KEDOSHIM: Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

In Leviticus 19:18 there is the most awesome and complicated mitzvah in the Torah:"Love your neighbor as yourself, I am Hashem. Ve'ahavta leReyacha kamocha, ani Hashem."

My secret for remembering that this mitzvah is Lev 19:18 is as follows. Now once I explain my secret I guess it won't be much of a secret anymore, but here goes:

Lev, although short for Leviticus, is also the word in Hebrew for heart. And everybody knows that the word for love in English comes from the Hebrew word for heart, which is Lev.

Now the First World War had just ended that year. Everybody had vowed that this would be the last war, it was so terrible. Horrible new weapons were invented that were unthinkable in earlier wars, and millions lost their lives. Poison gas and flame throwers. These were never before seen or used in warfare. It was so bad they couldn't ever imagine that there would one day ever be asecond world war. So in those days they didn't call it WW1 or the First World War. They just simply called it The Great War, it was so bad.

So the answer to heal the world then was as true then as it is today- Love your neighbor as yourself. And the letters reish and ayin in hebrew spell both the words for evil and neighbor. The consonants remain the same- just the vowels are different.

This is arguably absolutely the hardest mitzvah.

What is the connection between evil and neighbor? This is much more than having a possibly evil neighbor. It's really saying that we see ourselves the best in how our neighbor sees us. We might think we are the greatest person ever born, but our neighbor may have a different opinion if you leave your trash all over the place. And what we see as evil in our neighbor may more likely just be a reflection of our own imperfections, a projection of our own inadequacies.

But do not love the evil! Hate evil, but love the person, even your neighbor, even yourself if you have sinned and you think of yourself as evil and unable to return back to Hashem and to goodness, in spite of the evil, and perhaps turn him or yourself around, and back on the right path. {Sur meRa, turn away from evil. Just turn away. Change direction. Not easy maybe, but turn away anyway. VeAsay Tov - and do good (Psalm 34)}. DO good and you become good. You are what you eat. But more importantly you also are what you DO. The converse also is true. DO evil and you become evil (an "evildoer"). But you can change. It is never too late!

Shabbat Shalom!

© 2000 - 2011 by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

These words of Torah are written in the merit of my beloved father, Israel J. Melman, obm, Yisrael Yehoshua ben Harav Ya'aqov Hakohen Melman, z"l and in memory of my beloved mother, Esther Melman, obm, Esther bat Baruch z"l.


http://seferchabibi.blogspot.com/2007/07/yahrzeit-of-my-father-27-tammuz.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EEDC1630F93BA35754C0A9649C8B63

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=esther-melman&pid=143745543

Chabibi stands for CHidushei Baruch Binyamin ben Yisrael Yehoshua
(a chidush, from the word chadash, means a new, original or fresh perspective)

Dedications are available.

My Brush With Evil

by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin HaKohen Melman

The following is a true story that happened to me in the mid 1990's while still a rabbinical student. The class had just completed a several month review of medieval Jewish commentaries on charting and calculating women's menstrual cycles, necessary for determining the date for a woman's visit to the mikva, not that I ever needed, or would ever need to use this particular skill set.

It was April 20, Hitler's birthday, Y"Sh. To no one in particular I mentioned that it was a good thing for Hitler that he had changed his name from Schickelgruber because the image of Nazi rallies of tens of thousands shouting out "Heil Schickelgruber" would have been more comic than anything else. Okay. It was admittedly a lame attempt at humor and that was that. Or so I thought. The time? About 2:30 in the afternoon.

At the time I was the founder and leader of the Ashira Klezmer Orchestra, a wedding band that also played many gigs around the greater New York area in those days. We were fairly talented as most of our members were trained in the former Soviet Union. One concert that stood out in my memory was when we played at the opening of the Center for Jewish History and Mayor Giuliani was the keynote speaker. What can I say? While it wasn't my ultimate career choice, it did help in paying the bills while I was continuing my education.

Anyway, I had been trying to reach the owner of Sound City, to finalize a contract signing for his upcoming wedding. We had been playing phone tag and we set up a meeting at his place for that same evening. It was a fairly quick meeting, and in short order the arrangements were finalized and all the paperwork was signed.

On my way out the door as I was about to leave he asked me one final question. But it wasn't about the selection of songs or the number of musicians. Instead, it was about my answering machine, of all things!

"What about it?" I asked him.

"The craziest thing happened," he shared with me. "You wouldn't believe it. Maybe you should check out your answering machine, it can't be good for business," he added.

