Bulletin Metzora

Welcome • ohtcv ohfurc
Shabbat Shalom • ouka ,ca
Shabbat Parshat Metzora
Shabbat Hagadol
8 Nisan 5782 • April 9, 2022
Fast of the First Born
tvrvkb ,vyc
Friday April 15 th
9:00 a.m.
Live in the Synagogue
& via Zoom
Light breackfast will be served

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We share the sorrow on the passing of
Toby Engel k ”z
and extend condolences to his Brother
Joel Engel
May His Memory Be for a Blessing • lurc urfz hvh
Donations may be made to Beth Tikvah Chesed vfrck Fund. oburfz
Yahrtzeiten
Apr 8 • Nisan 7 Edith Katz Hoffman – Mother of Debra Silow
Apr 10 • Nisan 9 Bernice G. Drapkin – Mother of Eleanor Scheffler
Apr 11 • Nisan 10 Mildred Keyser – Mother of Stephen Keyser
Apr 12 • Nisan 11 Samuel Mest – Grandfather of Stuart Mest
Apr 14 • Nisan 13 Sally Kamin – Mother of Fred Kamin
Sylvia Zelman – Mother of Bea Schwartz
Apr 15 • Nisan 14 Nathan Resnik – Father of Beverly Blazar
Birthdays
jna ,skuv ouh
Apr 13 Joan Lasser
cuy kzn
Anniversaries
Apr 11 Anne & Martin Rubenfeld (52)
Apr 13 Carol & Stuart Mest (36)
Kiddush Sponsors
Joyce Toub
In loving memory of her husband, Melvin Toub k"z
Michael & Debra Silow
In loving memory of her mother,
k"z
Edith Katz Hoffman
Kiddush Maven
Shelley Goodman
Assisted by
Rosalee Bogo, Sue Hammerman, Evelyn & Larry Hecht,
Judy Levitt, Linda & Shep Scheinberg, & Arleen & David Sivakoff
To sponsor a kiddush, please contact Linda Scheinberg
Via
missus205@gmail.com
Please join us for
Minyanim
Wednesday, April 13 th - 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 14 th - 9:00 a.m.
Thursday, April 21 st - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday morning minyanim
begin at 9:00 a.m.
vnhka vt

Torah & Haftarah Readings:
Shabbat Metzora / Hagadol: Leviticus 14:33-15:33 (Etz Hayim p. 663)
1. 14:33-38 2. 14:39-47 3. 14:48-53 4. 14:54-15:7
5. 15:8-15 6. 15:16-28 7. 15:29-33 M. 15:31-33 (p 669)
Haftarah: Malakhi 3:4-24 (Etz Hayim p. 1296)
Torah / Haftarah Summary
D'var Torah:
One Month per Person – Bex Stern Rosenblat
Often when I’m in synagogue, I hand my toddler his favorite book, One Hundred
First Words, in the hope that he will amuse himself by looking at the pictures
while I’m absorbed in prayer. But usually it doesn’t work that way. Instead he
points excitedly at each of the images – tractor, train, dog, banana – and looks at
me eagerly, waiting for me to identify each object. In between every line of the
prayerbook I find myself inserting a quick “yes, that’s a bathtub,” or “yes, that’s a
bottle,” frustrated by my inability to get through a single blessing uninterrupted.
In such moments, I’m reminded of a Talmudic story about Rabbi Shimon bar
Yochai, who declared, “If I had been on Mount Sinai when the Torah was given to
Israel, I would have asked God for two mouths, one to speak words of Torah, and
one to use for all other needs.” But then on second thought, he reconsidered and
said, “The world can barely continue to exist on account of the slander that comes
out of one mouth. How much worse would it be if everyone had two mouths!” (Y.
Berakhot 1:2 [3b]). Sometimes I wish I had two mouths, one for praying and one for
acknowledging my eager toddler. Then I am reminded of all the words I speak and
then regret, and like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, I reconsider and resolve that one
mouth is enough.
The Talmudic sages connect the dangers of speaking inappropriately to our
parshah, which details the laws concerning the metzora, the person stricken with
a skin disease commonly translated as leprosy. The sages (Erchin 15b) understood
metzora as an acronym for “motzi shem ra,” one who “draws out a bad name,”
that is, someone who tarnishes another person’s reputation – a sin referred to by
the rabbis as lashon hara. They declare that anyone who speaks ill of another
person will be stricken with leprous marks, as if to suggest that the distress caused
to another person by slander is tantamount to the distress of a scaly skin affliction.
The sages, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai among them, developed an extensive theology
conflating the leper and the slanderer, offering us insight into the power and peril
of the words we speak.
The Torah associates leprosy with death; both the leper and the individual who
come into contact with a dead body are declared impure and cast out of the camp.
In the rabbinic imagination, this association with death applies to the slanderer as
well. The rabbis quote a verse from Proverbs, “Death and life are in the hands
of the tongue” (18:21), explaining that just as a hand can kill, so too a tongue can
kill. However, they add that unlike a hand, which can kill only those within arm’s
distance, a tongue is like an arrow that is fired from a bow and can kill from a great

