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Tazria: Thinking About Life · A Thought for the Week

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a Thought for the Week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Torah in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.
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  Speaker 1: The greatest innovation of the Torah is the fact that
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  Speaker 1: man is created in the divine image. If we were
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  Speaker 1: to say this on our own, this would be a
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  Speaker 1: heretical statement that man is like God. But that appears
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  Speaker 1: to be the main message of Chapter one of Genesis.
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  Speaker 1: That's the torahs story of creation of man is to
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  Speaker 1: tell us that man is created in the image of God.
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  Speaker 1: Immediately after, we're told about the creation of zacharvin Akva
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  Speaker 1: male and female in the image of God. In the
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  Speaker 1: very next verse, God blesses them that they should be
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  Speaker 1: fruitful and multiplied. What we call the first meets of
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  Speaker 1: the Torah, which is to have children, not only to
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  Speaker 1: have children, to conquer the earth, to fill the earth,
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  Speaker 1: conquer it, you science technology, to make this world a
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  Speaker 1: better place, both biologically and you know, and in many
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  Speaker 1: other ways. There's a wonderful expression of our being created
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  Speaker 1: in the image of God. Bere Sheet discusses God who
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  Speaker 1: creates man and in our partia in Tesriah we discuss
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  Speaker 1: man or woman, but man in the generic sans man
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  Speaker 1: creating man. The torah begins with the laws of chrialdbirth
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  Speaker 1: is shaki tsria, when a woman has a child, a
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  Speaker 1: male and female, and the Tora goes into details, but
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  Speaker 1: the truth of the matter. Reading these these verses as
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  Speaker 1: opposed to the beginning of the tour, which is so awesome,
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  Speaker 1: you know, creation and wow, everything the world coming into being.
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  Speaker 1: This in Tessria is kind of a do we read.
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  Speaker 1: It tells us if a mother has a trial, she
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  Speaker 1: becomes impure, That's what the toy is basically telling us.
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  Speaker 1: And then how she purifies herself, how she comes to
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  Speaker 1: war from her tuma from her impurity, and the woman
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  Speaker 1: after she has a triald can't enter the temple, can't
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  Speaker 1: eat any sacrificial meat, and that can be for up
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  Speaker 1: to eighty days. Very strange, especially we associate tuma with death.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, tuma does emanate from death. That's what creates impurity.
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  Speaker 1: A body, a dead body at carcass is what we
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  Speaker 1: call a vima, the grandfather you know of impurity and
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  Speaker 1: all the other tumu, all the other flows from how
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  Speaker 1: close you are to that dead body. And as sort
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  Speaker 1: of as eventually the tuma peters out. And because because
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  Speaker 1: tuma is connected to death emanates from death, one who
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  Speaker 1: was come cannot enter the temple. The temple is the
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  Speaker 1: place of life. The temple is where God dwells. Suli mikdash,
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  Speaker 1: make for me a temple, I will dwell there. God
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  Speaker 1: is the eternity, God is life, So death, tuma and
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  Speaker 1: life cannot go together. Furthermore, kohanim, the priest who work
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  Speaker 1: in the temple, they also are not allowed to be
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  Speaker 1: midtamee because that's their abode running the temple service. And
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  Speaker 1: even when they're not in the temple, which is most
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  Speaker 1: of the year, their role is to teach torah, and
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  Speaker 1: torah is what we call it to torres etschim he.
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  Speaker 1: It's our lifeblood. So tuma and tuhuna they don't go together.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore kohanim are not a libit to may even today,
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  Speaker 1: even if there is no no temple. What could be
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  Speaker 1: more purifying than giving birth? Why not say that one
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  Speaker 1: who is tame would become tahor would become fuar when
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  Speaker 1: they have a baby. It should be at least this
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  Speaker 1: powerful is going to mikva. One becomes pure one of
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  Speaker 1: the main steps. Sometimes the only needed step is going
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  Speaker 1: into a mikvah a body of water. Clearly, having a
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  Speaker 1: baby is something more more powerful. Life is the antetote
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  Speaker 1: to death. It's really how we continue on our legacy
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  Speaker 1: through future generation, the contributions we make in this world
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  Speaker 1: biologically and through our contributions to make this world a
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  Speaker 1: better place. That's how our legacy continues from generation to generation.