"I had to call back three times until I finally got through. I kept using my speed dialer, so I know for sure it was the same number that I had dialed each time. But only on the third try did I actually get your voice on the other end. I almost didn't bother calling a third time, to tell you the truth. You really should think about changing your message."

Okay, I'm plotzing now...

"So whose voice did you hear the first two times?," I asked him.

"You're not going to believe this," he said. "It was Hitler's voice, the sound of him giving his famous speeches at his huge Nazi rallies and everyone was shouting out in unison "Heil Hitler." It was really the strangest thing. I was wondering why you would ever use that as your message? As I said, it really couldn't be good for business if you're the owner of a Jewish klezmer band."

"Uh...about what time was it when you were calling me and you say you heard this?" (My palms were now getting sweaty. My heart was now beginning to race. I was starting to get wobbly in the knees).

"About 2:30 in the afternoon."

As I said, this is a true story.....


A Final Thought:
In the weeks in between Pesach and Shavuos it is customary on Sabbath afternoons to study a different chapter from Pirkei Avos, the Ethics of the Fathers - a book of moral guidance and self-improvement. This week we learn the following: "Rabbi (Judah the Prince) said...Consider three things and you will not come into the grip of sin: Know what is above you- a watchful Eye, an attentive Ear, and all your deeds are recorded in a Book. Truer words have never been said.

© 2000 - 2011 by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

These words of Torah are written in the merit of my beloved father, Israel J. Melman, obm, Yisrael Yehoshua ben Harav Ya'aqov Hakohen Melman, z"l and in memory of my beloved mother, Esther Melman, obm, Esther bat Baruch z"l.


http://seferchabibi.blogspot.com/2007/07/yahrzeit-of-my-father-27-tammuz.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EEDC1630F93BA35754C0A9649C8B63

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=esther-melman&pid=143745543

Chabibi stands for CHidushei Baruch Binyamin ben Yisrael Yehoshua
(a chidush, from the word chadash, means a new, original or fresh perspective)

Dedications are available.

PASSOVER: Israel, the Yeast of the World

by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

B'nai Yisrael, the Children of Israel, are called an AM SEGULA. This is often translated as "treasured nation." Sometimes even as "chosen nation." To be a treasured nation is admittedly very nice, as is also the status of being a chosen nation, although that carries some heavy baggage when it is interpreted by some as evidence of haughtiness and superiority.

But what about Israel's relationship to humanity? As Hillel said, "If I am only for myself, what am I?" Using these terms on some level does violence to the sense of Israel being a nation that interfaces between the particular and the general, between the national and the universal. We are also said to be a MAMLECHET KOHANIM, or a nation of priests. Indeed, just as the kohein in the Temple traditionally served as the intermediary between Israel and G*d, so too, as a mamlechet kohanim, or a "nation of priests," does the nation of Israel then serve as the intermediary between G*d and the other nations of the world.

This status does not inhere automatically to Israel. Rather it applies only insofar as Israel is cognizant of its role via its consciousness of fealty to the idea of mitzvah, that G*d's blessings pour down over an Israel that is consciously connected to its relationship with the Divine, and that we have the kavannah, or intention, that the performance of a mitzvah reverberates with positive energy not only for ourselves but for the benefit of humanity at large.

Note that in Deut. 26:19, the verse reads,

"ULETITCHA ELYON AL KAWL HAGOYIM...,

to give you height over all the other nations.."

This is not the height of arrogance. Rather, this is the height of service. As Israel is a mamlechet kohanim, a nation of priests, Israel is a kohein, or holy servant, to the other nations on Earth. This does not mean supremacy!

Rather, the Torah is teaching us that in order for Hashem's blessings for Israel to also reach and bring blessing to all the other nations of the world, Israel must position herself high through her allegiance to Torah. Through her becoming spiritually elevated and raised up through living by the ways of the Torah, subsequently the"spillage" from this pouring down of the heavenly blessings will affect everyone.

Israel's mission is to bring blessing upon all the earth through her lofty role of service to the One G*d. The point of Torah is in our sharing of our blessings with the world. The Nation of Israel should be a source of blessing for the world, precisely because of our fealty to Torah.

Why is the Dead Sea dead? Because it only receives. It never gives out life sustaining waters. Thus the salts accumulate to toxic levels. Sea salt gives life, but only in very small quantities.

