Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parasha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlem o Cohen, and I hope you are well. Before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, want to say hello, introduce yourself, don't be shy, don't be afraid. Even if you perhaps never reach out to anybody, you know, you don't call into radio shows, you don't write into newspapers. Maybe over here, make an exception to your rule. Send in an email to rabbi shlomo kon kohnil.com all emails are read. I'd love to hear from you. This week's parsha is parshas tazria mitsora, meaning it's a double parsha. Tazria deals with the laws of tsaras as well as purification from childbirth.
[00:00:55] And the parsha goes through the different signs and the symptoms of tsaras, which is translated incorrectly as leprosy, but we'll get into that a little bit. But tsaras was a spiritual malady, a spiritual sickness which came upon a person because of different specific sins that they had committed. Nowadays, this disease, this spiritual disease, we don't have it. We're not on the level anymore to get that type of, um, disease. We're just not there. But either way, the Torah tells us, describes to us the symptoms and the different signs of tzaras. Now, it's very specific. A person didn't go to the doctor to be healed from tsaras or to be diagnosed that he had tsaras, but rather he went to the kohen, to the priest. And the priest would look at his symptoms and the signs on his body and the different, you know, rashes that he would have. And based upon what the Torah says, would declare this person either tahar, pure, tame, impure, um, or sometimes a person would be necessary to be put into quarantine for seven days to see what would be with this, you know, blotch on his skin. And after that point, the kohen would declare if it was pure or impure. The Torah also discusses for us the process of a mitzorah, someone who has tzaras. That's what it's referred to as his way to become pure. Again. He would have to be isolated. That was step one. He would have to be isolated by himself outside of the camp. And that would begin his process of purification. Parshas mitzorah, which is the second of the two parshas that we read. This Shabbos deals with the purification of the mitsorah, which is the person who has tzaras the Torah tells us how it's supposed to. This process is supposed to really be a teshuva process. Really, like we mentioned, it's a spiritual disease. A person was afflicted with tsaras because of sins that he had committed, specifically the sin of slander, of gossip. People would be affected by tsaras. And going through this process of purification would hopefully cause a person to become humble, to not have such arrogance, to maybe look at his ways to improve. And the Torah tells us that a person would have to go specific steps of shaving and bringing offerings and different types of offerings for different people, whether you are rich or whether you are poor. If someone was poor, they were only required to bring a lesser carbon and a, uh, lesser sacrifice. And the Torah also in Parasha Mitzorah, deals for us, tells us the laws of tzaras on houses, as well as, um, the purification of, ah, a house, how the house becomes pure again, because it wasn't just a person could get tzaras, but rather a person's house could get this type of disease of tzaras. And a person's clothing as well could get this disease of tzaras, and it could be on the person themselves. Finally, the parasha finishes off with the different types of, um, impure emissions from a man and a woman. It's called a zav and a zava and goes through the purification process that a person would go through after having these emissions. Now, the first idea I wanted to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the parsha, when the Torah begins with the laws of tzaras. It begins as vaydaber hashem hamosha vel aron lemur hashem spoke to Moshe, Moses, and to Aaron, saying, odom kiye be'or besoroi seis oy sapachas oy baheres vahoya b'or besaroi lenegatzaras v'huva el aron hakoyn oy el, uh, achad mibonov hakoyanim. If a person will have on the skin of his flesh a seis or a sapachas, these are Hebrew words that are describing tsaras or a baheres, right? And it will become a tzaras affliction on the skin of his flesh. He shall be brought to Aaron the kohen, or to one of his sons, the kohanim. And the Torah goes on to describe to us what is a sais, what is a sapachas, uh, what is a beheres, exactly how it looks and what is the symptoms of these type of tsaras afflictions. But it's interesting, if you look at the first word, it says Adam, kiyeh, uh, b'ar bisaray, if a Adam, if a person will have on his skin.
[00:05:53] Now, it's very interesting. We know everything in the Torah is exact. And we also know in lashon hakodesh in Hebrew tongue, that there's different words give different connotations and have deep different meanings. Now, there's different ways that you can describe a human being. One is Ish, which is a man, gever, which is also referring to a man. And another way is Adam, which is also Adam. It's talking about a person, a, uh, man. And it's brought down that when the, the term Adam as opposed to ish or gever, is referring to man in his highest stature, right? It's the most elevated way that we could refer to mankind because we know that the world was created for man.
