Today we
read that tzaraat – that biblical
skin disease often translated as leprosy – also afflicts houses. Just as the
Torah instructs a healing process for tzaraat
on the body or on fabrics, there is a process for healing a home that has
been afflicted. These obscure, ancient instructions seem somehow relevant to us
today as we in our community begin to think about our own healing process for
our home of Kol Shofar. It’s been a very difficult time - traumatic really -
for our community, and there is a lot of healing and repair to be done. This is
a time of tremendous loss and pain for us, so let’s reflect a bit on how we can
come together, support each other, and begin to heal from this heartbreak.
In our
parasha, when a house is afflicted with tzaraat,
the stones of the house are pulled out and examined, some cleaning and re-plastering
are done. It’s an invitation to us, to each one of us, to look at our own
stone, our own important part that we have in holding up this home, to really
examine it, and to see what cleaning we can do in the work of healing our
collective home.
Some have
already spoken about this and have offered heart-felt apologies to those
they’ve argued with or spoken hurtful words to over these last difficult weeks.
Interestingly, the rabbis explain that the cause of tzaraat is slander and malicious gossip; they make a linguistic
connection between the metzora (the
one afflicted with tzaraat) and motzi shem ra (to gossip). How many of
us, in our distress these last weeks, haven’t gossiped, spoken badly about each
other or directly to each other? The first part of healing our house is
acknowledging this, reaching out, repairing relationships, as many have already
begun to do. Each one of us can purify our stone, our little part of the house.
We’ve worked so hard to build a sacred community, and we can continue to be
just that by offering apologies where needed and repairing relationships that
have been hurt.
We’ve
disagreed with each other about what should have been done and about how things
could have been handled and about what’s best for our community. And that’s ok,
as long as we consider our differing views to be what the rabbis called a Machloket LeShem Shamayim, a disagreement
for the Sake of Heaven. A Machloket
LeShem Shamayim is like the disagreements between the schools of Hillel and
Shammai; they disagreed about almost everything, yet their different opinions,
and the arguments of all the rabbis who followed, make up the Talmud, make up
our sacred texts that we study to grow closer to God! When Hillel and Shammai
disagree in the Talmud, a bat kol, a
Divine Voice, comes out and says: “Elu
v’elu divrei Elohim Chayim – these and
these are the words of the Living God”; there isn’t always one clear truth
or one right way.
It’s ok
that we have different views; it’s how we treat each other in our disagreeing
that matters. When the divine voice said “these and these are the words of the
Living God,” it also said “but the law is accordance with the school of
Hillel.” Why? The rabbis explain: “Those in the school of Hillel were kind and
humble. They studied the teachings of the school of Shammai and even taught Shammai’s
rulings before their own.” When it’s a Machloket
LeShem Shamayim, we can disagree, knowing that the person with a different
view also has the best intentions, they also want what’s best for the
community; they’re good people trying to do the right thing, just like you.
The law
goes according to the school of Hillel also because a community sometimes has
to make a decision; it can’t live by “these and these;” it has to choose one
way. In our case, our board had to make an extraordinarily difficult decision.
No one would want to have to be in the position that these folks have been in.
It’s easy for those of us outside the board to say what could have been done
differently, but the board, especially Joshua who has been working day and
night on this for Kol Shofar, deserves our utmost respect and appreciation for
handling this the best way they could, given the unbelievably challenging and
painful nature of the situation, striving always for fairness, sensitivity and compassion
for all, and really the wisdom of Solomon.
My final
point for today, and there is a lot more to say - and we will have many
opportunities over the coming weeks to talk in organized groups and to process
and try to sort through the many complicated feelings we’re certainly all
having right now – but my last point for us today is: This is and is going to be a time of
grief for everyone in our community. No matter your feeling about the issues, our
community is grieving.
And one
of the things that we do really well as a community is take care of people when
they are grieving. Every time
someone has experienced a loss at Kol Shofar, they say how touched and blown
away they’ve been by the outpouring of love and support they’ve received,
sometimes from people that they don’t even know.
Somehow
grief and loss can bring out the best in people. People are inspired to show
caring and love for each other and to create wholeness where there is a big
hole. This is a loss on many levels – for some people, this is all brand new
and they’re just in shock; for others, it’s been a long and exhausting process
- but for all of us, it’s our
sacred duty, as it always is, to provide comfort for each other, to grieve and
to strengthen ourselves together.
I want to
end with a text from the Talmud that’s in our siddur (p. 182), although we
usually skip right over it, but it includes a prayer for peace for each other,
and it’s fitting for us today.
Talmud Brachot 64a:
“Rabbi
Elazar taught in the name of Rabbi Hanina: Students of Torah increase peace in
the world, as it is written, ‘and all your children shall be taught of God, and
great will be the peace of your children.’ Read not banayich, your children, but rather bonayich, meaning ‘all who have understanding,’ or another
translation: ‘your builders.’ As it’s written in the Psalms, “those who love
Your Torah have great peace; nothing makes them stumble,” “may there be peace
within your walls, serenity within your palaces. For the sake of my brothers
and friends, I say, ‘peace be within you.’ For the sake of the House of God, I
seek the best for you.” And “May God give strength to God’s people. May God
bless God’s people with peace.”
Shabbat
Shalom.
