Parashat Tazria-Metzora April 13, 2013

By Lynn Crocker Shabbat Bulletin April 11, 2013

Candle lighting time for Friday, April 12, 2013, 7:22 p.m.

Parashat Tazria-Metzora

3 Iyar, 5773 / April 13, 2013
Triennial Cycle III: Lev. 14:33-15:33
Humash Etz Hayim, page 663
Haftarah: 2 Kings 7:3-20, p. 676

(14:33-53) The law of tzara·at [variously translated “leprosy,” “scale disease,” “eruptive plague,” on a house.
(14:53-57) A summary of chapters 13-14.
15:1-33) This chapter describes the rules governing discharges of various bodily fluids and their effect on the ritual purity of the individual.

A Plague on Your House (God Forbid!)
By Rabbi Daniel Pressman

When you enter the land of Canaan that I give you as a possession, and I inflict an eruptive plague upon a house in the land you possess, the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, “Something like a plague has appeared upon my house.” The priest shall order the house cleared before the priest enters to examine the plague, so that nothing in the house may become unclean; after that the priest shall enter to examine the house. (Leviticus 14:33-36)

R. Shmuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonaton: tzara·at afflictions come upon a person for any one of seven things…For stinginess, as it is written (Lev. 14:35) the owner of the house shall come, and it was taught in the academy of Rabbi Yishmael, He who would reserve his house for himself. (Talmud Tractate Arakhin 16a)

Rashi: He wants to keep his possessions to himself and not lend them to others.

The synagogue, the house belonging to partners, and the women’s compartment are subject to uncleanness from house plagues. Is that not self-evident? You might have said [reading the Hebrew literally]: Then shall come he who has the house to him; ‘to him’ [implies] but not ‘to her’ [woman], ‘to him’ but not ‘to them’ [partners], therefore we are told [that this is not so]. Perhaps it is really so? — Scripture says, upon a house in the land you possess, [which includes both] — Why then ‘to him’? [That means to say that] if one devotes his house to himself exclusively, refusing to lend his belongings by pretending he did not own them, the Holy One, blessed be He, exposes him as he removes his belongings. Thus ‘to him’ excludes [from the infliction of the house plague] him who lends his belongings to others. (Talmud Tractate Yoma 11b)

It is written, The produce of his house will disappear, they shall flow away in the day of His anger (Job 20:28), they will flow away and be found. When? On the day that the Holy One arouses His anger against that person. How does this come about?

A person says to his neighbor, “Lend me a kav of wheat.”
The neighbor replies: “I have none.”
“Then a kav of barley?”
“I have none.”
A woman says to her neighbor: “Lend me a sifter.”
She replies, “I have none.”
“Lend me a sieve?”
She replies, “I have none.”

What does the Holy One do? He brings a plague on the house, and when the man is forced to take out all of his belongings, everyone sees and they say, “Didn’t he say that he had nothing? Look how much wheat he has! How much barley! How many dates there are here!” (Midrash Vayikra Rabba 17)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Join Rabbi Ohriner next Shabbat morning (4/20) as he shares his thoughts and reflections on his two weeks in Poland and Israel as part of March of the Living.

Camp Scholarships Available

Relay for Life

Upcoming Tot, Youth and Family Services

Mitzvah a Month

Holocaust Museum – extended through April 15

Minyan – Sunday 9:30 am & Monday – Thursday 7:00 p.m.