Tazria-Metzorah |
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Dr Annette M. Boeckler | ||
Reflections TAZRIA-METZORAH Separation This shabbat succeeds Yom HaAtzmaut
last Thursday and
Yom haShoah the week before: two memorial days that are commonly
understood as
expressions of Israel’s distinctiveness. There were other
genocides in history
and other nations have their independence days, too, in our shared
Jewish
cultural memory, however, we feel, that these two events in our own
recent
history have shaped our modern identity in a distinctive way. Both
events made
us learn that we are separated or isolated from other nations. This
idea of
being separate leads me to some thoughts about this week’s
parasha. It, too, is about separation. Persons
afflicted with Tzara’at
had to be sent outside of the camp of the Israelites. They had to shout
“tame,
tame” (Unclean, unclean) if they spotted somebody approaching
(13:45).
Tzara’at could affect people, but also things, as fabrics or
leather (13:47-59)
and houses (14:33-53), which then had to be set apart or stopped to be
used. A student of Leo Baeck College recently said
to me - I’ve
forgotten what actually had triggered this amazing statement in the
middle of
the library: “To make something holy, it has to be
separated.” Regarding this
week’s parashah I wonder: this whole parasha is about separation,
but no, it is
NOT about holiness. How come!? Both, being holy and having
tzara’at mean to be
separated, but what are the differences? 1. Tzara’at just happens. It can be
observed and then needs
to be checked and declared as such. Holiness, however, needs to be
achieved or
created by certain acts. Something becomes holy ONLY because we have
MADE it to
be so. 2. Both, Tzara’at and Holiness is
expressed in words: those
afflicted with tzara’at shout: “tame, tame”
(unclean, unclean), holiness
is proclaimed by: “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh” (holy,
holy holy). But
whereas the first is a statement about the shouters themselves, the
second is
said about somebody or something else. The angels in Isaiah’s
vision declare
the holiness of the person sitting on the throne, not their own. One
can
exclaim: I am unclean (tame), but not: I am holy (kadosh). 3. Tzara’at is separated by sending
the afflicted person outside
of the camp. Holiness, however, denotes a separated area INSIDE of the
camp, as
the tabernacle in the middle of the tents of the Israelites. 4. Tzara’at is contagious. People have
to stay away from
tzara’at to protect themselves. Holiness, however, can’t be
transferred from
one person or one thing to another. Tzara’at and holiness are both
descriptions about somebody
or something being separate and this is the only aspect they have in
common.
Sometimes, however, one may get the impression, that nevertheless they
can be
mixed up. It happens that we Jews shout about ourselves “holy,
holy”, that we
understand being separate as being outsiders or that being holy is
something
that just happens to us. Next shabbat we will hear in our torah
portion:
“Strive to become holy, because I, the Eternal One your God, am
holy” (Lev
19:1). Maybe this week’s parasha therefore can prevent us to
misunderstand our
holiness in the terms of the separateness of the tzara’at.
Holiness is the
opposite of tzara’at in all the four above mentioned aspects. Dr Annette M. Boeckler is a member of KNM
and lecturer at
Leo Baeck College. |
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source: www.annette-boeckler.de |