Spirituality TORAH PORTION Am e The Plagued House Parshat Tazria-Metzora: Leviticus 12:1-15:33; Numbers 28:9-15; Isaiah 66:L1-24. T GET LOST. Friday Night Live: Tlie Eclat. Djangirov Trio plays contemporary jazz this Friday night! Family Sunday: Singer, songwriter and environmental educator Joe Reilly performs music that helps people of all ages deepen their relationships with their natural environment. - Opens Sunday!: Throuon ,iicar. Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present me' Aar D A Quick Clean 31519 W. 13 Mile Rd.,Farmington Hills 13 Mile + Orchard Lake in Westbrooke Shopping Center DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS ■ 13 Mile Rd. o 0 • Dry Cleaning...Regularly $2.50 (sweaters, pants, plain only) Now for a short time.... with ad only $2.25 • Men's Suit @S5.75 • Shirts on Hangers . . .99c (NO LIMIT) • Laundry Services Available 248-489-0953 Log on to Jtionline.us giveaways • forums • calendars VISIT JNonline.us 40 .2f.mD his week, we have the double sion ..." . Thus, the "plague" can only Torah Portion of Tazria and come to houses in the Land of Canaan, Metzora. These portions deal and after the Jewish People take pos- with various types of tuma, a state session of it (Yoma 14A). that limits one's activities The Torah is describing in regard to sanctified a circumstance where the objects and places. Jewish community, having In Tazria, among other settled and taken residence tuma, we learn about in the land promised by tzoraas, a type of skin God, behave in such a way affliction that does not that may ultimately result correspond to any identifi- in the destruction of their able organic disease, and habitation there. a type of tuma of fabrics, One can see these verses again not identifiable. as a symbol of the even- Rabbi Eliezer In Metzora, we are taught tual exile of the Jewish Cohen where the tzoraas is cured, People, described again Special to the and this is followed by a in Lev. 26:14 26 and Deut. Jewish News different tuma — that of 28:15-68, and 29:21-27. The houses. According to the "plagued house" is a symbol verses (Lev.14:33-53), if the walls of of the Jewish People refusing to cre- one's house become discolored in ate in their land the holy community certain ways, the priest will declare it mandated by the Torah. tuma and a procedure either "cures" The Torah is a program for building the tuma or results in the house a community of justice and mutual being demolished. Traditionally, these concern and respect. It is a guide for a "plagues" are understood as punish- nation that supports, protects and pro- ment for sins committed. vides for even the least among them. There is a fascinating Talmud pas- It demands a community that loves sage (San.71A) that states, accord- the strangers and must treat them ing to at least one opinion, that this accordingly. It requires a community "plagued house" "never was and never whose leaders — especially its reli- will be. Why is it written? Learn from gious authorities — realize and fulfill it and be rewarded!" their awesome responsibility to the This Talmud passage shows that in entire people with truth, respect, righ- this case and others, the rabbis could teousness and humility for the benefit interpret parts of the divine Torah in of the whole community. ways to make it purely hypothetical. It is a community where all cooper- According to this Talmud passage, ate for the general good and the wel- these verses were written to learn fare of all. This is the community that what lessons we can from them. the Torah bids us to create, and which It seems to me that the possibility the "plagued house" warns us that of tuma of the house represents the if we do not fulfill these command- possible corruption and destruction of ments, we do so at our own peril. r: the Jewish settlement in the Promised Land. The verse (Lev. 14:34) states: Eliezer Cohen is rabbi at Congregation Or "When you come into the Land of Chadash of Oak Park/Huntington Woods. Canaan that I give to you as a posses- Conversations 1560250 The Talmud (San. 71A) makes it clear that the rabbis can interpret the verses in a way that makes them impossible to implement. What does this tell us about the authority of the rabbis and the Oral tradition? What can we learn from the "house of tuma" to make it meaningful to us? How does the State of Israel measure up compared to the type of community mandated by the Torah? How can it improve?