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Parshat Metzora: Leviticus 14:1-15:33;
11 Kings 7:3-7:20.

W

hat's mine is mine, and
that way, if he had to condemn the
what's yours is yours." On
house, it would be as empty as possible
the face of it, this sounds
to minimize the loss.
perfectly reasonable; these words
The Torah seems to be undermining
simply seem to assert that we ought to
its own law! If there are good reasons
respect property rights.
to condemn the house's contents, why
And so, when the rabbis talk about
offer a way out? If there is no good rea-
this way of viewing the world in Pirkei
son, why does the law exist?
Avot (Ethics of the Fathers)
In a scathing midrash,
they initially characterize
our rabbis offer a pointed
it as "average"— neither
answer: as a punishment for
saintly nor wicked.
people who won't lend to
But the rabbis also men-
their neighbors.
tion another opinion: That
"A man says to his friend,
someone who says, "What's
`Lend me a measure of wheat,'
mine is mine, and what's
and the other says, 'I have
yours is yours" resembles
none'... or a woman says
residents of the evil city of
to her friend, 'Lend me a
Sodom.
sifter,'
and she replies, 'I have
Ra bbi
Why such harsh words
none.'
What
does the Holy,
Jona than
for a reasonable, apparently
Blessed
One
do? He lets lep-
Ber ger
harmless worldview? What
rosy loose in the house, and
made some rabbis so critical of an
as the owner clears out his possessions,
understandable human attitude toward
people see, and say, 'Didn't he say, 'I have
personal property? Pirkei Avot itself
none'?! Look how much wheat is here...
offers no answer; we aren't told why
Cursed be the house filled with such
that mode of thinking is so unaccept-
inhabitants!"'
able.
The rabbis believe that God is so
I discovered an answer in a thought-
infuriated by people's unwillingness to
provoking midrash on a surprising law
help each other that God would send a
in this week's parshah. This section of
plague to expose their true nature. And
the Book of Leviticus focuses on a set of here, perhaps, is an answer to the ques-
skin conditions collectively known as
tion we began with. The problem with
tzara'at, which is usually translated as
saying "What's mine is mine, and what's
"leprosy" even though that name isn't
yours is yours" is that when we look at
quite accurate. We read laws that seem
the world this way, we cut ourselves off
from our fellow human beings.
cruel and unfair; although some beauti-
ful values emerge from them, they are
When money is tight, we may be
ultimately hard for most of us to relate
unable to give tzedakah; when we are
to.
using our sifter, we can't lend it out.
This week's parshah opens with a
But when we refuse to help even when
description of the rituals used to purify
we can, we are betraying our essential
people whose symptoms had disap-
responsibilities to other people, who are
peared or stabilized, so they could be
also created in God's image.
welcomed back into the community.
The rabbis take a difficult and inap-
But then comes the surprise — in a
plicable law about mold and use it to
related section on mold-like infec-
teach us about goodness. They want
tions that afflict houses called tzara'at
us to open our hearts to others in need
habayit.
and to help when we can. They would
If your house was diagnosed with this have us understand that, as John Donne
kind of infection, everything in it would put it, "No man is an island"; only when
have to be destroyed. Once the priest
we accept responsibility for each other
pronounced the word "impure there
will our houses truly be pure.
was no way to preserve your belong-
ings! And so, in order to minimize the
Rabbi Jonathan Berger is Ray Beit Hasefer
at Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit
loss, the priests would order the house
in Farmington Hills.
cleared out before he came to inspect;

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April 3 • 2014

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