Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for a provocative two-part look at parsha Tazria, Leviticus chapters 12 through 14, and a discussion of what is too often dismissed as “old” testament minutia that no longer has any relevance.
Mark suggests that one of the most intriguing things about certain sections — like this one! — is how things that the ‘church’ claims are irrelevant is how He may have Written it for us knowing far better. Just maybe.
And the Erev Shabbat reading starts to make that case:
During the Sabbath Day midrash, Mark begins by asking some relevant questions, including, “what is UN-righteousness?” And what does this parsha tell us about it.
And the answer follows from the observation that a person who was ‘declared’ unclean, by the cohenim, was put “outside the [clean, evidently!] camp” — until they were again declared clean.
A look at the story of Miriam, and her “bad-mouthing” of Moses (in Hebrew, “lashon hora,” or the “evil tongue”) does at least begin to make the case that “gossip” or such damaging and contemptible speech, MIGHT be a cause of the ‘plague’ of tzaraat.
And unlike ‘leprosy’ – there hasn’t been a single known case of tzaraat in the world for many centuries. But if “evil speech” can even remotely result in that ‘visual manifestation of a spiritual malady” – why, oh why, don’t we see it literally EVERYWHERE in a world today where the “Evil Tongue” gets you a network late night show?
Did YHVH decide to stop the warning? As things get worse, and we enter into greater tribulation, wouldn’t an indicator of ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ be handy? Perhaps at least part of the problem is that when the whole word is ‘unclean’, there’s no point in kicking them out.
Which seems to make the lesson all the more important.
Tazria: “What is UN-righteousness?”
Service information:
Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship worship services and teachings are broadcast live every Sabbath, via Paltalk. (www.paltalk.com has both the link, and the app.) The “room name” is “Walking Torah with Shabbat Shalom Mesa,” and can be found via the paltalk search, then bookmarked.
Erev Shabbat services begin at 7:00 PM Mountain Time Friday evenings (9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central)
Live Sabbath teachings begin shortly after 11 AM Mountain time on Sabbath day (Saturday).
email: mark@markniwot.com
The combined two-part reading and Sabbath midrash, via Hebrew Nation Radio.
