Parsha Tazria & Commemorating a Special Sefer Torah Celebration
In learning about the laws of tzara'as, we find posukim which are a pelah, a wonderment.
Torah relates in our Parsha; "If the tzara'as will erupt on the skin, and ... will cover the entire skin of the afflicted from his head to his feet, wherever the eyes of the Kohen can
see -- the Kohen shall look, and behold! -- the affliction has covered his entire flesh, then he shall declare the affliction to be pure; having turned completely white, it is pure. On the day healthy skin appears ..., it (the affliction) shall be contaminated." (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 13, posukim 12 - 14)
Rabbi Artscroll relates that R' Bachya likens this law to Parah Adumah, a choke, beyond human understanding. R'Hirsch gives an interpretation that "a Metzora's quarantine is a means to shock the afflicted into recognizing his moral shortcomings and into doing Teshuvah."
"But someone whose entire skin has turned white is so morally corrupt that he's too convinced of his rectitude to think of changing. There is no point in continuing to isolate him. By telling him ... that all hope for his ability to improve is gone, Torah shows him dramatically how low he has sunk." (Artscroll; The Stone Edition Chumash, page #613)
A number of years ago, I saw a National Council of Young Israel weekly Parsha sheet (as of recently misplaced by me)which spoke of how Israel, in the depths of it's corruption and idolatry during the reign of King Achav, won all of it's wars.
The Encyclopedia of Biblical Personalities, by Yishai Chasidah, brings a quote from Mesechta Megillah 11a; Three men ruled over the entire world -- Achav, Nevuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus. The world was comprised of 252 provinces and Achav ruled over them all. (Esther Rabbah 1:5)
The Rav who prepared this Parsha HaShevua was indicating that, just as an individual whose affliction covered his own body because there seemed no hope for repentence, so too, when the spiritual level of the nation seemed beyond rectification, they waged war successfully while being totally Ovdei Avodah Zorah. But yet, later on, when the Avodah Zora was more covert, we lost Bayit Rishon. And one might follow-up on this equation by asking what the moral of this vort is for the Jewish people in contemporary times amidst the planned attempted expulsion, by Medinat Yisrael, of our Jewish Brethen from Jewish land in Gush Katif and the Shomron with more expulsions waiting in wake of the events scheduled for July and August.
IY'H, may it be that come this Rosh Hashana, that we pray thanks to Hashem for keeping our Brethren in Gush Katif and the Shomron in their homes and neighborhoods and away from the horror and Chillul Hashem of expulsion.
In the merit of B'Ezrat Hashem, our collective unity -- "Adat B'nai Yisrael", our emunah and actions, and the proper motivations for them, may we ALL be zocha to have our Tefillah reach Shemayim, unimpeded, ungarbled. And in recognition that if we all emulate Aaron HaKohen and his consistency and constancy of Avodat Hashem, may we be zocha, as Rabbi Moshe Ungar would say each Thursday evening at his Gemara Shiur back in Philadelphia, in "the old country", B'Ezrat Hashem, to demand, to compel HaKodosh Borchu to do "what he wants to do, to bring us the Moshiach and the Ge'ula Shlaima, "bimhayro b'yameinu -- speedily, in our time."
May we see an end to low, dirty politics, political equivocation, perfidy and false cheshbonot; freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael for Jonathan Pollard and special merit for our brethren currently subject to police harrassment, political interrogation and political persecution.
May we see the "Yom Hashem Al Kol HaGoyim" Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!
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