The Golan, by contrast, is bursting with life and vibrancy year round. Its fresh, living waters sustain and replenish Yam Kineret, the Sea of Galilee, whose waters sustain all Israel. And the Torah emanating from Yerushalayim and Tzfat, and indeed from all the heights of Torah, water and give spiritual nourishment to all Israel and to the world at large.

Rabbeinu (the Rashban, aka Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, aka Reb Shlomo) always taught that "the world so much NEEDS the Jews to be good yidden." In other words, there is NO dichotomy between being a good Jew and being a good human being. Just the opposite! We are better human beings, doing our part for all humanity, by becoming the best Jews possible! So now the folk and the cosmologic senses of the word "segula" align themselves in a neat symmetry.

Israel has the opportunity of being a catalyst for blessing for all the nations of the world. Indeed, this is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic blessing that "all the nations will be blessed through you." Israel, in a sense, now becomes the yeast for the whole world. As yeast is the catalyst in baking, so too is Israel that transforming agent of change which has the awesome capability of uplifting all of humanity. Just as yeast is among the least of the ingredients, so too is Israel the least populous of the nations. Just as yeast is less than tasty when eaten as a meal in itself, so too does Israel shine less when consumed solely in a self-absorbed disinterest with the fate of humanity.

Now we understand on the deepest level why we totally eradicate any presence of chametz on Passover, the holiday marking our new status finally as a nation among the other nations of the world. The special zero-tolerance status for yeast on Passover now makes sense. The very energy expended in our total obsession with its eradication is only meant to underline and call attention to the "yeast" status of the Jewish people vis a vis its relationship to humanity. By calling attention to yeast/leaven so explicitly, the Torah wants us to understand on our national birthday (Passover) our special "yeast role" in the universe.

In all other areas of kashruth a miniscule amount of a forbidden substance is"tolerated" if it exists in a certain miniscule percentage in relation to the permitted ingredients (usually a 1/60 ratio). Not so with yeast on Passover. It has the status of "assur bemashehoo," i.e., it is forbidden "in any amount" (shulchan aruch: siman taf mem zayin, se'eef dalet).

Israel, in its status as exemplar of liberation from Egyptian oppression, bondage and servitude, becomes on a symbolic level at least, the inspiration for all humanity to aspire to freedom from every type of oppression. Our Exodus is the model for all future exodi. Our salvation is the model for all future salvations, as is likewise our redemption in the land of Israel a precursor and model for ultimate world redemption- if only we and our leaders believe it ourselves and if only the world were to lift its veil of hatred and open its eyes.

By the special status and attention which the Torah pays to actual, real, live yeast in the Exodus narrative and to its accompanying rites of memory and reenactment, so too should we therefore be cognizant of the people of Israel's symbolic and yet very real status as yeast/catalysts in the rising pungent ferment that is humanity. The more we consciously incorporate Judaism into our lives, the sooner we help elevate all humanity, including ourselves, to achieve the end stage of glorious redemption and peace, and thereby fulfill our true destiny as an "am segula," as a Catalyst Nation, the Religion/Nation of the Yeast.

Ignorance of the true meaning of the term segula has resulted in tragedy in both directions: misplaced haughtiness and arrogance on the part of some Jews who in righteous tribal anger circle the proverbial wagons to shut out the outside modern world, and has tragically provided ammunition to antisemites who claim that our so-called claim to a chosen status implies a claim of superiority which somehow justifies a negative response.

When we want something good for someone we often say, "do this as a segula." Or sometimes it is said, "say this prayer at the kotel for forty days to find your soul mate as a segula," or "recite this psalm on behalf of sick person as a segula," or "wear this amulet as a segula." So clearly, at least in the folk mind, a segula has the sense of being a catalyst, of bringing about positive change on some level.

As role models for tzedaka, culture, agriculture, education, science, the arts and humanities, with leadership roles in progressive movements for social justice, equality and better working conditions for all, Israel's light shines brightly. We are a segula indeed. We are not perfect. If we had to be perfect we would have given up long ago. We make mistakes. We miss the mark at times. But we are trying our best.

Pesach is the celebration and reenaction of the birthing of the Jewish people. Mitzrayim, Egypt, means narrow straits. We passed through the narrow straits, the birth canal, into freedom. We were born in order to receive the Torah, to bring its message and its teaching to the world. There is One G*d who is our Heavenly Father, our Avinu shebaShamayim, who created us and who loves us, and who wants us to love each other as we love ourselves (EX 19:18). As Hillel responded, when asked what is the central message of the Torah: "that which is hateful to you, do not do unto others. All the rest is commentary."

