Bulletin Metzora

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A A 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 <strong>Metzora</strong> / 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
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Bulletin Metzora

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