03 Apr (Pesach): The Transformation of the Blemish – Parshas Tazria & Metzora – Insights in Recovery, the Blemish of Addiction
Pesach Series – 5769 (r24)
Parshas Tazria – Parshas Metzora (often read together but not 5784)
The Transformation of the Blemish
Insights in Recovery, The Blemish of Addiction
Inspired by the teachings of Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh and Rabbi Moshe Genuth
There is a very strong connection between Parshas Tazria and Parshas Metzora, the Parshas that discuss tzara’as- leprosy and the Chag of Pesach. It should be noted that Tzara’as, a skin blemish, is often translated but it is not leprosy as we know it today.
Pesach is a time of transformation. The Jewish Nation exited Mitzrayim (Egypt) at its lowest physical and spiritual point in history, and very quickly, within a month’s time went from the lowest depths of their existence to merit receiving the Torah at Sinai… the highest level of our existence in history. Thus, there was this first experience of tshuvah (to return to spiritually pure state) referred to as Tshuvah of Transformation , the Tshuvah of Nissan, and the month in which we have Pesach. It is a tshuva of birth or rebirth, in this case, the birth of the Nation of Klol Yisroel through the journey of the Exile from Egypt and the receiving of the Torah at Sinai.
The second type of tshuva is the Tshuvah of Evolution.
As its name implies, the tshuvah of evolution is done more slowly and methodically, step by step. This is the tshuvah process associated with Elul, a time of careful consideration of one’s character and sins. When doing Tshuvah, it is important time to engage in a thorough cheshbon hanefesh, a personal accounting also commonly referred to in the ‘12 Step’ programs as a personal inventory.
‘ The Tshuvah of Pesach is the Tshuva of Transformation.’
Month of Nissan and Pesach;
There are significant words the share the same roots as Pesach. The first is peseyach meaning to skip or leap. The mazel, (the lights of the stars of the the constellation) of the month of Nissan, is the Ram (aries). This marks the month of Pesach as a time to skip or leap from slavery to freedom. This is a powerful image of Pesach … transformation and the Ram.
For deeper understanding of the transformation and Pesach we must go further back in time to when Yaakov and Esua wrestled. It was there that Yaakov acquired the name Yisroel. Yaakov/Yisroel went down to Mitzrayim/Egpyt. He was the embodiment of the ‘…Man, Yaakov’, and the Nation Yisroel (from where then came the 12 Tribes of Yisroel).
During the struggle he (Yaakov) also had his hip dislocated and from that point forward walked with a limp. The Exodus from Mitzrayim is the beginning of the Jewish people to do a tikun (rectification) on that blemish Yaakov/Yisroel, to heal the limp (of his and as the Nations of Israels’ injured hip) and bring the Jewish Nation to a skip or leap. The rectification of this blemish is the tikun required to bring Mashiach.
Another root sharing word for Pesach; are pe-sach, pe meaning mouth, and sach meaning speak… as in pe-sach; mouth-speak. As it was in the beginning of Creation, ‘G-d created the world with 10 utterances’, we have the ability to recreate, bring about a re-birth, a tikun (rectification) through the power of speech. This gives us a deeper understanding as to why we must tell the story of the Haggadah. It is through the telling of the story of the Haggadah that we create a reality of what was- and still is, that we can then acknowledge and change. There is a common saying...’you can’t change what you don’t acknowledge’. The essence of the oppression of Mitzrayim continues to permeate our Nation. We must continue to do the necessary Tshuvah until all ‘the blemish’ is rectified.
Signs and Symptoms ;
In the Torah, there are four different names used to describe ‘man’. In Parshas Tazria-Metzora ‘man’ is referred to as ‘adam’. This is the holiest of all four names used to describe ‘man’. This loftiest of names is the name for ‘man’ that’s used to describe the affliction of tzara’as, leprosy or skin blemish. It was only the most righteous of men that received the ‘skin blemish’. We must then understand that is it was a ‘gift’ to the righteous, the highly spiritually connected individuals to merit receiving such ‘a blemish’.It is evidence of their merit in their close relationship with G-d . The appearance of the blemish allowed them to physically see the errors of their ways . It was a gift.
We all fall down…
The following explanation is offered regarding the righteous being affected with tzara’as. Where there is a communal deficiency or ‘blockage’ to hastening Moshiach , the tzaddik (the righteous) of the community in his frustration to bring about the required rectification to bring Moshiach , may momentarily have a lapse (of emunah-faith) and have an outburst of loshen hora .
A tzaddik is held to a higher standard for averas – transgressions. He may in his frustration perhaps simply have uttered ‘ what’s wrong with these people… they should be more observant [ to bring Moshiach]’.
