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Orchard of Delights
Bezalel for being so attuned to God’s plan, exclaiming that the name
“Bezalel” literally means “in the shadow of God.”
These two parallel conceptual movements, from internal to external
and vice versa, link tzara’at and the Tabernacle together and remind
us of the following: just as the Tabernacle’s purpose was to serve as
both a dwelling place for God in the lower worlds and a place where
human beings and God could encounter one another, so too the body
is meant to be a dwelling place for the soul, which is a “part of God
above,” and a place where the Divine and the human meet. Just as
the Tabernacle was the meeting place of finite and infinite, physical
and spiritual, the mundane and the holy, so is the body. Even after
death the body is treated with great respect as it once housed a holy
soul. The human corpse is actually compared to a Torah scroll that
has become invalid. Significantly, even though the Torah scroll can
no longer be used, it must still be treated with enormous respect, and
is even given a proper burial, just like a person.
The dynamic at play between internal and external mirrors the
even profounder interplay between the fundamental principles of
“light” (the source of bestowal) and “vessel” (the receiver). At times
light precedes the vessel, while at other times, the vessel precedes
the light. Kabbalistically speaking, either statement may be true
depending on the circumstances, each might simply reflect different
realities and contexts.
Throughout our discussion of Tazria and Metzora another
fundamental set of seemingly contradictory concepts has appeared
repeatedly: “Awakening from Above” and “Awakening from Below.”
Indeed, Jewish teachings posit a “disagreement” between God and
the Jewish people. God declares, “Return to Me … and I will return
to you” (Zechariah 1:3), while the Jewish people claim “Return us to
You and we will return” (Lamentations 5:21). On whom is the onus
to act first? In light of the lesson we have just learned, we would
argue that both of these demands are valid from within their own
perspectives.
These contradictory and opposite pairs of concepts are ultimately
all related one to another and are interwoven into the very fabric of
the cosmos and the realities of life. Learning to integrate external
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12 Tazria
£Giving Birth to Redemption£Giving Birth to RedemptionGiving Birth to Redemption
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In the previous two sections we discussed two different concepts that
are alluded to in the portion of Tazria: the spiritual roots of disease
and the Messianic redemption. Although both have the theme of
purity and impurity in common, there does not seem to be any other
link between them. In this section we will shed light on the connection
between these two seemingly unrelated matters.
The link between these subjects is found in an enigmatic Talmudic
discussion (Sanhedrin 98a). The Talmud symbolically depicts
Mashiach as a metzora (one stricken with the disease of tzara’at)
sitting with the other outcasts at the entrance to Rome. One of the
Sages asks how Mashiach can be distinguished from all the other
poor and sick people gathered there. He is told that all the others
when changing their bandages remove all of them at once and then
replace them one by one. Mashiach takes off one bandage at a time
and then replaces it before changing the next one. Why does do this?
So that if God calls upon him to reveal himself, he can do so without
delay.
The fact that Mashiach is depicted as a metzora is exceedingly
noteworthy, as the prophet Isaiah describes the future redeemer as
afflicted with sickness:
He was despised and isolated from men, a man of pains and
accustomed to illness. As one from whom we would hide our faces;
he was despised, and we had no regard for him. But in truth, it was
our ills that he bore, and our pains that he carried – but we had
regarded him diseased, stricken by God, and afflicted! He was pained
because of our rebellious sins and oppressed through our iniquities;
the chastisement upon him was for our benefit, and through his
wounds, we were healed. (Isaiah 53:3-5)
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh explains that being stricken with a
sickness is an opportunity for personal growth; such an experience
enables us to atone for our misdeeds and learn the important lesson of
empathy, as discussed in the first section of this portion. Throughout
365