and tahara - ritual impurity and purification - are not among the rules and laws which are readily understood or accessible to the rational discerning intellect. They are chukim - statutes which are not rooted in our mortal logic but rather are guidelines for our souls.
This is why immersion in a mikva has nothing to do with hygiene and cleanliness, and is in fact dependent as much upon our mind set as it is upon our physical presence within the waters (see Chagiga 18b on how one's kavanna determines whether or not the immersion will have an effect.)
Despite the chok status of these laws, the Rambam finds an insight which we can utilize and generalize into other parts of our personal lives:
Just as one who focuses his mind on becoming pure through immersion
can bring about purification of the body even though nothing has changed
or happened to the body at a physical level, so too can a person bring about
purification of his soul from its own forms of tuma - which includes perverted
ideas and decadent attitudes - once he focuses his mind on abandoning such
thinking and cleanses himself in the 'waters of pure knowledge', for it is through
Torah that HaShem in His compassion cleanses us from all sin and folly and shame.
The Rosh presents a different spiritual view of our verse: He observes that it begins and ends with the letter nun (nega --- kohen.)
Rabbi Eliahu of blessed memory once asked, "Why did Elisha instruct Na'aman to immerse in the Jordan River, as opposed to all of the other rivers (Melachim II 5:10)?"
He answered, "Elisha noted that the name Na'aman begins and ends with the letter nun. He noted that the mitzva to heed a prophet also does - Navi...elav tishma'un - (Devarim 18:15). When the prophet Elisha was asked how Na'aman should heal his nega, he had a vision based on another verse (BaMidbar 32:32) nachnu na'avor...m'ever la'yarden. That verse also starts and ends with nun. This is why he had him immerse in the Jordan.
I pondered this cryptic message of the Rosh, then found in the Sefer HaBahir that the letter nun, which has a bent shape at the begining of a word and is straight when at the end of word, is a symbol for the relationship between the mind and the body. It is the "spinal cord" of the alphabet, symbolizing that everything that goes on in the body is dependent on what happens in the higher mind or brain. When the mind is troubled or not intact, the integrity of the lower body must be affected too.
Perhaps this is the Rosh's message in quoting this Rabbi Eliahu (there are a few possibilities as to which rishon he is referring to). The cleansing of the body in order to rectify the mind and soul was acted out in a deliberate and educating manner by emphasizing the more mystical links between the letters found in the words representing the person, the prophet, the river and the malady.
Wishing you a Shabbos that is purely delightful and clean of all distress. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 11:48 AM
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