D'var Torah

This week’s double Torah portion (Tazria and Metzora, from Leviticus) speak of individual purification and the role of the Priests in helping to provide healing for a person who contracts Tzara’at, a biblical skin condition such as leprosy. What we learn in the portion is that while there are physical symptoms of this disease, for which isolation is called for, there is a spiritual side as well. The priests are in charge of the spiritual renewal of the person afflicted. According to the Talmud, as cited by Rabbi Natan Greenberg, one spiritual source of Tzara’at is “tzarut ayin” or narrowness of vision. Rabbi Greenberg says this “is the opposite of acting with wisdom.”

I was thinking about this concept of narrowness of vision today as I was trying to get my head around hearing of multiple acts of gun violence in the last few days around the country. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 12,512 deaths involving guns in our country since January 1. There have been 165 mass shootings in the 108 days in 2023. And just this week, since last Shabbat, there have been 256 shootings in the country resulting in 103 deaths and 229 injuries. I don’t remember it ever being this bad. Even as a police officer in Baltimore in the 1980s, while I responded to many “shots fired” calls, it wasn’t multiple times a day like it is now.

This is the tzara’at – the spiritual malaise – of our times and one that I believe is partly caused by tzarut ayin – narrowness of vision. We need legislators who can stand up to the gun lobby and create laws that do away with military-grade weapons, for example. We need our lawmakers to make it harder to obtain a gun. We need gun manufacturers to create technology to make guns inoperable when they get into the wrong hands. We need to put more money into mental health programs to help those who may ultimately use a gun in a violent act. We must find solutions in communities – especially communities of color – where gun violence disproportionately impacts them. We need gun licensing and registration the same way we have vehicle licensing and registration. And we need so much more. But what we have, instead, is a broken system with lawmakers and leaders who do not see clearly enough to work together to rid our communities of this malaise.

It’s time to act with wisdom and heal this problem so that we don’t go another day with young people getting shot or killed because they accidentally went to the wrong address, attended a sweet 16, or simply went to school. We can do better.

Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Michael Shochet