Tazria-Metzora 5772/2012 - Jewish Spiritual Medicine

Spiritual Medicine

Dvar Torah Parshat Tazria-Metzora 2012/5772

Rabbi Neil A. Tow©

The idea that the health of the mind and the health of the body are connected is not a new idea.  Preventive medicine is not a new idea either.  The idea of a Jewish spiritual medicine is not a new idea either, but it is an idea that we need to update and remake into a more relevant and useful system of knowledge and practice.

This week we return to Tazria- and Metzora, and among other physical conditions that the Torah describes is the condition that scholar Baruch Levine calls ‘scale disease’, a condition that does not match any known skin disease whether it be psoriasis, favus, or vitiligo and for sure not leprosy/Hansen’s disease.  None of the known skin diseases compare to the symptoms, duration, or treatments suggested in the Torah.  Nor are these conditions contagious in the medical sense.  The Torah teaches us that the only reason we may separate out the person afflicted with the scale disease is to ensure that others are not exposed to the ritual impurity – the Torah is clear that the scale disease itself will not pass to others.

Levine summarizes all the material about impurity and explains the underlying principle this way:  “Bodily impurity stands for the forces of death that are countered and reversed by God’s covenantal commandments, the forces of life.”

Scale disease is linked to the ‘forces of death’ since the body ‘appears to be wasting away.’.(Levine, 129)

We can think of this idea then as a core idea of Jewish spiritual medicine – a field that seeks to fully connect the mind, body, and spirit of faith and tradition.  It is a path toward knowledge and healing that depends upon mustering our inner resources as we seek to live in more connected ways to each other, to the world, to God.

The mitzvoth, the commandments of the covenant, are a spiritual discipline, no different than any exercise program or diet.  They help us toward self-awareness, they push us to work for causes that seek to make the holiness of life real for all people.  As we complete a mitzvah we put positive energy into the world such that we fulfill the wisdom of the Rabbis that doing one mitzvah leads to another, mitzvah goreret mitzvah.

As I’ve been watching the World War II documentary by Ken Burns, I’ve been struck by the testimonies of the vets.  One vet spoke about how when he left home his Mother told him to ‘be careful’.  He said it is impossible to ‘be careful’, impossible that by attitude or technique one could have guaranteed survival.  In such an environment, physical survival is paramount.

Fortunately, we do not live in a country at war, and we can through attitude and the mitzvoth bring changes to ourselves and our communities that may reduce conflict and increase understanding and tolerance among people.  The unknown is out there and fear is powerful – if I were living in Syria or Sudan now, I would be thick and oppressed with fear.  I am afraid at times even here in our quiet North Jersey towns.

If we are to progress as a people, we need a system of spiritual medicine that can help us to turn the tide of negativity and fear, turn the tide of fads and other magical solutions and focus on wisdom that comes right from our holy books, perhaps somewhat disguised through ancient language and history, but clear in the goal of pushing forward the extraordinary qualities of life itself – and the life giving message of the mitzvoth, 613 opportunities to release holy energy into the universe.