Chag Sameach!

© 2000 - 2011 by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

These words of Torah are written in the merit of my beloved father, Israel J. Melman, obm, Yisrael Yehoshua ben Harav Ya'aqov Hakohen Melman, z"l and in memory of my beloved mother, Esther Melman, obm, Esther bat Baruch z"l.


http://seferchabibi.blogspot.com/2007/07/yahrzeit-of-my-father-27-tammuz.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EEDC1630F93BA35754C0A9649C8B63

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=esther-melman&pid=143745543

Chabibi stands for CHidushei Baruch Binyamin ben Yisrael Yehoshua
(a chidush, from the word chadash, means a new, original or fresh perspective)

Dedications are available.

ACHAREI MOT: EMPOWERED HOLINESS

by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

Dedicated to my father, obm, on his birthday, April 18.

Are the goals of Judaism limited to its elites, or is there a true democratic impulse at work, seeking to permeate all societal strata?

Kedoshim Tihiyu. You (plural) shall be holy. The plural sense of the verb indicates that holiness, while taught and exemplified by the kohanic priestly class, is an ideal which must spread out and permeate the collective Israel polity.

Holiness is the raison d'etre of Israel's entire being. Thus we see that the central animating idea of Israel's consciousness is not the sole select property of an elitist oligarchical class. Rather, all Israel is enjoined to embody the defining characteristics of the nation's ideal. Indeed, Israel's rise and fall is contingent on the degree of the very success of this notion.

In this sense the command to embrace holiness in both the communal sense as well as the personal sense anticipates the democratic ideal of the empowerment of the individual. By contrast, undemocratic regimes, be they organizations or national governments, rely on classist models of exclusion to buttress their rule. Indeed we find that dictatorships surround themselves with yes men who serve with sycophantic excess at the expense of the true needs of the people, who are treated largely as a giant feedbag with which to satiate the enormous egotistical needs of the ruler.

The rulers must by necessity lie to the people over and over again to justify their abuse of power. But the people usually see through the lies and upon the passing of the the dictator express their glee by eviscerating all iconic reminders of their oppression. Dictators may control the graves, mass or otherwise, but they don't control the hearts of the people.

On the other hand we see that true leaders who serve the people above their own interests are appreciated all the more only after their passing. It has been remarked that the parsha headings "Acharei Mot (after death)/ Kedoshim(holy ones)" bespeak a deep truth, that true leaders, while perhaps villified for speaking the truth, are only finally appreciated properly after they are gone.

Moses's ordeals as leader of Israel typify this notion. Moses spoke only the truth- whether adjuring Pharaoh for his stubborn obduracy or the people of Israel for their stubborn sinfullness. His decisions and leadership were constantly second-guessed, belittled and criticized, his motives perpetually suspect and doubted by a nation genetically given to free expression.

But he submerged his own ego in the service of Hashem, whose very seal is truth. Accordingly, Hashem felt his pain. His pain became Hashem's pain. Thus his deep pain was assuaged in the healing balm of Hashem's love.

Many people truly are not fully alive because their ego does not resonate with Hashem's will. They fear death as a final end. In their obsession with death, to the degree of their obsession, they prevent themselves from truly living.

Living lives that reflect holiness is the unifying interface between ourselves and Hashem. Our souls are then properly tended, given the proper nutrition with which to take root in the Garden of Eden. Although his exact grave is a mystery, Moses is linked eternally with life for he embraced and taught holiness.

All who link their lives to the Torah's teachings and embrace holiness in their daily lives are granted eternal life. Holiness, as expressed in one's piety, one's morality, one's business ethics, is within the purview and reach of each individual in society. Those who live by the Torah's holiness codes and aspire to do better in the face of setbacks, are thus given the keys to eternity. It is accessable by all. It is a truly empowering notion. This is no lie. This is truth.

Shabbat Shalom

© 2000 - 2011 by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

These words of Torah are written in the merit of my beloved father, Israel J. Melman, obm, Yisrael Yehoshua ben Harav Ya'aqov Hakohen Melman, z"l and in memory of my beloved mother, Esther Melman, obm, Esther bat Baruch z"l.


http://seferchabibi.blogspot.com/2007/07/yahrzeit-of-my-father-27-tammuz.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EEDC1630F93BA35754C0A9649C8B63

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=esther-melman&pid=143745543

Chabibi stands for CHidushei Baruch Binyamin ben Yisrael Yehoshua
(a chidush, from the word chadash, means a new, original or fresh perspective)

Dedications are available.

