Leviticus 12:1-15:33
This week's commentary was written by Professor Arnold M. Eisen, chancellor, JTS
The Baal Shem Tov, seeking the sort of symbolic meaning in this week's section of Leviticus that we too search out, found the laws of scaling and scalding, bodily discharge, and fungus in the warp and woof of fabric suggestive of the need for repentance and humility.
"Let not a person say in his heart that he is greater than his fellow, that he serves God with greater devekut [devotion], for he is just like the rest of the creatures created by God for the purpose of His service, and God gave his fellow intelligence just as God bestowed it on him. And [indeed] in what is he more important than a worm? For a worm also serves the Creator, may His name be blessed, with all its intelligence and strength, and Man is also a lowly worm, as is written in Psalm 22 [verse 7], 'For I am a worm and not a man . . . '" (Sefer Baal Shem Tov, M'tzora, 9).
Focus on the body—its pains and sores, its frequent need for healing and repair, all of these pointing toward mortality—brings thoughts such as the Baal Shem Tov's to mind. Pretense does not hold up well in the face of unbearable itching, oozing, or boils. When the skin that normally marks the boundary between each of us and the rest of creation breaks down, the rest of the self may break with it. Ridges and crevices that appear in surfaces of flesh that are normally smooth may disrupt our sense of at-homeness in the world. We fear that discoloration on the outside of the body will signal to everyone we meet that something inside us is not right. We are discomfited, uneasy in that skin.
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