Friday, April 11, 2008

Metzora 5768: Social Diseases

This week, in the second half of the double portion, God explains how to clean someone of Tzarat. We then get the explanation of the Tzarat of the house, and its remediation. Finally we have a discussion of the Zab, and the necessary actions for a person so afflicted. We read of Zab:

2. Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, When any man has a discharge out of his flesh, because of his discharge he is unclean. 3. And this shall be his uncleanness in his discharge; whether his flesh runs with his discharge, or his flesh is stopped from his discharge, it is his uncleanness. [Leviticus 15:2-3]

Since a regular ejaculation is mentioned further down the text, we know is that this is an unnatural discharge. Unlike the problem indentifying Tzarat from last week, this is clearly Gonorrhea. The symptoms also are different for women:

25. And if a woman has a bloody discharge many days not during the time of her menstruation, or if it runs beyond the time of her menstruation; all the days of the discharge of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her menstruation; she shall be unclean.[Leviticus 15:25]

For all cases, ejaculation or a non-normal discharge in men or women, the rules are pretty much the same:

4. Every bed, on which he, who has the discharge, lies, is unclean; and everything, on which he sits, shall be unclean. 5. And whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. 6. And he who sits on any thing on which he, who has the discharge, sat, shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. 7. And he who touches the flesh of him who has the discharge shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. 8. And if he who has the discharge spits upon him who is clean; then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. 9. And whatever saddle he, who has the discharge, rides upon, shall be unclean. 10. And whoever touches any thing that was under him shall be unclean until the evening; and he who carries any of those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. 11. And whoever he, who has the discharge, touches, and has not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. 12. And the utensil of earth, that he, who has the discharge, touches, shall be broken; and every utensil of wood shall be rinsed in water. [Leviticus 15:4-12]

While there is less quarantine than Tzarat, there is a lot of infection control. Here we see the concept very clearly of contamination and cross contamination. Not only can one be contaminated by direct contact but also contact of surfaces the Zab touches. Interestingly, most of the surfaces mentioned, including the Zab’s hands, often have direct contact with the genitals. To counteract the contamination, one washes the contaminated bed, chair, saddle, utensils. Then one must avoid using them for a full day. Some things, like earthenware containers cannot be cleaned, and thus must be destroyed.

These are of course all good ways of preventing disease transmission where one has an STD or has just handled a dead animal of any kind. Cleaning and preventing contact in the first place from surfaces that might be contaminated is a good way to prevent disease.

But is there spiritual lesson in all this? In order to answer that question I think we first have to remember one of the first lessons from the Perkei Avot:

Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the Elders, and the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets to the men of the Great Assembly. The latter used to say three things: be patient in [the administration of] justice, rear many disciples and make a fence round the Torah. [Avot 1:1]

This statement is the basis of the Oral Torah. There was law transmitted orally from generation to generation that was not written down in the five books of Moses. Fundamental to the Oral Law is the concept of the preventative measure: the fence or hedge around the Torah. The idea is simple: have a rule that makes sure you don’t break another, written rule. For example, Do not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk has so many preventative measures wrapped around it that one should not eat a cheeseburger, or even a chicken sandwich with soy cheese, just so we don’t break that original rule.

The question I then ask is: If the Oral Law contains fences around the Written Law, Could the Written Law put a fence around itself? Here we have a case of that exactly happening. While Zaba, the female equivalent, might be a bit more complicated into the cause and may include other diseases beside gonorrhea, it clear that the Zab has an STD and that of course requires sexual transmission. While it possible to have sex while both partners are standing, it’s a lot easier if at least one partner is sitting or lying down. If no one can really touch a Zab or anything a Zab sits or lies on without becoming contaminated, then it become very difficult to have sex with a Zab, and truly transmit the disease. Interestingly, the Talmud notes this in terms of the one loophole in the law: a zab must not dine together with a zabah, lest it lead to sin! [Shabbat 11a, 13b] If both are afflicted, then there is seemingly no danger of transmitting disease, and another fence needs to put into place to prevent otherwise prohibited sex should the two try to seduce each other at the dinner table.

