Shabbat Metzora and Lessons of Morality 
19 April 2024
Dear Members and Friends,
We often say that religion is here to provide a moral compass. However, there is usually no clarity of what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes, the battle is not between pure good and pure bad but between one set of complex circumstances and another. What I like about Torah and the Jewish religious literature is that it does not pretend to be ideal. Our characters are complex; our stories are not straightforward. Therefore, moral lessons can sometimes come from life's most mundane and unpleasant parts.
In this week’s Torah portion, we read about the purification ritual for those who suffered from skin disease tzara’at and the contamination of their homes. It most likely refers to eczema or psoriasis for people and a type of mould or fungi for houses. While the ancient priests examined the infections on the body or fungi in the home, they did not prescribe any medicine or therapy for healing. Instead, they asked the person to isolate from the community until healed and the house to be scrabbed or demolished. Furthermore, the underlying message of the Torah seems to connect the disease to some form of wrongdoing. For example, after the person has been healed and the walls of the house become clean, the person and the landlord are prescribed to bring a sin offering. Torah does not explain what sin the person has committed, and it simply assumes that they did.
What was the wrongdoing that the person with skin disease could commit? For example, Rashi points out that Moses and his sister Miriam were punished with skin diseases for their behaviour. Moses was punished for complaining about the people of Israel, while Miriam was punished for gossiping about her brother and questioning Moses' marriage. (Rashi on Exodus 4:1–6 and Leviticus Rabbah 16:1)
Maimonides agreed with Rashi and expanded this further. He said that tzara’at (skin disease) is not a natural phenomenon but rather a sign for the people of Israel to warn them against lashon hara - evil talk.
Nehama Leibowitz, drawing from the previous commentators, provides an important lesson to our society: ‘The plague teaches us that society should take notice of the first sign of misconduct, however small. Just like a disease begins with hardly noticeable symptoms and can be stopped if detected in time, so a moral disease in society can be prevented from spreading if immediate steps are taken. Otherwise, it will spread throughout the community.’ (Studies in Vayikra, pp. 137–138)
In other words, this reminds us of our crucial role as individuals and as a community in upholding ethical standards. As the saying goes, ‘a stitch in time saves nine.’ If you sort out a problem immediately, it may save a lot of extra work later. If you turn a blind eye to even the smallest signs of misconduct, you risk spreading these issues, potentially causing irreparable harm to ourselves and those around us. Therefore, we must be proactive in identifying and addressing ethical concerns, not only for our benefit but also for the well-being of our society as a whole.
We live in a time of wars and political unrest, and it is often considered normal to commit ‘insignificant’ wrongdoings – one can accuse others, speak of them badly in public, or tell half-truths. However, we must not wait until the perfect time to act with integrity and morality. One does not need to wait until the end of a war to seek peace.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Igor Zinkov
