13:5 And on the seventh day, the kohen shall see him.
And, behold! the lesion has remained the same in its appearance; the lesion
has not spread on the skin. So the kohen shall quarantine him for seven days
a second time.
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What are we to make of these texts? One way is to ask: how is this relevant in every place and every
time? In other words, now that the Temple is destroyed and there is no way to
purify oneself, nor are the priests to do the rite, why do we care? Why do we
still read this and torture rabbis by forcing them to preach on this?
One answer is found in
the work of the early nineteenth century Hassidic Master, Mordecai Yosef Lainer
of Izbica. Rabbi Lainer said that the priest, the Kohen, mentioned in the Torah
is not only a Temple professional, but is the aspect of discernment that is
present in each of us in potential. It is through service and devotion
that we can actualize this potent ability of discernment which is called the
Kohen.
One troubling thing in
this passage is that the Rabbis believed the skin disease was a sign and symptom
of the moral ailments of gossip and slander. While linking them together can be
troubling to us, from our perspective today it suggests that when our “Kohen
sensitivity” is truly discerning, we too will be able to recognize the
difference between a physical, outer condition and what might be the injury or
the hurt that is deeper within a person – and to understand how best to
help.
Thinking of what the Kohen
does – identifying people in need, truly determining what is wrong, and seeking
to remedy it, can lead us to radically transform the way that we live in the
world. The French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas taught that most people
are half asleep and half awake. That is, most of us proceed through life without
actually paying attention to the ramifications of our actions. Thinking about the
current conditions in the world, we can see how dangerous this can be – stand to
close, go out without a mask, think only of yourself, and you can seriously
injure people nowadays. The way I decide to act can have unintended
consequences for other people who live in my city. In order to be fully awake I
must attempt to be conscious to the fact that my actions – where I stand, what
I wear, or what I buy, how I drive, how I vote - affect others (whom I do not
know) in profound ways. Being awake is the first step to creating a just world.
When, stuck at home, I recognize
there are others suffering even more severely than I am, I must train myself to
let my Kohen reach out in aid. To see that illness and infection are physical conditions
but are not essentially part of that other person - that he or she too is a
human being and part of my community. When I do this, I am taking the first
small step toward a more just and righteous world.
