Dear Friends,
I hope this note finds you well and navigating these challenging times.
The heart of Sefer Vayikra conveys many mitzvot, including the Torah’s ritual laws of issur v’heter, tamei v’tahor, the permitted and forbidden, pure and impure. How we are taught to navigate these can serve as a master class in how we can generally seek to do right. Here are two sample thoughts for your consideration.
- When you see something, think twice before saying something: The Torah teaches us to speak up when we see something being done wrong, hocheiach tochiach et amitecha. Effective rebuke is, however, an art form, leading the Talmud (Eruchin 16b) to note the rarity of effective delivery or constructive embrace of rebuke and to teach (Yevamos 65b) that just as it is a mitzvah to deliver an effective rebuke, it is an obligation not to do so when it is ineffective.
Even regarding the kohein’s determination of the impure status of tzora’at (leprosy), the Torah tells us it is not always the right time for him to call it out and advises waiting for when we can minimize the negative economic or social impact of that disruption. The kohein therefore does not condemn a house until the owner empties it of its contents (Vayikra 14:36) and is not to mar a nationally or personally joyous time with a negative declaration (Vayikra 13:14, Rashi).
In different words: Silence in the name of diplomacy may not be a spineless and fearful compromise but a clear-eyed pursuit of achieving truth in the time and manner that is most effective and constructive.
- Wisdom is not obvious. Torah teaches us to distinguish right from wrong, to choose the path to life from its opposite. Those distinctions are sometimes bold but often superfine and it is critical that we achieve the necessary level of da’at – true knowledge – by building our capacity of havdala, discerning subtlety. This capacity to go beyond superficial determinations is so essential that Rashi underscores it twice in short order, towards the conclusion of both Parshat Shemini (11:47) and Parshat Kedoshim (20:25). In both places the Torah mandates us to distinguish between the pure and impure animals, and Rashi notes that the status distinctions between the cow and the donkey go without saying as those are clear and known. Rather the Torah is instructing us to note the difference between animals that have been properly or improperly slaughtered, where a variation of a hair’s breadth can mean that the shochet had not cut enough and thus disqualify the animal.
In different words: A moral voice cannot make do with preaching the obvious. It was the tendency to do that which was a cause of the great frustration that Israel and the Jewish community had with Pope Francis. Though he did much good uplifting the values of charity, love, simplicity, and harmony, his categorical condemnation of the obvious evils of war led him to associate Israel with genocide, contributing to the antisemitic narrative while condemning antisemitism and undermining Israel’s ability to defend itself from those who seek its destruction. Discriminating nuance is called for in complex situations both religious and political.
Torah teaches us to always think a lot and to speak much less, but this is not meant to limit our ability to be impactful, quite the opposite. Maharal (Gur Aryeh Vayikra 20:25), drawing on the example of the shochet, notes that while we cannot turn a cow into a donkey, we can make sure that the cow is made kosher. The Torah commands us to never be resigned to failure but to act to make things right, instructing us – v’hivdaltem – to make a difference. We can and must always work to produce a good result.
Have a wonderful Shabbos and may we be blessed with besorot tovot, truly good news.
Moshe Hauer