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D'var: Parashat Tazria 5784 Commentary by Dawn Elmore Friday, April 12, 2023 |
| Tazria Leviticus 12:1 — 13:59 |
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Welcome to dermatology rounds at Jewish Community of the Hill Country! Because we have no skin specialists in our congregation, you’ll have to settle for a humanities professor to guide you through this week’s series of cases. This week’s readings are a delight for anyone who’s a fan of Dr. Pimple Popper: lots of skin conditions with a special interest in scaly eruptions. Notice leprosy is not on the agenda; that’s a common mistranslation. But if that doesn’t do it for you, don’t worry. We also have burns, discolorations, and even baldness. Leviticus is a book filled with rules and rituals, so don’t worry. The priests will either pronounce these conditions pure, or they’ll send the victims off to exile and then visit them later to see how they’re doing, eventually ending with a ritual to allow them to return to the community.
So what are we as modern people of faith to take from this Torah portion? I think first we need to look at cultural context. Skin diseases are an obvious potential manifestation of disease. One of the concepts I teach my students is that religion is a paradigm people use to make sense of the world. At the time of the Israelites, science didn’t exist as way to think about skin conditions. People saw something out of the ordinary. It frightened them, and the afflicted person may have also manifested symptoms that showed discomfort, making the condition even scarier. They knew other conditions that caused people to feel bad often spread to others. Thus, the best solution might have been to isolate the person to avoid a possible epidemic. Priests would have been the obvious choice to deal with the problem because doctors didn’t exist. Religion as the filter through which all life flows would make people think of priests as those who were closest to God would have access to divine help for any problem. We as modern people have a different view of the world, however. We can see scientific principles at play since we have a better understanding of how disease works. While some of the specific interventions the priests used may not have been effective from a medical point of view, we can look at what happens by moving from the effective to affective. Isolation can be lonely and even shameful for the afflicted, but it also provides both emotional and physical space for healing. Sometimes we become closer to God through that kind of alone time. Prayer can be communal, but words exchanged between us and Adonai in a private space are often more personal and profound. Likewise, time alone can be good for us physically. Dealing with everyday life and other people can be stressful. Having that space to recover without having to worry about what others need may be a relief. That said, too much alone time isn’t good for anyone. That’s why the priests included visits and ritual for return to the community in the process. While they might not have had modern medicine to cure ailments, they did have compassion, faith, and the ability to offer human companionship. Those elements can be almost as helpful in healing as any pill, cream, infusion, or other medical treatment. The human element coupled with time and low stress are Adonai’s way of building ways into the world to help us manage problems for each other. If nothing else, our dermatology rounds this week have taught us that despite all the things that can go wrong with the human body, and despite any limitations we have in our lack of understanding our full capabilities, Adonai has a plan to allow us to help ourselves and each other. We are fortunate that while we have a duty to repair the world, we also have tools to help us no matter the time, place, or circumstance. We always need to remember that while God provides, it means nothing if we don’t take advantage of the provisions. Dawn Elmore |
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