Rav Haim Lifshitz
Parashat Metsora

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Taking a Stand in Relation to Values

 

 Translated from Hebrew by S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai



      It is clear that our parasha contains allusions to that sacred custom practiced by saintly Jewish housewives everywhere – of furiously scrubbing, scraping, and sanding down every corner of the house – even the corners of the ceiling are not exempt from their wrath – justifying it all with the excuse that, “any chametz in the house must be destroyed,” “it may not be seen,” and “it may not be found.”

     Our parasha discusses houses afflicted with leprosy, tsara’at habayit. House leprosy has a pshat, a plain meaning, and a drosh, a deeper meaning. While the plain meaning limits itself exclusively to the dry framework of the halacha, the drosh allows itself – as it has been worked through by the giants of Biblical commentary – to explore the fundamental meanings and causes of this house leprosy. We are not referring to the buried treasures hidden in the house walls by the Emorim and Can’anim, because this midrash is even brought by Rashi. We are referring to the commentaries that attribute leprosy to an outcome of bad midot, the negative character traits developed by human beings.

      “And I have already written a number of times that we have been given permission to interpret the deeper meanings of the verses in any way we deem proper, as long as there is no contradicting the words of our Sages of blessed memory.” (Ohr HaChaim 14:35) See also The Precious Vessel (Kli Yakar) for truly precious allusions about house leprosy pertaining to the behavior of the dwellers of the house, who were afflicted with house leprosy because of tsarut ayin, begrudging their fellow human beings, and because of their lack of hospitality, refusing to allow others to benefit from their possessions, believing anything from “my home is my castle” to “my might and the power of my hand have brought me all of this.”

     The Jewish housewife discerns – in her immense sanctity and in her endless devotion to the Jewish home – that the home must rid itself of all the internal chametz as well, that the house must be cleaned out of everything that tends to ferment, spoil or rot. Furthermore, the Jewish housewife comes out openly against the view of the home as a mere instrument. She has the wisdom to discern that the home is a dynamic expression of the behavior of the people in the home, rather than merely a passive object. For this reason she labors also to cultivate the form and appearance of the home, that it might be pure, to faithfully reflect the purity of its residents.

     Similarly, and how much more so with leprosy of the garment, and how much more so with leprosy of the body, and even more so with leprosy of the head and beard. Leprosy is here understood as a human expression reflecting human behavior. It halts human behavior, and compels the one afflicted to take a stand, to re-examine his position in relation to the values that demand relating to.

     It is a classic Jewish custom that the rabbi gives a public sermon twice a year, on Shabat Shuva and on Shabat HaGadol. The common reason given for this custom is the need to lecture on the laws of the holiday, which is replete with laws and requirements with which the public is not familiar. Yet a need for a rabbi’s sermons may be understood more broadly as a need to take a stand vis a` vis problems that arise in the public space and in the world in general. This is a need that arises at least twice a year, before the two major seasons of the year, on Shabat Shuva before the winter season, and on Shabat HaGadol, before the summer season.

     The stand we are taking this time will relate to how we relate to the State of Israel:

     The State of Israel is no more than a device, a tool and an instrument for fulfilling a specific function, which is to protect the Land of Israel so that it shall be a Jewish state for Jews, rather than a state for all its citizens. The political authority of every state derives from the power of conquest, rather than from the simple fact of social organization and social consensus by all its members/citizens. This is because social consensus draws its authority from the power of the majority, and a majority cannot coerce a minority. In contrast, authority that comes from the power of conquest is in force for all, and with regard to the land of the state as well, rather than merely with regard to taxes and services.

     The Land of Israel received additional sanctity by force of Joshua’s conquest. However, a king of Israel must also be anointed by a religious authority. The Cohen or the prophet who would anoint the king by power of the supreme imperative cannot rely on, nor suffice with the authority of the power of conquest. Even the instrument of government is not exempt from the responsibility of infusing government with meaningful content and values, for which a Jewish kingdom in the Holy Land bears responsibility, and from which it draws its authority.

     A state is a framework of government. The State of the Jews in the Holy Land is responsible for two fundamental values: Protecting the Jewish character of its citizens, and protecting the borders of the Holy Land against conquest by foreigners – let alone not handing over parts of it. The purpose of the State is to protect the land for the Jews and to protect the Jewishness of the State.

     To our great sorrow, the State does exactly the opposite. It yields up the territories of the Holy Land to its dangerous enemies, and fights against the values of Judaism with every means at its disposal, through the device of the law. It makes every effort to promote assimilation by filling the land with non-Jews in every possible way and manner, even taking the trouble to legislate laws of assimilation, out of an absolute contempt for halacha, Jewish law. The laws of conversion to Judaism are one example. Ascribing sanctity to the political framework as though it were an independent value (na?vely calling the government the Kingdom of Israel) purifies the rodent, turns it into an idol, and helps the enemies of Judaism – who are afflicted with a pathological self-hatred – to continue their work of destruction.

     It is irrelevant to claim that one must at least respect the governmental aspect that deals with the other domains of the regime, as in “be careful to respect the government, for were it not for fear of it, each man would devour the other alive.” The bitter fact has been proven: such a sweeping separation of governmental domains has no justification, and the people of Israel are not like other peoples.

     If the State does not fulfill its value-driven destiny, it deteriorates to a degraded condition even with regard to the other domains of government. It becomes just like all the other distorted and degraded governments that were once theoretically based on law and justice, and just like any other degraded and corrupt, brute-force-based arm of the law; be it police force or governmental bureaucracy, it is at once cruel and idiotic.

     If the State of the Jews does not honor its Jewish values, all its other frameworks of government will collapse as well. Judaism does not preach a substantive separation between the physical and the spiritual. “If there is no flour, there can be no Torah; if there is no Torah, there can be no flour.”

 

 

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