Housing Crisis
After reading in great detail about the laws of Tzara’at, the supernatural skin ailment that afflicted people in Biblical times, we read, in this week’s portion, about the purification of the Metzora - the person afflicted with Tzara’at:
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the person afflicted with Tzara'at, on the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the Kohen. The Kohen shall go outside the camp, and the Kohen shall look, and behold, the lesion of Tzara’at has healed in the afflicted person... The Kohen shall thus effect atonement for him, and he shall be pure.[1]
The sages explain that the Tzara’at affliction would strike an individual who would engage in evil speech. Evil speech tears people and communities apart and undermines the fabric of society. Thus, the Torah commands that the person with the affliction be sent away from the camp. This would encourage introspection and repentance on the part of the Metzora. While he was outside the camp he would undoubtedly learn to appreciate the value of a social life, the value of friendship with others, and thus he would resolve to cease tearing apart the bond of friendship between people, and then he would be allowed to re-enter the camp.
After we read about the purification of the Metzora, just when we thought we had solved the Tzara’at issue by correcting its underlying spiritual cause, we read about another form of Tzara’at which appears, this time, not on the flesh of a person, but rather on a home in the Land of Israel.
As stated in the verse:
And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, When you come to the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I place a lesion of tzara’at upon a house in the land of your possession and the one to whom the house belongs comes and tells the Kohen, saying, "Something like a lesion has appeared to me in the house,"...[2]
What is the meaning and symbolism of the Tzara’at that afflicts the home? Why isn't this Tzara’at written about together with the Tzara’at that afflicts the person and his garments in last week's Parsha? And why does the Tzara’at of the home apply specifically to - “the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession” - the land of Israel?
For a healthy society to function, the most important rule is, as google’s motto would say, “don’t be evil”. The most important rule is, that each individual, as well as any group of individuals, does not harm other people. Anyone who cannot follow this basic principle of human civilization, has no place in the camp, in the city, or in civilization. This is the lesson taught by the Tzara’at which afflicted the person.
And yet, not harming others is not enough of a foundation to build the Land of Israel.
Once they’ve entered Israel, once the Jews were no longer traveling together in the desert, dependent on each other for everything from protection to livelihood, there was a danger that individuals would, figuratively, “lock themselves in their own home”, separating themselves completely from the people around them.
Addressing the homeowner whose home was afflicted with Tzara’at the verse uses the term “he to whom the house belongs to him”. The Talmud[3] teaches: “‘to him” implies one who devotes his house to himself exclusively”. The Torah warns that if a person views his own possessions as something exclusively his own, then although he is not as bad as the person who actively speaks evil, he is still undermining his relationship with the people of Israel, and therefore he compromises his relationship with his home in the land of Israel.
This is a “housing crisis”. They may have learned not to harm others, but they were still susceptible to the “housing crisis” - caring only about their own house, apathetic to what was taking place in the rest of the land.
The Torah believes in private property. The Torah teaches that an individual’s possessions belong to him alone. Each individual’s portion of the land is “the land of your possession”, it belongs to the individual who possesses it. Yet, the Torah teaches that in order for the people of Israel to fulfill their destiny in the land of Israel, they must do more than merely not harm each other. Each and every Jew must view his possessions, his private property, as a means to live a life of meaning, to transcend the self and to share with others.
Only then will the individual achieve the true satisfaction and joy of self transcendence and connection to the Divine.
As Maimonides writes:
a person who locks the gates of his courtyard and eats and drinks with his children and his wife, without feeding the poor and the embittered, is [not indulging in] rejoicing associated with a mitzvah, but rather the rejoicing of his gut.[4]
The Jewish idea of joy and celebration is, as Maimonides states:
When a person eats and drinks [in celebration of a holiday], he is obligated to feed converts, orphans, widows and others who are destitute and poor.[4]
Thus, the joy we strive for comes from using one’s home to transcend the self.
[1] Leviticus 14:1-20.
[2] Leviticus 14:33-34.
[3] Yoma 11b.
[4] Shvisas Yom Tov, chapter 6.