Parshiyot Tazria-Mezorah – 5785

See Me

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Tazria-Mezorah

By Rabbi Greg Schindler (AJR ’09)

“See Me

Feel Me

Touch Me

Heal Me”

“See Me, Feel Me” (The Who)

There was once a fellow who was so forgetful that, when he got up in the morning, he could not remember where he had put his clothes. One evening he had a great idea: He took a pencil and paper and wrote down exactly where he placed each item of clothing. He placed the note on his nightstand and fell asleep.

The next morning, he saw the note and read off each item in turn. “Pants – on chair”. And there they were. “Shirt – on bed post.” There was his shirt. “Hat – on hook behind door.” And there it was.

Suddenly, a worried expression crossed his face.

“Yes,” he said, “Here are my pants and my shirt and my hat … but where am I?”

He looked and looked, but could not find himself anywhere.

Woe to the young person called upon to speak about this week’s Torah portion at their B’nei Mitzvah. For the double portion of Parshiyot Tazria and Metzorah graphically deals with a variety of “skin eruptions” (called “tzaraat”) – swelling, scaly, colored, sometimes hairy, skin eruptions.

Imagine you wake up one day and look at yourself in the mirror and – [record scratch] – “What?! Is that me?! Where did that come from?!”

Now what do you do? Head to the drug store? Buy a turtleneck? Hide in your room?

No. You have to show it to someone.

Who? Your Mom? Your spouse? A doctor?

No. To Aaron the Kohen Gadol (High Priest), or to one of his sons – the Kohanim.

“Now wait,” you’re probably thinking, “I have never so much as spoken to Aaron. He’s the Kohen Gadol – the Big Kahuna! – and now I have to show him … this? ” How mortifying!

So you go to Aaron, and you sit down and he looks at you. I mean he really looks at you. Indeed, the Torah uses the word “רָאָ֣ה” – “Seeing” over two dozen times in the first 43 verses of our parashah.

If it might be tzaraat, he isolates you for a week. With no cell phone or tv, there is plenty of time for introspection.

After seven days, Aaron shows up to give you another careful looking-over. If things haven’t improved, back into quarantine you go. After another six days, Aaron returns to look at you again.

What goes on at these meetings with Aaron? The Torah doesn’t specify any special prayers or rituals … just lots and lots of looking.

And why is Aaron – the Kohen Gadol – doing the looking? Why would he take time from his vital, communal duties to see you? In short, why is he the right person for the job?

Let’s look at what we know about Aaron:

Although he was Moses’ older brother, he is happy to learn that Moses is the new leader, and to serve as Moses’ spokesman. (Exod. 4:14) On several occasions, Aaron even calls Moses, “My lord.” (Exod. 32:22-24; Num. 12:11)

When Moses is absent for 40 days, the People cry out for a new god to lead them. Aaron tells the men to, “Break off the golden earrings in the ears of your wives, sons and daughters and bring them to me.” (Exod. 32:2) He probably hoped that the righteous women of Israel would never allow their husbands to break off their earrings to make an idol. But his plan is foiled when the men bring their own gold earrings! The next verse begins with a reflexive verb –  “וַיִּתְפָּֽרְקוּ֙  – They broke off [on themselves] the gold earrings that were in their [own] ears and brought them to Aaron. (Exod. 32:3) Aaron now tries a delaying tactic: “There will be a festival to Hashem – tomorrow.” Exod. 32:5) Alas, Moses comes down and is aghast at the sight. Aaron tries to calm things down: “Let not the anger of my lord burn: you know the People, that they are bent on mischief.” (Exod. 32:22-24)

Later, Aaron pleads for Miriam when she is stricken with tzaraat after saying something about Moses’ wife[1]: “‘O my lord [Moses], I pray, lay no sin upon us, for we have done foolishly, and we have sinned. Do not let her be as one who is not born alive.” (Num. 12:11-12)

When a plague breaks out after Korah’s rebellion, Aaron takes incense and runs into the midst of the People: “And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.” (Num. 17:11-13)

Pirkei Avot explains Aaron’s love of the People as follows: “Hillel used to say: Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them close to the Torah.” (Pirkei Avot 1:12).

