Blame

April 11, 2008
Rabbi Seymour Rossel

It is often said that the subject of the two portions from last week and this week, Tazria and Metzora, are unpleasant. Rabbis dread these portions that describe the symptoms of leprosy, skin afflictions, and bodily discharges. The two portions are often read in one Sabbath, but in a leap year, like the one we are in, they each have a Sabbath of their own.

The ideas in both portions are very ancient, predating the Hebrew people. Laws like those governing the plague on the house are found in early Mesopotamian literature and there is reason to believe that, while plagues on the house were common in Mesopotamia in ancient times, they were almost unknown in ancient Israel.

Other non-Israelite elements emerge. The person suspected of having leprosy, the metzora, is declared "unclean" and sent outside the camp or outside the city. The priest periodically checks on these exiled persons to see if they are healing. If they are, the priest performs a ritual which includes killing one bird and sending another bird away with the "uncleanness." The ceremony when performed for a metzora or for a house that has ben struck by plague always includes the use of fragrant substances like cedar and hyssop, and the use of red blood and red-dyed yarn.

Unlike Hebrew sacrifices, this bird was killed outdoors, not in the Temple. This is an indication that the ceremony is more ancient than Israelite rituals. No one can say how ancient. The use of fragrant substances and red substances also indicates that the ritual is magic. This magic is considered "white magic" and is permitted when it is performed by one of our priests -- all other magic is always considered "black magic" and is strictly forbidden by the Torah. The rule is: Our magic is always good, their magic is always evil.

The magic works through "magnetism" and "transference," both of which rely on prehistoric human superstitions. "Clean" and "unclean" things become magnetized. A person or object that comes into contact with something "unclean" becomes "unclean" and has to be restored to "cleanness." This "cleanness" has nothing to do with hygiene, it is entirely a matter of religion. When a bird is killed over a basin of water, the bloody water is sprinkled on the metzora, the burning of the fragrant substances fumigates the victim, and the live bird is dipped in the blood to magnetically transfer everything "unclean" to it. Then the live bird is released. So the "uncleanness" is sent away.

In the same way, we all wish we could send away the "uncleanness" in our lives. If it were only as easy as making some magical transference. But when things go wrong at home or at the office or at the synagogue, the tendency is for that ancient superstitious "magnetism" to set in. Instead of dealing with what went wrong, we seek to lay blame for it. We want to know who is "unclean," who made the first blunder, who spoke the first cruel word. We would like to brand someone a "leper," a metzora.

If only we could burn a little incense, throw a little blood, and send some bird winging upward, then finding the person who is to "blame" would be a real solution. Unfortunately, blame never constitutes a solution. The search to lay blame only causes our problems to be prolonged.

When the priest releases the living bird and sets it free to wing away, it takes to the sky. If the bird were to return, it would not bring the "uncleanness" back with it. It would have touched the heavens which are eternally "clean," so it would have become magnetized by "cleanness" and no sin would remain attached to it.

When we forgive -- or, even better -- when we accept a share of the blame for whatever goes wrong in our lives, we open the way for restoring our homes, our workplaces, our synagogues, and our lives to cleanness. That is what we really want in the end. Not the blame, but the loving kindness that comes from forgiveness, the feeling that we are absolved, "clean," and we can go on being a peaceful family, a peaceful home, a peaceful congregation, even a peaceful nation. For God's sake, this week's portion tell us, "Let go of blame and take hold of forgiveness." And let us say: Amen.