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  Speaker 1: That's how, in a sense, we defeat, if not physical death,
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  Speaker 1: we defeat the despair of death, that the meaningless of life.
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  Speaker 1: We can make life meaningful in the short time that
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  Speaker 1: we are allotted on earth. So why in the world
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  Speaker 1: does a woman who has a baby become tamay. So
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  Speaker 1: the first thing to start with is that we should
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  Speaker 1: recognize that there's nothing wrong with being tamai. It's not
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  Speaker 1: like often they transcending unclear, and of course that has
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  Speaker 1: a very negative connotation, even impure as a kind of
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  Speaker 1: negative connotation, But from the Jewish point of view, often
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  Speaker 1: it's actually amidst it's an obligation in what you people
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  Speaker 1: might say a good deed right, but it's an obligation
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  Speaker 1: to become tome, to go to a funeral. That's one
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  Speaker 1: of the greatest meets for we have both to offer
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  Speaker 1: comfort to the living and respect for the person who
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  Speaker 1: passed away. We say every morning in our prayers right
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  Speaker 1: at the beginning that live ayaha make escorting a person
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  Speaker 1: to their eternal resting place. That's one of the great
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  Speaker 1: meets foot that we get a little reward in this world,
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  Speaker 1: but the main reward is carried over to the next world.
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  Speaker 1: It's what our rabbis call has said, shla met true,
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  Speaker 1: the true kindness. There's no expectation of return, so to
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  Speaker 1: mas not bad at all, matter of fact, it's actually good.
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  Speaker 1: That being said, it still doesn't explain why a woman
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  Speaker 1: you know, who gives birth is tame and you know,
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  Speaker 1: after all it to mad does emanate from death. One
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  Speaker 1: might want to explain on a very practical level that
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  Speaker 1: in the ancient world and unfortunately, but thank god, very
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  Speaker 1: rarely today, many many, many women died in Charles birth
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  Speaker 1: and giving birth often led to death, and the mother
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  Speaker 1: has had a close brush with death. So I think
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  Speaker 1: that it's sort of a reminder of thanksgiving. She could
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  Speaker 1: have died. By giving life, she could have died, So
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  Speaker 1: perhaps that's one maybe helped to begin explain it, it's
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  Speaker 1: actually because childbirth was so dangerous. The Mesha Homa ra
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  Speaker 1: mayor simka evinced living in the early part of the
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  Speaker 1: twentieth century passed away in the early part of the
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  Speaker 1: twenty century, explains that's why women are technically exempt from
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  Speaker 1: the Midsva prove where they're not obligated have children, because
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  Speaker 1: they the ways of peace and not pain and and danger.
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  Speaker 1: But I think that the the reason goes beyond just uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the poor medical conditions that existed in the
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  Speaker 1: ancient world. Realizing that we are mortal facing death makes
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  Speaker 1: us think about how we are to lead our life.
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  Speaker 1: The time, it says, if one wants to sin and
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  Speaker 1: they can't overcome their desire to sin, theyur try this method,
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  Speaker 1: that method to go learn Taurus shmah. That doesn't work.
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  Speaker 1: Think of jumhama. Think of the day of death, you know,
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  Speaker 1: think of your your deathbed and you look back. You know,
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  Speaker 1: every nobody says I wish I spent more of hours
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  Speaker 1: in the office. All the things you hear that people
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  Speaker 1: say about their their deathbed, that should sober us up
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  Speaker 1: a little bit and help to ensure we live a
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  Speaker 1: more close and proper life, and thinking about that should
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  Speaker 1: remind us how awesome, how unbel believable life is. Where
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  Speaker 1: salivation would often explain that I don't know often explain,
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  Speaker 1: but I heard the salivation explain that one of the
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  Speaker 1: purposes of shiva is to help a person to do
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  Speaker 1: chuva in addition to the comfort, etc. When you know
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  Speaker 1: a person has to face their own mortality. That's what
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  Speaker 1: happens when you said shiva, and by facing her own mortality,
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  Speaker 1: what it helps us inspires us to do chuva. Life
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  Speaker 1: and death, as sort of funny as it sounds, are
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  Speaker 1: like the flip sides of the coin of life. We
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  Speaker 1: are put here on this earth on a mission, and
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  Speaker 1: we have a limited time to fulfill that mission. From
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  Speaker 1: the day a baby is born, the parents, the community,
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  Speaker 1: society must be cognizant of the great gift of life.
