Passover, Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17; Numbers 28:19-25

By Rabbi Howard Stein for the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Asssociation

The regular Torah reading for the eighth day of Passover discusses the consecration of all firstborn animals to God and the festival calendar, clearly connecting to the observance of the holiday.

However, because the last day of Passover falls on the Sabbath this year, we also read the preceding section, which describes the annual tithe and the shmita year, the seventh year when all debts were cancelled and (more significantly for Passover) all Hebrew slaves were freed. While we might think that this section is added on to give a longer Torah reading for the Sabbath, this section has its own connection to the themes of Passover.

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Sitting at God’s Seder Table – A’tacha d’Rachamana Samchinan

by: Reb Mimi Feigelson, Mashpiah Ruchanit for AJU

If there is a night that is rich with peek moments, traditions and memories it is seder night! Imagine leading a communal seder of three hundred people in Dharamsala, India, where throughout the evening people trickle over to you whispering/yelling, "but you didn’t use the tune that we sing at home!" and all I can think then and there is: "But you made a choice to be thousands of miles from your home, living in a shack on the top of a mountain for a reason, didn’t you??? Surely it wasn’t to sing the melodies that you sang at home..." Smiling, I would keep that thought to myself... My mind always wanders back to that experience when preparing for Pessach.

For a moment, I’d like to ask you to see yourself at all the different seder tables that you’ve sat at in your lifetime. Whose table was it? Who was there? What did it feel like? What were the conversations about? Please observe how these variables change your feelings and memories.

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Shabbat HaGadol/The Great Sabbath: Metzora - Conservative

Leviticus 14:1-15:33

By Rabbi Bradley Artson, provided by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, for MyJewishLearning.com

Is It Blasphemous To Heal People?

Even if we view leprosy as a punishment, we must work to heal the afflicted, allowing our sense of compassion to override justice or logic.

Our ancestors, like others in the ancient Near East, suffered from frequent eruptions of a variety of skin diseases, called ‘tzara’at.’ Many of these ‘leprosies’ were quite severe, and they carried a severe social stigma in every culture in the ancient world. Countless stories in the Bible and the Talmud attest to the dread consequences of this illness and the devastation it could bring into the lives of individuals, families and communities.

According to the biblical view of how the world works, ‘tzara’at’–like all illness–was a divine punishment. If everything comes from the One God, then illness, too, must have its origin in Divine will. The logical assumption was that people got their illnesses because they deserved them. The only aspect open to question was to ask which illness resulted from which deed.

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Shabbat HaChodesh: Tazria-Conservative

Leviticus 12:1−13:59

By Rabbi Bradley Artson, provided by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, for MyJewishLearning.com

The Leprosy Of Irresponsible Speech

Learning to control our speech will enable us to transform the world into a community that respects the shared humanity of all people.

With this week’s Torah portion, we learn a great deal about the ritual function of the kohanim (priests) in helping people cope with infectious illness. Particularly the illness of ‘tzara’at,’ leprosy, becomes the focus of sustained attention, presumably because it was quite common in the ancient Near East.

Basing themselves on a story found in the Book of Numbers, the Rabbis of the Midrash viewed leprosy as an external sign of an internal decay. Illness became a symbol for corruption, immorality and callousness.

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