When you Choose Shabbat, you choose to learn that every Shabbat is different and special. This week I learned about Parashat Metzora (מְצֹרָע ), the 28th weekly Torah portion in the annual cycle of Torah readings.
According to Wikipedia, Metzora (מְצֹרָע), Leviticus 14:1 through 15:33, contains 4,697 Hebrew letters, 1,274 words, 90 verses and 159 lines of the Torah scroll. Metzora includes a description of the purification process and accompanying sacrifices for one infected with tzaraat, a discoloration condition on the skin. It also describes the process of treating a house infected with tzaraat and the ritual impurity generated by certain bodily discharges.
Rabbi Michael D Klein of Temple Torat Emet offers his insights on this week’s Torah reading, Metzora, for Shabbat April 20, 2024 aka 12 Nisan 5784:
“For many years, medical professionals have pointed out that there is an important health connection between mind and body. Thousands of years earlier, Sedra Metzora underscored this but also added an additional dimension of mind-body-spirit. As Jewish people, we have always been made aware that cleanliness of mind and spirit go hand in hand. This accountability and awareness is the basis for prayer and teshuva and the main reason that far more of the 613 mitzvot focus on the relationships between each other. What we say to and about each other is an indelible component to our Human-G-d relationships and thus Metzora emphasizes our accountability and the negative physical and spiritual consequences that ensue when we fail to control our words and deeds which have the power to harm others.
Likewise, Shabbat Hagadol, the Shabbat preceding Passover marks the time when we have completed preparing our homes by cleansing it of chametz. This is also a physical and spiritual activity. Chametz represents anything containing leaven but also represents anything within our personality and psyche which can cause ourselves and others to be harmed. As we remove Chametz from our physical environment, we must make the effort to remove characteristics about ourselves which are self-defeating or which cause pain and suffering to those we care about.
The Torah has always been our guide for the concept of “cleanliness is next to G-dliness”, except, that in the Jewish version, it refers not only to physical cleanliness but also spiritual cleanliness; honesty, pure speech, truthfulness, and commitment to G-d’s laws. May this “great Sabbath” and the holiday of Pesach bring us new awareness of our Mind-Body- Spirit connectedness to G-d and to Klal Yisroel.
Shabbat Shalom VChag Pesach Kasher V’Sameach
Questions to consider:
- Why do the Sages refer to the word Metzora as an abbreviation?
- Why is the lowly hyssop herb used in the process of purification from Tzaraat?
- How does the fact that garments or even a house may be afflicted with Tzaraat underscore the concept that Tzaraat is not synonymous with leprosy?”
Rabbi Michael D. Klein attended Yeshiva College of South Florida and served as Torah Reader, Hebrew teacher, Chazzan and spiritual leader of various synagogues throughout South Florida. In January 2015 he became Ritual Director, Bnai/Bnot Mitzvah instructor and 7th grade Hebrew instructor for Temple Torat Emet of Boynton Beach. In October 2019 he was accepted into an accelerated track and received his shicha from Yeshiva Adath Wolkowisk and has been the Rabbinic leadership of Temple Torat Emet since August 2020. In September of 2022 he was appointed Rabbinic and Spiritual Advisor of the Florida Region of FJMC.
Choose Shabbat; choose to celebrate, to light candles, sing songs and learn a little Torah.
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