Zoe Hendler - Dvar Torah

Shabbat shalom!

My Torah portion is a double - Tazria Metzora, which can be found in the third book of the Torah, Leviticus.  

With my parshah being a double, it talks about many things like childbirth, sacrifices and the role of the Kohanim and Tzara’at. However, the 2 parts that stood out the most for me was birth and this skin condition called Tzara’at. My parshah describes Tzara’at’ as something that sounds a lot like the disease of leprosy but it was not leprosy, it was different.

Firstly, what is leprosy?

Leprosy is a skin infection that causes sores on the skin. It was a very contagious bacterial infection and people with leprosy were often sent into isolation to protect other people.  In South Africa we have an example right here in Table Bay, which is Robben Island which was used a long time ago as a leper colony before it became a prison for Nelson Mandela and other political activists. 

So then, what is tzara’at?  

It was a skin disease that looked just like leprosy, but wasn’t.  Just like leprosy, people who got tzara’at also had to isolate.  But instead of going to a Doctor, you went to the Kohein who guided you to see if you might have tzara’at instead of a regular skin disease.

The Torah portion does not tell us how you got tzara’at. It was the Rabbis much later on, like Rashi, who said in their commentaries that it was caused by gossiping or speaking badly about others. He looked at the case of Moses, after he complained to G-d about the Israelites not properly following G-d’s commandments, and also Miriam who gossipped about her brothers (Moses and Aaron) and embarrassing Moses publicly about being married to a “Cushite” woman. “Cushite" could be referring to her dark complexion being born south of Egypt. Rabbi Yochanan says that spreading lashon hara is like denying the power of g-d, and Rambam explains that tzara’at is a sign to warn the people of Israel against leshon ha-ra, or evil talk.

There are many ways that lashon hara happens today like texting people information about others that hurts, spreading rumours, posting on social media about someone else, making nasty comments on a post.

There are some cases where it would be the right thing to speak lashon hara - for example, in a court of law a witness might have seen a person commit a crime, and even though telling the story would cause harm by sending a person to jail, it would still be the right thing. 

Lashon Hara is said to ‘kill’ three people - the person who spoke it (the speaker), the person who heard it (the receiver), and the person who it is about (the targeted person).  It kills the speaker because they are causing hurt and people are likely to be very upset with them. They lower themselves and their character becomes someone that people may not trust.

It kills the receiver because they have now had to hear the terrible news about someone else, and they may also in-turn think less about the speaker. And lastly it kills the person targeted because false stuff or maybe private information that not everyone needs to know has been spread and they might not feel great about people saying false stuff about them. 

I’m particularly interested in these themes in my torah portion because firstly when i’m older i want to be a health worker of some sort, and secondly in today’s time of social media and as a teenager, I have seen how words spread quicker and further than ever before, and the impact of our words are magnified. 

This is important because lashon hara can be hurtful and we should all think before we speak. I have a poster in my school classroom with the words THINK before you speak, and THINK is an acronym where each letter represents a guiding principle. T reminds us to ask ‘is it true’, H is it helpful, I is it inspiring, N is it necessary and K is it kind.

Can you imagine how different the world would be today if we all followed this framework?

Another relevant theme in my life at the moment is ‘birth’. Firstly, I love babies, and for my community mitzvah I helped Atlantic Hope, a safety home, caring for their new borns before finding their new home. Also for myself having my bat’mitvah, and going through my mikvah ceremony reminded me of its symbolic meaning which is rebirth. Which is why, for my mikvah I needed to say a prayer after floating in water, by lifting my feet off the floor and dunking my head below the water surface. I was also very excited to welcome my new baby cousin into the world last month, Neve. I love her so much! 

In conclusion, my wish for everyone here today is to remember the comments made by the Rabbi’s about what tzara’at represented. That our words are powerful and we need to THINK before speaking (or typing), and put ourselves in the other person’s shoes before putting words out.

Finally, I want to thank Rabbi Greg for explaining my portion to me in a way I can understand and connect with, and for leading my ceremony. 

Also my parents for driving me to all the places i needed to be to make this happen and to Dani, my tutor who is unfortunately not here today as she is overseas. But she taught me all the Hebrew I know, and even though I talked way too much during my lessons, I still learnt a lot. 

To those that have taken the time to travel, my aunty Gaby (from JHB), my mamo Gabi, aunty Anna, uncle Roy and cousins Izzy and Jack from Plett. My g-dmother Kirsten, aunty Nayereh and uncle Daniel who flew down from London.

Much love and blessings

Shabbat shalom