METZORAH: Destroyer of Worlds

by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

Metzorah, this week's parsha, discusses the cleansing process of the leper, as well as the purification processes for bodily secretions of a reproductive nature, both male and female. It must be made clear that this is not referencing a physical uncleanness. Rather, it is solely discussing a spiritual form of impurity.

In fact, the English word for conTAMination derives from the Hebrew word for spiritual impurity, which is TUMAH. And "pure" itself derives from the Hebrew word Parah. One could only become pure by being sprinkled with the ashes of the Parah Adumah, the red heifer.

Nor is this evidence of any misogynist bent in the Torah itself. Quite the opposite! Both males and females are deemed spiritually impure by dint of the secretions of their respective male and female fluids.

What is the connection between two strange, seemingly disparate topics, viz. the juxtaposition between the narrative of ritual impurity for the secretion/emission of male and/or female fluids and general impurity resulting from general psoriatic skin ailments?

It is generally understood that Miriam developed "leprosy" from her lashon hara (evil speech) against her brother Moses. The Torah itself makes that connection. Hence we can extrapolate from the particular to the general that there is a connection between "leprosy," possibly psoriasis (related to the word tzoraas), and the improper use of the Divine gift of speech. And what she said wasn't so much "evil" as it was widely understood to be "merely" involving herself in his personal sphere, intruding, as it were, on the private zone of relations between man and woman.

Lashon hara has the capacity to destroy people's reputations and careers and even lives. It may not be the actual death blow per se, but it certainly has the power to create the conditions in potential form. In western society entire industries are devoted exclusively to the spread of slander, gossip and talebearing. In fact, the more salacious, the more lucrative.

So too, male and female emissions and secretions have within them the potential for human life. Conversely, since their emissions carry within them the sense of loss of potential life, in a sense their emission bears with it the concomitant sense of potential death.

Since the advent of modern science, no one believes in the idea of a homonculus, i.e., the idea of a fully formed miniature human residing in male seed. Nevertheless, to some degree it represents symbolically a potential for life, similar to the woman's unfertilized eggs which are lost through her monthly cycle.

Hence the connection: both ideas speak of the idea of potential death. One is the potential death of reputations, lives and careers. The other is the potential life that was lost, the life that never came to be. They intersect with the idea of nidah. This usually refers to woman in her menstrual state, to be off-limits to her husband, but the very first case of a person said to be (in a state of) nidah in the Torah was a man!

The first nidah in the Torah concerned KAYIN, when because he took a life he was to wait outside the figurative camp of humanity, literally "off-limits," by becoming a perpetual wanderer, a displaced person. He was to be a fugitive and a waNDerer (na veNaD ba'aretz (Gen 4:12). Being NaD, he was the first to be in a state of nidah. He cut off the potential of another's life by killing.

He cut down the flowering seed potential of a human life, still in its youth. Therefore his compensatory karmic healing was that his seed/life could never be allowed to take root. He was forced to wander in perpetuity. While we may not kill others in a physical sense, our words have the power to destroy lives, families, even communities.

Let this connection be a reminder that our words are like actions- that we can destroy worlds, or create them, depending on how we use our gifts.

© 2000 - 2011 by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

These words of Torah are written in the merit of my beloved father, Israel J. Melman, obm, Yisrael Yehoshua ben Harav Ya'aqov Hakohen Melman, z"l and in memory of my beloved mother, Esther Melman, obm, Esther bat Baruch z"l.


http://seferchabibi.blogspot.com/2007/07/yahrzeit-of-my-father-27-tammuz.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EEDC1630F93BA35754C0A9649C8B63

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=esther-melman&pid=143745543

Chabibi stands for CHidushei Baruch Binyamin ben Yisrael Yehoshua
(a chidush, from the word chadash, means a new, original or fresh perspective)

Dedications are available.

TAZRIA: Seeds and Soil

by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

It's often about control. And losing control. We fear that which we cannot control. We often become afraid and insecure in life when people or events arise which act beyond our ken, beyond our ability to alter their path and plan.

A primal fear is a sense of loss of bodily control. Whether our bodies undergo the changes of adolescence or the signs of aging or disease, they are morphing in unsettling ways, whether welcome or not. Many live in a state of fear and terror of the unknown.

