Torah portion

Yoram Raanan’s painting titled “On the Way to Har Sinai.”

Calendar to Count the Omer

“Time is not a series of moments traced on the face of a watch, always moving yet always the same. Instead, it is a journey with a starting point and a destination, or a story with a beginning, middle and end. Each moment has a meaning, which can only be grasped if we understand where we have come from and where we are going to. This is time not as it is in nature but as it is in history.”

The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust is delighted to present the 5781 Omer calendar. Each of the 49 days holds a life-changing idea by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks zt”l, sourced from his Covenant & Conversation essays on the weekly parshah.

Download it at rabbisacks.org/wp-content/ uploads/2021/03/OmerCalendar-5781-RabbiSacks-FINAL-1.pdf.

Points to ponder for each day of the Omer from Rabbi Sacks.

TORAH PORTION

Spiritual ‘Leprosy’

The major theme of not see it as lashon hara but Tazria-Metzora, is the rather as the expected behavskin disease referred to ior of government, companies as tsaraat. and individuals alike.

While often translated If we are to embrace the as “leprosy,” the disease teachings of Tazria-Metzora, described is not lep- we must see the pain rosy as we know it; and suffering being and likely the cause of caused by doing busithis can be traced to ness as usual and speak mistranslation of the up when we see people Hebrew into Greek. participating in spread-

The Sages of the Rabbi ing the gossip which is Mishnah were con- Simone the root of the affliction fused by the lengthy Schicker of spiritual leprosy. We detail Torah gives to Parshat must always remember this affliction, and Tazria- that much of what we the answer they gave (as taught by the late Metzora: Leviticus 12:115:33; II Kings enjoy in casual conversation is likely gossip, and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks,) 7:3-20. we have a responsibility was that it was punish- to not participate in ment for lashon hara sharing it — in any form (evil speech). They reached (looking at your social media). this both through some play While it might feel good in of words as well as the fact the moment to say “did you that both Miriam and Moses hear?” or to post a comment, are afflicted by tsaraat after retweet a post or share an speaking negatively about oth- article without reading its ers prior to being afflicted. contents (but the title!), in the

While we must always con- long term, we are participattinue to avoid participating ing in spreading a disease that in lashon hara, I would like is destroying individuals and to share the idea of “spiritual communities alike. leprosy” that Rabbi Nathan While we no longer see the Landman teaches. Landman physical affliction of those shares that “[t]he disease who participate in gossip, we of spiritual leprosy would see the mental ones every day. include attempts to justify a Bullying is the child of gosgovernment lying to its cit- sip, and we know the impact izens … epidemic abuses of it can have on one’s mental advertising employing words health. It has been shown that that are denuded of meaning one adult caring is all it takes so as to arouse a ‘feel good’ to save the life of a young perresponse … [and the] ubiqui- son who is struggling. tous tendency to rationalize We all need to be the best one’s behavior rather than of ourselves as we begin to having the courage to con- emerge from our homes and front one’s failings.” back into the world.

All these things are happening around us and to us; and Rabbi Simone Schicker is rabbi at yet we allow it because we do Temple B’nai Israel in Kalamazoo.