Stumbling Blocks

Achrei Mot-Kedoshim

Lev. 16:1 -20:27

Précis: Achrei Mot begins with Adonai speaking to Moses after the death (achrei mot) of Aaron’s sons. It describes the rituals for Yom Kippur, including the prescribed sacrifices. There are specific details about the purification of the Sanctuary, vessels, and the priests. Following this description, rules for the slaughter of meat (including the prohibition against eating blood) are reiterated. The parasha concludes with a listing of prohibited marriages. 

            The opening words of Kedoshim are “You shall be holy” (kedoshim tihyu), and it continues with various descriptions of how the People are to strive for holiness. Included are fundamental laws, such as fearing one’s parents and observing Shabbat. Consideration of the poor through the commandments to leave the corners of fields for gleaners is included, as are mandates which complement the ethical principles of the Ten Commandments (being honest, avoiding vengeance). Specific bans against magicians, soothsaying, witchcraft and defiling the dead follow, as are reminders to avoid human sacrifice. This parasha is often viewed as the very core of moral teaching for the Jewish People.

Leviticus 19:14 “You shall not insult the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind.”

             As noted by Yardén Raber (Torah Sparks 5/4/16) Professor Jacob Milgrom, one of the most prominent Bible scholars of the 20th century, suggested that with this week’s reading, the nature and direction of the Book of Leviticus changes: the concept of “impurity” expands to include moral sins and blemishes, and remedies also expand. With this week’s reading, we enter the realm of “holiness” and immoral behavior becomes the main source of impurity.

            In the cited verse, we observe that the “deaf” and the “blind” can be taken advantage of because of their disabilities, and certainly this verse literally prohibits such behavior. Rashi teaches, however, that we should also understand the verse metaphorically: we should not take advantage of an individual who is “blind” to a particular matter. In other words, we must not take advantage of the vulnerabilities or shortcomings of others. Sages have suggested that we violate this provision when we know that an individual doesn’t understand the nature of the transaction into which he is entering – that he is “blind” to the consequences.

            The placement of a stumbling block also may be understood as offering improper temptation. Do we offer someone in recovery a glass of wine? Do we offer dessert to an individual fighting to lose weight? Does the funeral home “upsell” the coffin to a mourner who is told that a plain pine box is not sufficient to honor the deceased?

            In reality, all of us have disabilities, some known to others, and some known only to ourselves. Being truly self-aware means avoiding the temptations, the stumbling blocks, which we know will only lead to those behaviors from which we wish to disassociate ourselves.

Celebrate Israel!

Tazria-Metzorah

Lev. 12:1-15:33

Précis: Tazria begins with laws concerning the need for ritual purification of women following the birth of children, and the laws of what is usually referred to as “leprosy” of the skin and on garments (although this translation is most certainly erroneous; it appears to refer to an affliction which renders the person, garment, or home ritually impure).

            Metzorah discusses laws for the purification of “lepers” with sacrifice and water. It also discusses growths on walls of a house which cause ritual impurity. The parasha concludes with a discussion of bodily secretions which are another source of ritual impurity.

Lev.13:1 “Adonai spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling, a rash, or a discoloration, and it develops into a scaly infection on the skin of his body, it shall be reported to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests.’”

This double parasha has been referred to (by me and others) as the bane of bar/bat mitzvah students, who try to explain arcane rituals which are (at least on the surface) out of touch with modern society. Even the Sages of the Talmudic period sought to see the matters metaphorically, assuming that “metzorah” implied the sins of gossip and evil speech. I’ve been talking about such matters frequently in recent weeks, so I decided to make a departure and focus on the celebration of Israel’s Independence which we observed this past week.

            I find it something of an astonishment the degree to which Israel is almost universally castigated. A recent Face Book posting showed hundreds in Britain protesting in favor of Gazans setting fires and attacking the security fence, deploring the unfortunate deaths of some of them at the hands of “Israeli occupiers.” Just underneath the picture, we saw the same street, this time empty, with a tagline indicating that this represented the protests against Assad’s use of chemical weapons on his own citizens. An obviously contrived meme, but an effective statement nevertheless of the degree to which real evil doers are left off scot-free while Israel is attacked as being morally reprehensible. This is more than mere hypocrisy. A failure to hold Arabs to the same standards of morality demanded of Israel is simply racism directed at Arabs, because it implies that they are not able to live by universally accepted standards.

            We need to remember that Israel is a 70-year-old vibrant democracy which observes the rule of law, has free and fair elections, recognizes the equality of women, enjoys a standard of living unique to the region, and guarantees freedom of expression and religion to all of its citizens. No democracy is perfect, but the facts that some of the fiercest critics of Israeli government policy are Israelis themselves proves the point.

            We know that Israel is held to an unfair double standard across the world. And in these dangerous times of evil speech, anti-Semites conflate Israel with Jews, wherever we may be found.

            Let’s desist from criticism of the Jewish State for a moment, enjoy its miraculous existence, and recognize that the survival of the Jewish People across three millennia is not an accident.