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  Speaker 1: Instill in children at a very young age that they
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  Speaker 1: are to make good use of their life, not to
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  Speaker 1: God forbid be consumed of thinking about that that's not
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  Speaker 1: healthy and not good and not proper. But still we
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  Speaker 1: have to instill the notion that we have to live
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  Speaker 1: a meaningful life and time is not endless. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we have limited time, and of course we never know
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  Speaker 1: when that time is up. The meat Rush has an
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  Speaker 1: amazing comment. The Torah tells us, at the end of creation,
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  Speaker 1: by your elohem at Kola Rasa, god saw all that
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  Speaker 1: he did. Then they talk. It was really good. It
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  Speaker 1: was very good. You know, every day was good. But
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  Speaker 1: the complete part, the sum, is greater than the parts
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  Speaker 1: was to It was very good. So the may Thrush
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  Speaker 1: in Brashet, Rabbi comments the Rubbi mayor in the Torah,
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  Speaker 1: Rabbi Mayor Matsaka too. They found written, they found diversity,
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  Speaker 1: and they talked about I assume this is his notes.
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  Speaker 1: That's what it means. At least that's what I presume
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  Speaker 1: it means. And then the measures continues. Veiny TeV Mavet.
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  Speaker 1: Death is good tv od it's I could play on
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  Speaker 1: the words and Mavet it's almost, you know, very very similar.
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  Speaker 1: What's very good about creation is that people die. Now,
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  Speaker 1: of course that's wow. I mean, isn't that terrible? And
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  Speaker 1: of course on many levels it is terrible and tragic,
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  Speaker 1: but it's necessary and it's the only way the world
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  Speaker 1: can exist on a societal level, but also on an
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  Speaker 1: individual level. Imagine if we lived for eternity. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: would never do anything. I'm a procrastinator, but a deadlines
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  Speaker 1: barkasham some deadline. But if you never had a deadline,
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  Speaker 1: I mean it would be it would be awful. One
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  Speaker 1: needs death, so we should learn how to live one.
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  Speaker 1: It was tame when it was impure. Can't enter the
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  Speaker 1: temple kiddusha holiness, sanctity. The place of the temple is
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  Speaker 1: the place of the highest degree of sancty. It's not automatic,
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  Speaker 1: just doesn't come. You have to earn. You have to
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  Speaker 1: actively prepare oneself and live a life of holiness. That's
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  Speaker 1: what God's mandate to us is. To be an amkadosh.
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  Speaker 1: I'mletip colonym. We're all colonym, we're all priests. We all
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  Speaker 1: want to enter the temple. We all want to come
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  Speaker 1: close to God. We all want to be holy, but
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  Speaker 1: we have to work on it. And that reminder at
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of life that one becomes tamey. I think
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  Speaker 1: perhaps if you have another explanation, I'd love to hear.
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  Speaker 1: It would explain why a woman becomes tamey and because
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  Speaker 1: life makes us to may the birth of a baby girl.
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  Speaker 1: It's interesting. The Torah law is that for a son,
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  Speaker 1: the tuma last, without getting into all the details, forty days.
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  Speaker 1: Only after forty days you can enter the temple. But
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  Speaker 1: for a daughter it's eighty days. It's doubled too much,
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  Speaker 1: so that on one that sounds you negative, but it's
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  Speaker 1: actually really a positive. In other words, the idea that
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  Speaker 1: since a woman who has a daughter is creating even
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  Speaker 1: more life that daughter, we can then create life again.
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  Speaker 1: So perhaps that's why there's an extra level of tuma.
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  Speaker 1: Birth may produce tuma, but without tuma you can't have tahara.
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  Speaker 1: We need impurity to bring us to purity. And whether
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  Speaker 1: when as no children, one children, ten children, doesn't matter. Yes, temple,
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  Speaker 1: no temple. Of course, the idea of a life of
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  Speaker 1: purity and holiness and sanctity applies to all. Let us
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  Speaker 1: live up to that life. Subtlum. We hope you enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: a thought for the week at Torah in Motion podcast.
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  Speaker 1: you very much, looking forward to learning with you next
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  Speaker 1: week