And in this new Age of Terror, while its victims are few in number relative to the totality of humanity, the crippling effects of its surprise nature and instantaneous universal awareness stirs within us those primal fears of loss of control.

Bodily secretions stir the most ancient and profound of fears. The revolutionary power of the Torah is to turn the pagan notion of this secretionary fear into one of Covenantal hope. Birth blood, menstrual blood, and seminal emissions- all nature-induced potent symbols of progeny, culminate in the man-made Covenantal blood of circumcision.

The seven healing recovery days are symbolic units of nature. On the eighth day, the day which is beyond nature, man resumes where G*d left off, partnering with the Divine in Covenantal union. Our fears turn into hopes. Our hopes turn into fears. One bleeds into the other.

Our parsha this week, Tazria, of Leviticus, has a fascinating parallel to parshat Lech-Lecha of Genesis. Each parsha contains references in close narrative proximity to the ideas of (male) seed, (female) menstruation, brit mila (covenant), and inheritance of the Land. G*d promises Abraham that his seed shall inherit the Land of Canaan.

G*d says to Abraham (Gen 17:8), "To you and your offspring I will give the land where you are now living as a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan shall be (your) eternal heritage, and I will be a G*d to them."

Note that the verse specifically uses the terms "the land where you are now living as aforeigner (eretz miGuRecha)" and "the land of Canaan."

The promise of future inheritance of the land revolves around the notion of being a foreigner to the ways of the Canaanite. And the Biblical associations to Canaanite ways are clearly negative. Moloch worship, child immolation in particular, is seen through the Biblical lens as bearing the onus of a particularly negative ilk.

While the foreigner has special status, meriting an umbrella of protective care, because "you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt," one must be ultimately a true foreigner to all that is truly immoral- whether in the sexual or the ethical realms, in order to merit that protective umbrella in the Land.

Nothing is more heinous to the Biblical sensibility than the abuse of seed, particularly that of living seed, i.e., LIVING children. Amalek, in particular, bears an opprobrium all his own. He and his (spiritual) descendants are seen as particularly worthy of moral contempt for their pointed targeting of defenseless women, children and the elderly in the rear lines of the Israelites (Deut 25:17). And Pharaoh consigned all the male children to a watery grave. Those who target the innocent are truly foreign to G*d's spirit of loving compassion.

But as the Psalmist says (Psalm 126)"...those who sow in tears will reap in glad song..." No tears are more fiercely shed than those of a mother weeping for her child,or those of a child for her mother. The First Temple was destroyed for the cries of the mistreated widows and the orphans. Their tears cry out to the heavens. Theirs are the tears of those who plant in sorrow.

The salt of their tears, unlike other salt, will forever make the soil bloom, the earth to bear witness. And the blood of the infants whose heads were dashed against the rocks by the destroyers of the Second Temple in their bloodlust, will forever bond the people with the land of their ancestors, the land of their fathers, where we will be foreigners no more. A ger, a foreigner, is a resident alien. But whether we are to be eternal residents or but temporary aliens depends on us.

Tazria comes from the root ZeRA, meaning seed. Whether the State of Israel is to live up to its billing as reisheet tz'michat geualateini, the first flowering of our ultimate redemption, depends on the quality of its seed and the quality of its soil. Where are the rabbis? Where is the spiritual leadership? Where is the achdut, the unity, or the ahavath chinam, the causeless love? It was gratuitous hatred, sinat chinam, that exiled us. It is only its opposite, ahavath chinam, which can ensure our redemption and salvation.


Whether we are to be an or lagoyim, a Light unto the Nations and a Kiddush Hashem (a sanctification of G*d's name), or an impious twisted caricature of a once great nation and a Chilul Hashem (a desecration of G*d's name), foreign and unrecognizable to the great sages who lived much closer to Sinai, is up to us.

Shabbat Shalom!

© 2000 - 2011 by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman

These words of Torah are written in the merit of my beloved father, Israel J. Melman, obm, Yisrael Yehoshua ben Harav Ya'aqov Hakohen Melman, z"l and in memory of my beloved mother, Esther Melman, obm, Esther bat Baruch z"l.


http://seferchabibi.blogspot.com/2007/07/yahrzeit-of-my-father-27-tammuz.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EEDC1630F93BA35754C0A9649C8B63

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=esther-melman&pid=143745543

Chabibi stands for CHidushei Baruch Binyamin ben Yisrael Yehoshua
(a chidush, from the word chadash, means a new, original or fresh perspective)

Dedications are available.