But there is one more quality about Aaron that makes him the right person to see someone who may be suffering from tzaraat: Aaron has the capacity for abiding stillness. After the tragic passing of Aaron’s two sons, the Torah describes Aaron’s reaction in a single word – “וַיִּדֹּ֖ם” – “He was silent.”

When Aaron sits quietly with you in your distress, you know that you are loved.

And as he sits there and deeply looks at you – concentrating on you entirely – you know that he is also deeply listening to you.

In the book, The Good Listener, James Sullivan describes this kind of listening:

“When you give all your attention, as though I were the only person in the world at that moment – and that’s what a good listener communicates to me – you touch me very deeply. You have taken the trouble to enter into my world and to see things from my point of view. I cherish that. I feel understood. I feel cared for. You don’t judge me or blame me… There isn’t one of us who doesn’t want to be understood and accepted in this way.” (Page 60)

What can such listening achieve?

Sofia Tamarskin describes her meeting with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson when she was a young Jewish refugee from the former Soviet Union:

“Even now, 30 years later, I choke up as I replay this moment in my head. The Rebbe looked at me with his kind, blue, piercing eyes, and I saw my own reflection in them. Not the version of me who was shaped by Soviet childhood, but the real me with an unblemished soul and G‑dly consciousness. It was a moment of complete clarity, like the dark forest illuminated by a bright flash of lighting; my life was forever shaped by the knowledge of my true essence. As I stood next to him—an immigrant lost in this new world, seemingly disconnected from my Jewish roots—the Rebbe granted me a completely unexpected gift, a glimpse inside my own soul and its potential.”

Did you ever wonder who actually reports the possibility of tzaraat? After all, the symptoms may be visible to only one person – the one who may have it. Tzaraat is probably a self-reported malady!

You get up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror and something has drastically changed. Is that really me?!

So you go to the one person who might be able to see you… to the point that you can again see yourself, and be yourself.

And this is what G-d desires from us: That we be our true self before G-d.

In the Torah’s description of Pesah, Shavuot and Sukkot, the Torah tells us that three times each year, each person shall “ יֵרָאֶ֨ה – appear” before G-d. (Deut. 16:16)

But it is not enough to just show up. We must each bring our own special gifts:

“One should not appear before G-d empty-handed; [rather] each with his own gift, according to the blessing that your G-d has given you.” (Deut. 16:16-17)

What exactly is your own gift?

It is you.

It is your own unique self, with which G-d has blessed you.

Sometimes we might lose track of who we are. It is then that we need someone to look at us, and listen to us, with full attention, without judgment, only love.

Imagine having such a person in your life.

Imagine being such a person in the lives of others.

Shabbat Shalom.

[1] A careful reading of this episode indicates that it may have been Miriam alone who spoke about Moses’ wife, as the Torah uses the third person feminine singular, “ וַתְּדַבֵּ֨ר” – “and she said” in the verse about the Cushite woman. (Num. 12:1) In the next verse, however, it seems that both Miriam and Aaron spoke, using the third person plural (masculine/ mixed group): “וַיֹּאמְר֗וּ – “They said, ‘Has G-d indeed spoken only with Moshe? Has G-d not spoken also with us?”

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Rabbi Greg Schindler (AJR 2009). While at AJR, he was honored to serve as President of the Student Association. He is a community rabbi in Westport, CT where he conducts classes in Talmud and Tanakh. He has led Children’s High Holiday services for over 20 years. Each year, he writes and directs a new Yom Kippur comedic play based on the Book of Jonah , including “Jonah-gan’s Island”. “Batmensch”, “SpongeJonah SquarePants”, “Horton Hears an Oy” and more.