Unclean!

My father used to say, “Beauty may be only skin deep, but ugly goes straight to the bone.” Not at all an out-of-place sentiment for this week’s parsha, Tazria. With its comments on skin conditions and the variety of…hrm…fluids discharged from the body, Tazria is surely the bane of B’not Mitvah world-wide. Imagine being a 13 year-old girl (or boy, for that matter) reading publically about nasty skin! Stop, Tevel…enough digressing.

So in short, Tazria talks, among other things, about a skin condition called Tzarat; this is a skin-based expression of an internal, spiritual ailment. Whereas my dad’s comment takes ugly from the outside in, the Torah says ugly goes from the inside out. Tzarat is the Biblical “leprosy,” not to be confused with what we know as leprosy today.But don’t worry about Tzarat: One of the commentaries I read this weekend flat-out says that Tzarat is unknown in the modern world, not in the sense that we don’t know what Tzarat “really” was, but that people just don’t get Tzarat anymore.

This assertion seems a bit premature in its finality. Perhaps people don’t manifest spiritual unwellness on their skin, but certainly folks in the contemporary world express their emotions in their actions. For example, I was speaking with a friend yesterday about her weekend; she was animated and conversational, until she started recounting an uncomfortable exchange she had with someone. At that point, she crossed her arms across her chest, crossed her legs, and sort of folded into herself.

The clarity of this moment hit me like a blast: without even meaning to, she was protecting herself as she remembered this uncomfortable exchange! The incident had passed, but talking about it had clearly dredged up the emotions she felt during the confrontation. As I empathized with her, she slowly unfolded herself from her shell, and the conversation continued.

Ok, so it’s not Tzarat, but my friend showed as clear as day that she was carrying her stress with her. How many people do exactly the same thing? It was such an object lesson to me that we are so wrapped up in our emotions, and that’s easier than we think to allow them to come out.

Whereas in the Torah, the cure for Tzarat involved the kohanim and a period of exile, today’s ailments can be addressed with comforting and kind words. So my advice: take a moment today and offer a little empathy and support to the folks around you.