There is a powerful mechanism at work here. The utterance is of course not done consciously… it’s a mistake. The tzaddik in speaking loshen hora has done a transgression but has also taken upon himself the burden on the blockage of the deficiency. A tzaddik can take on the burdens of others in order to make it more possible for all to do tshuvah. The community would be most aware of the fallen state of ‘the tzaddik’ and G-d willing become inspired to do the necessary tshuvah. The intended outcome is that the tzaddik and community would of course tshuvah and return to a level (madrega) stronger and better than before the chet.
There are similar occurrences that happen throughout the Torah. For example, when the Kohan Gadol may enter into the Holy of Holies and due to a deficient state of Klol Yisroel, he may lose his life. The loss of the Kohan Gadol is a sign of National deficiency and a need for tshuvah.
We can perhaps understand spiritual influences and physical consequences in terms of ‘signs and symptoms’. Signs are rooted more in the physical, and symptoms occur at the spiritual level. Where there is a sign (physical manifestation), there is a symptom (spiritual); where there is a symptom (spiritual), there exists the potential for a sign (physical) as long as the spiritual root of the blemish remains unrectified. It is essential to know that the root of all blemishes is in the spiritual realm.
Today, although we don’t have the visibly revealing physical barometer as tzara’as (blemish) as an indicator of the state or sign of our spiritual condition, we still have the physical world that does indeed reflect Our spiritual condition in some way. The world of cause and effect provides a real mechanism of consequence for our actions. As we acquire more clarity, i.e. clearer lenses through righteous living, the spiritual blemishes that affect the physical world in people, places and things becomes clearer to us. In other words, the more spiritually healthy we become, the more clarity we have and the better we are at diagnosing and healing our blemishes.
We see that where people lack the skill to cope with various life circumstances in the physical world, and accordingly engage in the use inappropriate behaviors and/or substances to ease or ‘medicate’ pain or discomfort (the result of a deficient spiritual connection) , there follows a tangible physical consequence. The complete cure of the blemish is not found in the healing of the sign or physical consequence only, but in rectifying the cause… doing appropriate tshuvah on the spiritual root symptom of the blemish.
Through the physical world and the engagement of substance and/or behavior, as in addiction layers of blemish or dysfunction are accumulated until such point in time as a person begins to experience ‘unmanageability’. Once there is/are symptoms and they have manifested as signs, a person will experience incereased disharmony spiritually and physically. A person may not even be consciously aware of the disharmony. Depending on what stage of disconnect a person may be at, and how strong a person’s psychological will to continue on a destructive path may be, the blemish may go unnoticed for some time. This deficient state may be due to a lack of awareness or denial (just like the hardened heart of Pharaoh). In fact the state of disharmony may become so familiar to a person that it paradoxically (or by default) becomes a dysfunctional state of comfort. This would explain why only one-fifth of Israelites came out of Egypt. The rest were ‘acustomed to (paradoxically comforted)’ to their deficient state and feared the change of the unkown journey ahead.
We learn from Parshas Tazria and Metzora that when the blemish is totally white, (that is to say that when the blemish can no longer get any worse), it is understood at that point that the ‘blemish’ can only get better. Where the person who is so totally blemished is able to stay alive, he can begin the process of rectification. This condition of a totally white blemish is a metaphor for a person who today may be in the throes of addiction or distess, we may say has hit ‘rock bottom’ , (like the deficient state of the Jewish Nation in Egypt-Mitzrayim before the Pesach Exodus).
The ‘leprosy’ or blemishes of today is all that ails the world physically or spiritually. It may include war, economic disaster, global warming, illness such as cancer, common colds, etc . . . . Or it may be the malady of depression and addictions that may be manifested through innapropriate use of substances and behaviors such as drugs, alcohol, gambling and anger etc. These maladies are often characterized as deficiencies of ego and arrogance (guyvah).
Arrogance (pride and ego) block G-d out of a persons life due to a person choosing their own will over the righteous path of choosing G-ds Will. We may also include behavioral problems here such as the engaging in defamatory speech (loshen hora), disrespect of others, baseless hatred and intolerance including intolerance that is focused inwardly…within that mey be hatred and intolerance amongst-and-against other Jews and Jewish communities themselves.
