Rabbi's weekly Blog

The moment of sowing (zri’ah)is one of excitement, happiness, hope and prayer that the action will be successful and will be followed by growth and flowering. Sowing is the creation and the beginning of a new life. When a parasha is named Tazri’a, one would expect its content to be all about sowing and beginnings. But when we actually open the book and study the parasha, we will see that it deals almost completely with tzara’at (a skin ailment mistakenly translated as leprosy) and the person who has it – a metzora; a skin affliction and tum’ah (impurity). The parasha, then, deals with things that do not symbolize life and growth at all – rather, the opposite – to the point that the Gemara in masechet Nedarim says that the metzora is likened to a dead person. Why, then, is this parasha that speaks of tum’ah and death called Tazri’a?

In Likutei Sichot, part 22, there is a deep and long dissertation in which the Rebbe explains this wonderfully and teaches us a way of life. I will begin with a short quote: “In the parasha of afflictions there is a teaching that one can apply to all of the Torah’s punishments. Torah punishments are a special act on the part of Hashem, the purpose of which is to correct the Jew, so he should go in the straight path.” This means that the purpose of the punishment is not to give the sinner what he deserves, but rather to make the person move, understand that he must change something in his ways in order to grow.

“That is precisely the content of the matter of the affliction brought in parashat Tazri’a. Both the affliction itself and the banning of the metzora from the camp are not just punishments and a removal of good from the metzora, but rather these are details and means towards his correction and healing, so that he will enter a new life.”

And so, the goal of tzara’at is growth, and that is why the parasha speaking of the metzora is called Tazri’a.

From this, my friends, we learn that when we experience a situation of difficulty and downward movement, a fall, pain or blow, we have the choice of how to relate to it. A person can focus on the pain and the fall, on the impurity, and then he is indeed compared to a dead person. As someone once said to me after a blow and a fall that he experienced: “I’m not dead, but I’m also not really alive.”

The message of the Lubavitcher Rebbe is that a wise person and a believing Jew will know to look beyond the tzara’at that has come upon him and understand that this is the way that Hashem has chosen to make him move forward, advance, plow, sow, grow and make others grow.

May we be successful!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Zalmen Wishedski

Every respectable synagogue has its beggars. They come every day, stand there for a few hours and give the praying men the merit of giving tzedakah. In the famous Beit Midrash of Chabad, 770, in Brooklyn, there is group of elderly beggars of Russian origin. They have been there for several decades, and are an integral part of the scenery. The Yeshiva boys once asked one of them: “If you were to win the American lottery of hundreds of millions of dollars, what would you do?” The man answered immediately: “I would give every one of my beggar colleagues a million dollars so that they won’t come anymore, so that I’ll have the whole synagogue to myself.”

Funny, isn’t it? I would call it a galut (exile) mentality. Even when the poor man becomes rich he thinks like a beggar. A person with a geulah (redemption) mentality will not go back to being a beggar after he has won the lottery. But don’t we think the same way in our lives? Do we know to dream, at least, beyond the limitations and conventions of the galut way of life? How many times do we want to do something but are certain that we will fail? How many times do we not even dare to dream of something, because it is beyond our conception? But if we take upon ourselves a geulah mentality, we will see that we can do so much more – and then we might even dare to dream big.

Rabbi Shlomo Efraim of Luntschitz, the author of the “Kli Yakar” commentary, explains at the beginning of parashat Shemini that the number eight is beyond nature, since the nature of the world, since creation, is connected to the number seven. The world, after all, was created in seven days, and continues to work in cycles of seven. He brings what Chazal say in masechet Arachin, that in the times of Mashiach the kinor (lyre) will have eight strings. To my understanding, the kinor of the Leviyim in the Beit Mikdash had seven strings, while in the times of Mashiach it will have eight. Why eight? Because the days of the Mashiach will be something beyond nature.

Outside of Eretz Yisrael we will be reading parashat Shemini tomorrow. The Rebbe, in his talks, speaks of the fact that in the calendar situation we have this year it comes out that we read parashat Shemini eight times – seven times in Mincha of Shabbat, plus Mondays and Thursdays – and the eighth time will be tomorrow morning. He brings the Jewish saying that says, “Shemini, shemonah, shemeinah” – in other words, when parashat Shemini is read eight times, that is a sign that it will be a “fat” year – a year of abundance.

And so, there is no more opportune time than this Shabbat to look into this idea, to test our way of thinking and to attempt to think in a “shmoneh” mode – that of geulah. We should think like masters and not like hired help, because otherwise, even if we win the lottery, we will go back to being beggars.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Zalmen Wishedski