distance, as per a verse from Jeremiah, “Their tongue is a sharpened arrow”
(9:7). Evil speech can harm even those who are not in the immediate vicinity,
because gossip travels quickly. Likewise evil speech also carries with it an element
of death’s irreversibility, because words, once spoken, can never be fully retracted.
The Talmud teaches that if a person speaks ill of another, God declares, “He [the
slanderer] and I cannot dwell together in this world.” God cannot bear
to live in the world with a person who speaks inappropriately, and thus such a
person must be cast out. This is a fitting response given that slander so often leads
to the ostracism of the person slandered. The leper, too, is cast out of the camp
and forced to dwell apart from the rest of the nation on the outskirts of society.
He may return only after the priest examines the leper, cleanses him, and declares
him pure. At that point he must bring two birds, one of which is set free and one of
which is slaughtered, its blood mixed with cedar wood and hyssop and sprinkled
over the leper. The rabbis explain that since this individual committed a sin by
chattering too much, his purification involves bringing two birds who chirp and
chatter incessantly.
The rabbis caution that evil speech is so dangerous that one should not even speak
well of another person in the presence of others, because in speaking about his
goodness, one might come to speak of that person in a derogatory manner. They
illustrate this point by means of a story about Rav Dimi, who once fell ill (Erchin 16a).
His brother Rav Safra went to visit him, and when he arrived, Rav Dimi boasted
to all those present, “I have merit coming to me, for I have fulfilled everything
the sages said!” Rav Safra asked him, “But have you fulfilled the command not
even to speak of the goodness of a person in the presence of others, because doing
so may lead others to speak of him derogatorily?” Rav Dimi had to admit that
no, he did not fulfill this dictum. In this story, which presumably was meant to be
not just ironic but also humorous, Rav Dimi speaks well of himself, which leads
to him having to admit to his own failings. Even when we offer words of praise
about someone, we run the risk of speaking ill of them because we open them up
to critique. Better not to talk about other people at all.
And yet it is clear that according to the rabbinic understanding, the antidote to
evil speech is not silence. The rabbis tell the story of Rabbi Yannai, who once met
a peddler hawking an elixir of life (Leviticus Rabbah 16:2). Rabbi Yannai was eager for
a sample. But the peddler was quick to assure him that he didn’t need his wares,
because he was already in possession of them. He showed Rabbi Yannai a verse
from Psalms: “Who is the man who desires life?... Keep your tongue from evil and
your lips from lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” (Psalms
34:12-14). The term used in this story for peddler, rochel, comes from the same root
as the word used in the Torah for slander, rechilut, and indeed, as Rav Nachman’s
wife Yalta explicitly declares, “Gossip comes from peddlers” (Berakhot 51b). But in
this story it is the peddler who reminds Rabbi Yannai that the key to living a long
life is to avoid speaking ill and to perform good deeds. If Rabbi Yannai heeds the
message of the verse from Psalms—and presumably other words of Torah as well—
he will not speak ill of others and will thus merit long life.
“Oh how I love your Torah,” declares the Psalmist, “It is what I speak all day
long” (Psalms 119:97). When confronted with pauses in a conversation or awkward