Torah of the Mind and Torah of the Heart –
Throughout history, Jews have lived in persecution. This circumstance necessitated the ‘Preservation of Torah’, Torah learning done in an academic or intellectual manner to assure the survival, transmission and continued learning and living of Torah. This made the teaching and learning of academic or intellectual Torah a priority. Eventually, there was a need to bring together the Torah of the Mind (or intellect) referred to Kabbalistically as the masculine aspect of Torah learning, with Emotive Torah or Torah of the Heart, referred to Kabbalistically as the feminine aspect of Torah. The bringing together of the Mind and the Heart of Torah, the masculine and feminine aspects of Torah is a basic philosophy of Chassidut. It is the unity of masculine and feminine aspects that bring about new birth (the evolution and transformation of change) of thoughts and actions in ourselves and the World. This of course includes changes in ones midos (character).
Different Times, Different Change –
For example, in pre-war Lodz, my Zaida AH, at the age of 13 was the oldest and had to then go to work full time to support his family of eight. They were six brothers and sisters and his parents. From the family, only he and one sister survived the Holocaust. There was not much time in a day to deal with changing ones midos (character). Life was deterministic. Life was about surviving. They lived day to day, hand to mouth. It should never be our understanding that we have the luxury to sit back today and just feed our physical desires. That would be a shanda (a shame) we ought not bring upon ourselves or upon the memories of our ancestors. We must remember it was the toil of our ancestors that has given us this tremendous opportunity in our time having laid the foundations to deal with the rectification of character… a rectification of the heart and a meeting and unity of the mind through the learning and living of Torah. It is the evolutionary tshuva of our ancestors , the pain and suffering of all generations past upon which we must build and transform ourselves and this world. We Jews today are living in times of abundance never before experienced in Jewish history. The failure to harness the merit of evolutionary tshuvah and ignite it through tshuvah of transformation is a desecration to the generations that came before us. The failure to bring about transformation creates a void, a spiritual deficiency and the physical consequences that allow the blemishes of the Jewish individual, the Jewish Nation, and the blemishes of the world to proliferate.
Our historical circumstances of persecution and oppression as we read in the Hagaddah and have experienced throughout history provide us with insight as to the limitations and our unbounded potential to truly be able to manifest our freedom to practice and exercise Tshuva of Evolution and Tshuva of Transformation. This is tshuva that incorporates or interincludes the Torah of the Mind with the Torah of the Heart. The Tshuva of ones Character is imperative to bringing about change and the Final Redemption.
The Tshuva of Pesach is the Tshuva of Transformation –
The Jewish nation, like the totally white blemish was near totally polluted (tahmed) in Egypt, both in sign and symptom. In Mitzrayim (Egypt), the Jewish Nation’s symptom (the spiritual malady) was a ‘will that had been beaten into submission’, and the sign (the physical manifestation) was enslavement. However, it was the result of this ‘beaten down will and nullificaiton of ego’ that allowed them as a Nation to become available spiritually, and as it followed physically, to follow Moses and G-d out of Egypt. They had become ‘tempered’ or prepared for the journey of the Birth of the Nation. Their ‘vessel’ was ready to receive. For the Jewish nation Egypt experienced near death on a National level (much like that of the Jewish nation as a result of the Holocaust). It was at this point of near obliteration of the Jewish Nation that we received a miracle of G-d. The blemished nation began the process of the rectification as a Nation, with the ultimate focus of that rectification being to anoint a Jewish King, Mashiach and the Final Redemption.
In our lives today, although we don’t have tzara’as we do still have a lot of rectification work to do on our spiritual and physical ‘blemishes’. We learn from Torah that there are three basic choices (Parsha Netzavim); 1) Blessing and a Curse 2) Good and Evil 3) Life and Death. Within the insights we may learn from these basic categories lay great gifts. The greatest power to connect to G-d is achieved in the transforming and rectifying of the ‘Blemish’. It is the ‘gift’ of the blemish, whether it be a spiritual blemish or the manifestation a physical blemish, that is the platform to inspire tshuva (and tikun-rectification), to bring about a transformation for ourselves and the Nation Klol Yisroel. Within the gift of the blemish is the opportunity and power of transformation and rectification.
The process of unification of the Jewish people and tikun olam (the reparation and Rectification of the World) must include the acknowledgement and rectification of the ‘signs and symptoms’ of our blemishes. It is through the transforming (or healing) of the blemishes that we will accomplish the necessary tikun. This requires more than ‘evolutionary tshuva’, it requires ‘tshuva of transformation’, the tshuva of the changing of one’s character (midos), the tshuva of rebirth, as an individual, and as a unified Nation.
When we conclude the Seder we say Hashana rabba b’rushaleyim, – Next Year in Jerusalem, we should know that this is referring to a rectified, unblemished, united and transformed Jewish people; this is the Jerusalem of Mashiach.
Chag Somayach,
Have a Kasher and Meaningful Pesach,
Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
Addictions and Counseling (Hnrs)
www.lawrencelax.com
lawrenceJlax@gmail.com