[00:06:46] And the Torah uses the word Adam, um, here to signify something deep to us. And we need to try to understand why specifically by the case of this spiritual disease of tzaras, which is afflicted upon a person because of sin, because of doing something wrong, that we use this very elevated wording of Adam, right? Why is that? The Chavitz Chaim teaches us that the juxtaposition between this week's parasha and last week's Torah portion, which deal with the non kosher animals, the impure animals, teaches us something very important, that when it comes to what goes into our mouth, the laws of kosher, of e eating only kosher animals, just like we're careful about what goes in, we also have to be careful about what goes out. And as I mentioned before, the sin of tzaras, the sin of lashon hara, of evil speech, speaking about other people negatively, even if it's true, is what caused or was one of the sins which caused this spiritual disease. And the Gemara tells us the Talmud brings down that even most people, if not everybody, is afflicted in some way by the dust of lashon hara, that's by the dust of evil speech, meaning it's such a common and such an appealing thing that almost everybody touches it. I'm not saying people aren't careful on it, people are careful in it. But this is something which can affect every single person, even an Adam, even someone who's the elevated status of an Adam, which is mankind at its pinnacle, which this is. So the point is that this sin of lashon hara, of evil speech, is something which can affect and does affect everyone. Now there's a famous story which is brought down in the Midrash, and I believe it's also in the Talmud as well, that there once was a peddler who was going through a town and Ribyani was sitting there and he was learning and the peddler was announcing to everybody, who is the person who desires life, who wants the elixir of life? I have this potion. We all want to live long. He says, uh, who wants to know the secret to live a long life? And Rab Yanai, who was learning Torah at the time, heard this peddler and he turned to ask him, please tell me the secret. He said, the peddler said, for you, a Torah scholar, it's not necessary for you. And Rabjani, after persisting and asking this peddler to tell him the secret of life, he answered him and he said a verse in Tehillim, a verse in Psalms, Miyaisha Chavetz Chaim oyev Yamiler Mirma, who is the person that desires life and loves days that he may see good. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech, right? And it says, this is what it says in, um, Psalms, that if a person watches what he says, he will have a long life. And Rab Yanai was quoted to say that all his life he never understood this verse until this peddler explained it to him. So the question that's asked is this verse in Tehillim in Psalms seems to be pretty self explanatory. Why is it that Rabbi and I, who is a great Torah sage in his own right, didn't understand this pretty straightforward verse?
[00:10:19] What was he learning new from this peddler that he didn't know already? And what can we take out of it? And what does it teach us, going back to the weekly Torah portion when it uses the word Adam, right? This elevated status of man when it comes to the sin of Tsaras. So Rabbi Twersky brings down a verse from the Talmud which I think gives us an insight into an answer to this question with a very powerful lesson. The Gemara Yuma says that if a person studies Torah, studies the Torah, it can be an elixir of life. But if, God forbid, he uses it improperly, it could be a deadly poison, right? That if Torah, if used properly, if it's, it elevates a person. But if a person wants to use it improperly, it can be destructive. What does that mean exactly? So we know that derogatory speech, negative speech, is damaging, right? We think, we believe that sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt. That's not true. It's made up. It's made up. But the thing is, when it comes to derogatory speech, when does it hurt the most? You know, my kid, my daughter, she was complaining to me that, you know, someone made her not feel good or said something not nice. So I was trying to, like, make her feel a little better. So I said, hadassah, let me ask you a question. If a cockroach would say something not nice about you, would it bother you? And she starts laughing and laughing, giggling. And so she said, of course not. I'm like, why? Because it's a cockroach. Because it's an ant, right? It doesn't have value. Not. Doesn't have value, but it's the. Let's just pretend. If an ant could speak, it wouldn't bother us because it's an ant. And I'm a human being, right? I'm a human, and that's an ant. But if the insult, if the hurtful comment comes from someone we look up to, someone we respect, someone we love, someone we're close to, oh, it hurts. Oh, it hurts so much more, right? Because it came from, you know, someone who we respect, who we love, who we look up to. And this is, I think, the insight that we can gain from this, the connection between Adam, the word Adam, the elevated status of Adam, to this tsaras, which is the disease of tzaras, which comes about because of sins, because of evil speech.
[00:12:52] That it's very important for us to realize that this. Every person can be affected by evil speech.
[00:13:00] Every person can be sucked in with lashon hara. And it's especially all the more so. We have to realize that the words we say that come out of our mouth that are negative. If we're, you know, I think we all think of ourselves as respectable people, and we know that every trait we have should be used for good. So when it comes to, you know, I don't want to say arrogance, M. Maybe vanity, right? How could you use that for good? And the BAAL Shem Tov tells us that this is how you use arrogance or vanity for good. That when a person is about to say something not nice to someone else, we're about to say something derogatory. Say, how could I say something to someone else? How could I do that to someone else? Um, I'm a very elevated person. The speech that I say, the words that come out of My mouth are going to have such an impact. We have to put importance behind the words that we say. We have to realize that the words that come out of our mouth are extremely powerful.
