This week we witness the rebirth and beauty of spring.
This week we witness the rebirth and beauty of spring. For many of us, it is most welcome. For some with allergies, Oy! This Shabbat is also Earth Day! Of course, every Shabbat is an earth day, when we traditionally refrain from disturbing the earth, no plowing, planting, cutting, harvesting etc… to be in harmony with the natural world.
This Shabbat is the beginning of the new month of Iyar. In Jewish time, we are entering the third week of the Omer, a period of seven weeks leading up to Shavuot, the first harvest festival and the revelation at Sinai. We are invited to see these days as steps forward in enriching our lives and the lives of those around us.
A wonderful custom is to read from the short Mishnaic text, the Ethics of the Sages. Some will study a chapter a week until Shavuot. Google Ethics of the Sages if you have time.
Others will Google the daily meditative practices offered by the Mussar Schools.
This week commemorates the Holocaust and The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Yesterday was Yom HaShoah. Today is the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This week we see a powerful convergence of the past, the present, and the future. This Sunday, we especially want to celebrate the future of Am Kolel when we gather to dedicate our new Center in Rockville.
The Parsha this week, Tazria-Metzorah, is not the most pleasant Parsha to read. There is much about ritual impurity and purification rights. Much of it reads like a medical journal about how to diagnose and treat skin diseases. Our sages identify Metzorah, leprosy, and make a connection between it and Lashon HaRah, the abuse and misuse of language, slandering, gossiping, fake news …. Tragically, we have much evidence of Metzorah in our news today. Yesterday’s ruling on Dominion and Fox is noteworthy at this time.
Much to reflect upon.
Wishing you a Khodesh Tov,
Reb David