Purity v. Impurity

אִישׁ־צָר֥וּעַ ה֖וּא טָמֵ֣א ה֑וּא טַמֵּ֧א יְטַמְּאֶ֛נּוּ הַכֹּהֵ֖ן

Vayikra 13:44 states that "a man is leperous and he is impure (unclean); the priest will proclaim him unclean." The rest of parshat tazria also focuses on impurity and purity. A man is proclaimed impure if he has any lesions or sores, or any physically visible skin difference, and woman once she gives birth. The priest is the one making the ultimate decisions, determining who is pure and who does not fulfil the requirements. After seven days, the priest comes

out of the camp and brings the impure one back into the community, if they are pure (their skin has cleared up).

This past Sunday, I left for a journey. Distancing myself from my community, I became a traveler, exiting the narrow places, the mitzrim, of my daily life in Israel. Although not labeled tameh, impure, I still desired the distance in order to gain perspective and clear my own head. The narrow places in my life became visible in the narrow straits I navigated over the five days on my bicycle. Conquering each passage, my journey brought me back to myself, with the final turns of the wheels bringing recognition that the purification was mostly complete.

(For more information, check out www.riding4reform.org)

Living in Hebron, a Palestinian cannot walk through the streets of the old city. The Israeli, Jewish government and military have concluded that the. Palestinians are threats to Jewish existance and control their every movement. They have been deemed tamehim, impure, and not allowed to leave their houses at certain times. 500 days during the early 2000's were spent indoors, with only a few hours every few months granted as time to obtain flour and ride. Simply put, the Jews determined the impurity factor and now serve as the high priest, deciding who goes where, when, and for how long.

(For more information on the complexities of Hebron, click Here

All three of these ideas connect to the ideas of purity and impurity. The Torah gives us a foundation for understanding how to make the community as cohesive as possible. We receive the knowledge of how to maintain wholeness, shlemoot, in the face of different bodily conditions. Using the basis laid down in Tazria, the two examples I present demonstrate the various ways of reading what purity means. Each community, each person, has his or her own definition of purity. As the Torah does not designate specific laws of purity for the present day with regard to more deeply seated "flaws", we as Jews, but more importantly as humans, must determine how we differentiate between purity and impurity.

This coming week, may we understand how purity and impurity are present in our lives, and take the time to cleanse ourselves, or our communities, from their impurity. May we also remember that someone's idea of impurity may be our idea of an obscenity, so we must negotiate the circumstances with dignity and respect.

Shabbat shalom.