[00:13:56] And I believe that's a connection to this week's Parasha. And that's the answer. Rab Yanne was saying here that Rab Yanne, when he said to the peddler, now I understand this verse is that beforehand he thought that people realized. Is that he realized now that from the peddler that he thought that he didn't need this strengthening, he didn't need this message about being careful of his words. He thought. Right. He realized, Rabbihanai, uh, that people must think that people who are great people who are Torah scholars, people who are elevated people, don't need this reinforcement to speak good about other people. The peddler thought that Torah scholars don't need to hear this, but to the contrary, it's the Torah scholars that need to hear it the most. Because if a person studies, if a person learns Torah, but it doesn't go inside of him and it doesn't go with the way he speaks and conducts himself, so then it sort of makes a, uh, it sort of opens up and makes a realization on all the Torah that he studied. Is it real? Is it negligence in speaking? Lashon Hara, especially by someone who is a Torah scholar, can distort the true value of the Torah. And it's not just for people that are Torah scholars. I think this idea, it's for everybody that we have to realize how important we are and the words that we say, how powerful they can be. No matter who you are, there's always people that are looking up to you. You might not realize it, but your words have an impact. And years and years from now, you'll find out about people that were looking up to you. And when you say something, be careful what you say, because you're important and your words are important. And the greater the person is, the greater impact that his words can have. And that sort of puts together this idea, the story of Rab Yanai the peddler, the importance of being careful of our words, especially a Torah scholar, when it comes to Lashon Hara, when it comes to how he speaks. And that's the idea here. When it says Adam by Tzaras, it's tying this back in together that an Adam, the most elevated person, he also has to be careful of how he says he has to be careful the most from all, from what comes out of his mouth. And that's the Connection why it uses the word Adam specifically when it comes to the sin of Tzaras. The second idea I want to share with you takes us to Parshas Mitzorah to the second Parsha. Now, the Parsha deals with the laws of Tzoras on houses that aside from, uh, being on a person, Tzoras can also come on someone's clothing or on someone's house. Now if you look at the verse, there's a very interesting wording that Rashi takes note of. It says as follows.
[00:16:43] Vayedaber Hashem and Moshe Valer and Lamor Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aaron, saying Ki savo Elaretz Kenan asher ani nosei and Lohem lachuzava no sati negotzaras be'vais eretz hachuzashem. It says, when you arrive in the land of Canaan, that I give you as a possession and I will place at Tzara's affliction upon a house in the land of your possession. Right? So God's telling, right, Moshe and Aaron, that when you're going to come into the land of Canaan, which is the land of Israel, you know, then you'll have to deal with these laws of Tzaras that could affect a house. But the wording of the verse is very interesting because it doesn't say in the verse when it will happen, but it sort of, it sort of seems like the verse is portending about that this will happen, this is going to happen to you when you enter into the land of Eretz Kenan, into the land of Israel to, you know, so this not good thing seems it's gonna happen to you and it's like pretending to something bad. So what's going on here? Who says it's going to happen? Who says the Jewish people are for sure going to sin? So if you look at Rashi, Rashi gives us an insight into this verse. It says, this is like a tiding. Lahem shenagoyim Alem that does these Tzaras, this affliction, will come upon the houses of the Jewish people because the, the nations, the non Jewish nations who lived in the land of Israel, they hid things of gold into the walls of the houses because they hid it in the walls of their house for 40 years. They knew the Jews were going to come into the land of Israel. Therefore, to prevent them from, I guess, getting the gold and silver, they hid it in their walls to try to hide it from them. And what the Midrash tells us here is that when the Jewish people came into the land of Israel and they conquered the land, g d put saras on the houses and the halacha. The law is, the Torah tells us that the bricks of those houses have to be taken out for the house to be purified. And when they did that, they found these treasures of gold and silver in the wall. And it was to their benefit in the end. Now, I think there's a very powerful lesson here that I think we could all relate to. You know, when many of us, we've had things in our lives which, you know, whenever something bad happens to us, we always, you know, why is this happening to us? You know, this is so unfair. This is so challenging.
[00:19:17] But I think each and every one of us can think of situations where things that seem bad to us, like, and there was no other way of thinking about it, turned out to be for our benefit, right?
[00:19:32] And it's interesting. It says in the verse, it says. It says in the next verse, UVO asheloi habayes vihigila koyein ley mar kinega nire liba baez. It says, the one to whom the house belongs shall come and declare to the kohen, saying something like an affliction has appeared to me in this house. He says, kinir ali. It looks like an affliction. You know, it appears to me like an affliction. And the hidden divine statement here is that sometimes things appear like an affliction, but really they're blessings in disguise. They're really for our benefit. How many times in our lives have we had challenging things, challenging situations which seem like an affliction? And, um, really, maybe to us in the moment, it didn't just seem. It was an affliction, right? It seemed more than that even. Right? It felt like an affliction. It was challenging. But after things are said and done and we pass through, we realize how it's for our benefit. Just like if somebody would have to take a medication that's bitter, they wouldn't say this is bad. They would say it's just bitter right now. But they realize that it's for their own benefit. Similarly, when we have challenges in life, even though at the moment it seems like, uh, an affliction, we have to realize that sometimes if we move away the brick, there's gold and silver behind there, and there's. And we know this, and I'm sure we've all experienced this in our own life. That just doesn't make always the situation easier. But if we have this mindset it helps us overcome and realize how we gain from every situation in life. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email@rabbishlamocon kohnmail.com have a great day.