silences, we should fill the quiet not with gossip, but with words of Torah. The
Talmud (Ketubot 77b) tells a story about Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, who was the only
sage who was unafraid of drawing close to the lepers living on the outskirts of his
town. All the other sages would keep their distance, but Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi
would sit among them and study Torah, insisting that “If Torah graces those who
study it, will it not also protect me?” He was convinced that studying Torah would
safeguard him from contagion, just as speaking words of Torah can safeguard us
against speaking ill of others. Evil speech, like leprosy, is a matter of life and death.
We are granted only one life to live, and only one mouth with which to speak.
D'var Haftorah:
The Zealous Duo – Bex Stern Rosenblat
Pesach is powerful in its use of narrative. We tell a story of our past in order
to prepare for our future. We relive what has happened so that it might not
happen again.
This final Shabbat before Pesach, Shabbat HaGadol, our haftarah positions
us exactly in the use of the past to prepare for the future by juxtaposing Moses
with the future coming of Elijah. This portion is the final chapter of the final
book of the trei asar (the twelve minor prophets) as well as the ending of the
entire second section of the Tanakh, the prophets.
The Torah, the first section of the Tanakh, ended with the memory of Moses.
Here in the second section, we recall Moses while looking forward to Elijah.
The final verses of the haftarah, as translated by Robert Alter, read:
“Recall the teaching of Moses My servant that I charged him on Horeb, for all
Israel, statutes and laws. Look, I am about to send to you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the day of the LORD, great and fearsome. And he shall
bring fathers’ hearts back to sons and the sons’ hearts to their fathers— lest I
come and strike the land with utter destruction.”
We are instructed to remember the Torah of Moses. While elsewhere the
Tanakh often refers to the Torah of Moses, it is always to 'shomer' it, to observe
or keep it. Here, we are being charged with the act of remembering, of telling
the story. As the narrative of the Tanakh concludes, we are being called to start
the story over again.
Malachi then jumps to Elijah. We have met Elijah before, back in the book
of Kings. He was a pious prophet who was taken up to the heavens in a fiery
whirlwind. Because we are told of his disappearance but not his death, Malachi
begins to develop a theology of Eliah appearing before the coming of the day of
the Lord. It is a theology that continues to grow in post-biblical texts such that
we now make room for Elijah at our Pesach seder.
Elijah and Moses are similar. In fact, Elijah seems to style himself after Moses
– encountering God on Mount Horeb, controlling the nation’s access to water,
crossing over rivers or seas. By posing Elijah as someone who still can come,
the haftarah gives us access to the Moses who used to be. The call to remember
Moses is justified and explained.

We are not only retelling the story, we will also be forced to relive it unless we
are able to make peace between the generations. This final line of the haftarah
is subject to endless interpretations. If we read it as a reconciliation of Moses
with Elijah, of the forefathers with us today, we allow ourselves to learn from
what was and bring about a better future. Elijah, having once failed to live up
to Moses, is allowed to return and try again. And we the people, having failed
to listen to Moses and to Elijah the first time, can learn from the telling of the
story and the threat of destruction, rather than from destruction itself.
PASSOVER 5782 / 2022
Sale of Hammetz Form
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residing at
Designate Rabbi Ammos Chorny of Beth Tikvah to be my
agent for the sale of all hammetz and utensils for hammetz
as required by Jewish Law, at the specific time before the
holiday of Passover.
Signed:
Return to Rabbi Chorny before Thursday April 14, 2016
BETH TIKVAH OF NAPLES,
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Addressed to: rabbi@BethTikvah.us
Schedule of Services for Passover:
Siyum Bechorot
Friday April 15 th – 9:00 a.m.
Erev Pesach / Kabbalat Shabbat
– 6:15 p.m.
First Seder
Shabbat / Pesach
Saturday April 16 th – 9:30 a.m.
Second Seder
Chol Hamoed Pesach
Sunday April 17 th – 9:00 a.m.
Pesach 7 th Day / Erev Yom Tov
Thursday April 21 st – 6:15 p.m.
Last Day of Pesach Friday April 22 nd – 9:00 a.m.
Yizkor
Kabbalat Shabbat
– 6:15 p.m.
Shabbat
Saturday April 23 rd – 9:30 a.m.
Beth Tikvah of Naples
1459 Pine Ridge Road
Naples, FL 34109
(239) 434-1818
Visit us online at
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