APRIL 15 • 2021 | 31

“Time is not a series of 
moments traced on the 
face of a watch, always 
moving yet always the 
same. Instead, it is a jour-
ney with a starting point 
and a destination, or a 
story with a beginning, 
middle and end. Each 
moment has a mean-
ing, which can only be 
grasped if we understand 
where we have come 
from and where we are 
going to. This is time not 
as it is in nature but as it is 

in history.”
The Rabbi Sacks Legacy 
Trust is delighted to pres-
ent the 5781 Omer calen-
dar. Each of the 49 days 
holds a life-changing idea 
by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks 
zt”l, sourced from his 
Covenant & Conversation 
essays on the weekly par-
shah.
Download it at rabbi-
sacks.org/wp-content/
uploads/2021/03/Omer-
Calendar-5781-Rabbi-
Sacks-FINAL-1.pdf. 

Calendar to Count the Omer

Yoram Raanan’s painting titled “On the Way to Har Sinai.” 

Spiritual ‘Leprosy’ 
T

he major theme of 
Tazria-Metzora, is the 
skin disease referred to 
as tsaraat. 
While often translated 
as “leprosy,
” the disease 
described is not lep-
rosy as we know it; 
and likely the cause of 
this can be traced to 
mistranslation of the 
Hebrew into Greek.
The Sages of the 
Mishnah were con-
fused by the lengthy 
detail Torah gives to 
this affliction, and 
the answer they gave 
(as taught by the late 
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks,) 
was that it was punish-
ment for lashon hara 
(evil speech). They reached 
this both through some play 
of words as well as the fact 
that both Miriam and Moses 
are afflicted by tsaraat after 
speaking negatively about oth-
ers prior to being afflicted.
While we must always con-
tinue to avoid participating 
in lashon hara, I would like 
to share the idea of “spiritual 
leprosy” that Rabbi Nathan 
Landman teaches. Landman 
shares that “[t]he disease 
of spiritual leprosy would 
include attempts to justify a 
government lying to its cit-
izens … epidemic abuses of 
advertising employing words 
that are denuded of meaning 
so as to arouse a ‘feel good’ 
response … [and the] ubiqui-
tous tendency to rationalize 
one’s behavior rather than 
having the courage to con-
front one’s failings.
” 
All these things are happen-
ing around us and to us; and 
yet we allow it because we do 

not see it as lashon hara but 
rather as the expected behav-
ior of government, companies 
and individuals alike.
If we are to embrace the 
teachings of Tazria-Metzora, 
we must see the pain 
and suffering being 
caused by doing busi-
ness as usual and speak 
up when we see people 
participating in spread-
ing the gossip which is 
the root of the affliction 
of spiritual leprosy. We 
must always remember 
that much of what we 
enjoy in casual conversa-
tion is likely gossip, and 
we have a responsibility 
to not participate in 
sharing it — in any form 
(looking at your social media). 
While it might feel good in 
the moment to say “did you 
hear?” or to post a comment, 
retweet a post or share an 
article without reading its 
contents (but the title!), in the 
long term, we are participat-
ing in spreading a disease that 
is destroying individuals and 
communities alike. 
While we no longer see the 
physical affliction of those 
who participate in gossip, we 
see the mental ones every day. 
Bullying is the child of gos-
sip, and we know the impact 
it can have on one’s mental 
health. It has been shown that 
one adult caring is all it takes 
to save the life of a young per-
son who is struggling.
We all need to be the best 
of ourselves as we begin to 
emerge from our homes and 
back into the world. 

Rabbi Simone Schicker is rabbi at 

Temple B’nai Israel in Kalamazoo.

Rabbi 
Simone 
Schicker

Parshat 

Tazria-

Metzora: 

Leviticus 12:1-

15:33; II Kings 

7:3-20.

TORAH PORTION

Points to ponder for each day of the Omer from Rabbi Sacks.

