Leviticus Cycle Four Tazria 12:1 to 13:59

Tazria

In Tazria we receive transmissions about childbirth..and leprosy.

It’s not leprosy though. Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani in the name of Rabbi Johanon says it symbolizes slander (lashon hara) shedding of blood, vain oath, incest, arrogance, robbery and envy. (Bab Talmud Arakhin 16a). Midrash adds to that idol worship, blasphemy, vainglorious pride and the evil eye (Lev Rabbah 17:3). The Sfas Emet takes it further. The skin is porous (he says). These pores allow the light to shine through their “shells”. Only our hurtful actions clog up those pores so that “darkness covers the earth”. That’s why the leprous affliction…segiru…in Aramaic means “closing”.

It’s not childbirth alone either. After all, if a human is a vessel to carry Gods light then the birthing of a human can be seen as the creation of divine sparks. Avraham Greenbaum in his book on the Ramchal explains it this way: Creation happens when….a single line of divine light entered…and spread in the form of Adam Kadmon. Primordial man. This happens within us. The baby is the soul born within us. The circumcision is within us. God will after all circumcise our hearts (Deuteronomy 30:6). The offerings are within us (according to the sages). It is through humanity that creation and redemption are joined together (Sfas Emet). What we are looking at here is therefore huge, a transformation.

And there are remains to such a transformation (like there are remains to childbirth) dead pieces left behind, emotions running wild, anger, loss. And when this stuff rises to our skin and our flesh… it blocks them. Our blood that refreshes our brain and our heart can’t even clean the organ of our skin anymore. Sometimes, we are so covered in our dark behavior that the only possible action is healing. This is clean. But more often we have healthy skin as well and we are therefore vulnerable to blocking ourselves even more. Closing our hearts. Shutting down. This is not clean. So we have our work cut out for us.

How can we bring Tazria into our world? During transformative times we want to watch not only what comes in (kashrut) but what goes out…with discernment, care, focus, deliberation. The more we push and cry or laugh the more we must inspect our behavior and our deep inner selves for the by-products, the disease, the stuff we would rather place aside as we bask in the renewed glow of Hashem.

How can we bring Tazria into our meditation/prayer? Visualize a pillar of light from the heavens. It surges through our mind to our center. It carries vibrations reaching to all corners of our body, shining and cutting through the dark scraps. We are a ball of golden light with clean transmission from our center through our skin cells, our eyes, our mouth....to the community. Try to stay in this image for as long as we can. Try to see the transmission as blessings, one blessing, one astonishing birth of love.