Tazria: Look Again

This post is dedicated in memory of my father,Yaacov Zev Yisrael ben Shmuel.

“How was your doctor’s appointment this week?” I once asked my mother.

“Fine.”

“Just fine? Did the doctor examine you?”

“No,” she said, “the doctor hardly looked up from her computer at me, she just typed everything I told her about my symptoms and then prescribed some antibiotics.”

Sadly, this happens on occasion. I guess it’s happened to me too. Doctors and nurses are busy, but 99% of the time the medical staff I have dealt with in Israel have been great. Giving me their full attention and yes, looking up from their computer at me.

Apparently this is indeed an issue arpind the world and there are several articles I found online with titles such as: “Does your doctor look at the computer instead of you? and Is Your Doctor Getting Too Much Screen Time?

PHOTO: MICHAEL MARSICANO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Tzara’at, the main subject of this week’s portion Tazria (and also next week’s portion Metzora) is an affliction that discolors human skin, clothing, hair, beards and even homes. The laws of tzara’at are detailed, complex and intricate. There are Talmudic tractates that deal with the proper procedure for purification and a litany of laws that must be followed flawlessly. The ramifications of tzara’at have more than physiological implications, they have a great theological impact as well.

In an essay on this week’s portion entitled, Holistic Healing, Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky writes:

The discoloration of skin does not necessarily reflect a chemical impropriety or a nutritional deficiency. It is a heavenly sign of a spiritual flaw, primarily related to a deficient speech pattern. It is a disease that afflicts a gossip. The one in question must go to the kohen (priest) who instructs him in the proper procedure to rid himself of both the blemish and the improper behavior that caused its appearance. The Torah tells us that the fate of the stricken man is totally dependent upon the will of the kohen. The kohen is shown the negah (blemish) and has the power to declare it tamei (impure) or tahor (pure). In fact, even if all signs point to the declaration of impurity, if the kohen, for any reason, deems the person tahor or refuses to declare him tamei, the man remains tahor. He is not tamei until openly and clearly labeled as such by the kohen.

Yet the verse seems a bit redundant. “And the kohen shall look at the negah affliction on the skin and behold it has changed to white and appears deeper than the skin of the flesh – it is a tzara’at and the kohen shall look at him and declare him tamei” (Leviticus 13:3). Why must the kohen look twice? The Torah should tell us that the kohen shall look at the negah, and if the affliction is white and appears deeper than the flesh of the skin, then the kohen shall declare him impure. What purpose is served by looking again?

Rabbi Kamenetzky explains that the kohen who is instructed to deal with the stricken individual should not only look at the negah. He must look again. He must look at the man. Rabbi Meir Simcha HaKohen of D’vinsk explains that even if the negah has all the attributes that should lead to a declaration of tumah, there are other factors that must be weighed. If the man is a groom, about to wed, impurity must not be declared. It will ruin the upcoming festivities. If there are other mitigating circumstances, then a declaration of contagion must be postponed.

Perhaps the Torah is telling us more. It is easy to look at a flaw and declare it as such. But one must look at the whole person. He must ask himself “how is my declaration going to affect the future of this person.” He must consider the circumstances that caused the negah. He must look again – once at the negah – and once at the man.

There are those who interpret the adage in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), “judge all (of the) people in a good way,” as do not look at a partial person: rather, judge all of the person — even a flaw may have a motivation or rationale behind it. The kohen may look at the negah, but before he pronounces tamei he must look again. He must look beyond the blemish. He must look at the man.

I (Yonatan) have a treatment at Sheba Medical Center once every three weeks (for a year, and more than half a year has passed). The Keytruda treatment is given via a 30 minute injection as a preventative measure. I usually feel fine afterwards and go back to working from home after the treatment. 

One lesson I have learned is that the nurses in the Oncology unit there treat many patients at once.I always try to get a chair where the nurse treating me can see me because even though the machine beeps when done, I want her to be able to see me from her station so I don’t need to flag her down (or ask someone else to flag her down) to unhook me when it’s finished. I guess I want to be ‘seen’ too.

These days we don’t seem to ‘see’ one another very much. We are too busy to look up from our phones. I guess the Torah portion of Tazria teaches us to look up  – and more importantly to look again – and see the whole person.

Shabbat Shalom