Midrash tells us that the name of our portion Metzora, the word for someone with tzarat can be broken into two words Mozi (bring out, utter) ra (evil) [Leviticus Rabbah XVI: 1, 2] They go on to say that both Tzarat and Zab are punishments for evil speech and other detestable social actions. In English there is a related word play: Intercourse may mean sexual contact or conversation. I believe this is not accidental. Both good conversation and good sex requires the active participation of all involved. On the other hand bad conversation can be as destructive as bad sex. The direct English translation of lashon ha-ra is the bad tongue. While usually involving tale bearing, spreading rumors, lying, and the like, it really covers the whole gamut of bad conversations.

The ancient rabbis, in linking STD’s and lashon hara may have seen this connection And while most, but certainly not all STD’s and usually occur from direct contact, there is the possibility of cross contamination of many organisms from contact with other surfaces, which spread the disease unintentionally to others. So too with Lashon Hara – and ideas can spread to others, and cause harm far beyond two people talking.

Sex and talk also have another commonality: it is a way of creating connection between people, and we have a deep core need for connection. The problem of Lashon hara often occurs when we so want connection that we connect badly. Instead of a deep constructive connection, we take other routes. Instead of building bridges to another through revealing ourselves we connect through destructive statements about some famous person for example. Sometime it is not even about a third party. Anger, crankiness and criticism directed at someone trying to connect with you is all too often the case. Similarly one night stands purely for the sensation and not for any deeper relationship with a person accomplishes nothing and may even spread a disease.

I think there is another verse in the Perkei Avot which describes this well:

R. Hananiah b. Teradion said: When two sit together and there are no words of Torah between them, then this is a session of scorners, as it is said: Nor sat he in the seat of the scornful (Ps. 1:1); But [when] two sit together and there are words of Torah [spoken] between them, the Shechinah abides among them, as it is said: then they that feared the lord spoke one with another(Mal 3:16).[Avot 3:2]

If, however we build a strong constructive relationship, things are very different. In stead of temporary relationships longer lasting bonds are made. For those bonds our need for connections is filled, and we even gain the ability to create instead of destroy. In conversation new ideas can be generated. The conversation itself becomes a holy sacred connection.

Yet more often than not this does not seem to happen. It is one of the paradoxes of the last two parshiot that the disease which might start from a desperate need to connect leads to more isolation. One who gossips, slanders, or hurts people verbally becomes even more isolated for no one is around them. Yet, when we fear Lashon Hara, and put too many fences up against saying the wrong thing once again we isolate ourselves. All of this isolation can become a downward spiral as the person become more desperate, leading to even more destruction both of ourselves and of others. There is one place that the sexuality and conversation parallel does break down however. We should think in terms of universal precautions for STD’s. Prophylactics are definitely a good idea when it some to sexual contact. But in conversation we often take this to ridiculous extremes. We place so many fences around ourselves to prevent such destruction to our selves from the outside. All it does is isolate us even further.

How does one beat this pattern? I wish I knew. I’ve spent a lot of time, energy and money trying to beat it, and deeper connections are rare, close to non-existent. The answers I’ve found never completely, if at all, seem to work. I do not have Tzarat or Tav, yet the social disease of isolation is an unbearable weight, one compounded in the last few months with and even stronger physical isolation than before. I’m sure I’m not the only one, as the rock group Police wrote in their song Message in a bottle:

Walked out this morning, don't believe what I saw,

A hundred billion bottles, washed up on the shore.

Seems I'm not alone at being alone,

A hundred billion castaways, looking for a home.

I thought of a parable this weekend which, writing this and all those bottle washing ashore, I truly wonder if I’m seeing clearly. Last Sunday I heard a lecture by Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman on a rather optimistic future of the American synagogue, a topic that was a big part of my graduate studies and what I had hoped my future plans. I sat in my car and cried afterwards. Why? A Parable. To what can this be compared to? To a boy on a schoolyard full of children playing. He sits on the side lines since no one will play with him. When a ball comes by, all he can do is throw it back, for no one wants him to join their game. So too do I feel my life right now. But I’m wrong. There’s no one in the playground, all the kids are on the sidelines waiting for some one to ask them to play, all too afraid to do the asking. The playground, to quote Simon and Garfunkel his time, only has the sounds of silence.

I think the point of Tzaria-Metzora was to avoid this isolation, particularly with the use of the very public sin offerings. Unfortunately, in rabbinic and modern translation, it all too easily ends up causing it.

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