[Avodah] Why so many details of tzora'as in the Torah?

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, April 23, 2007 12:09 pm, R Dov Kay wrote:
: Tazria-Metzora always raise at least 2 questions in my mind:
: 1  Why does the Torah shebichsav spend so much time spelling out the
: details of tzora'as relative to other, more practically relevant
: areas of halacha (eg hilchos Shabbos)?...

To quote the Alei Shur just mentioned in my previous post:
> We can see what this hislamdus is in all the books of his Yad
> haChazakah. For example, someone who learns Tractate Nega'im in
> depth, and he toils at it and in the decisions of the Rambam in the
> Laws of Nega'im in great detail -- when he reaches the conclusion
> of the laws in the Rambam he will find there ideas burning with
> flames of fire on the prohibition of lashon hara -- and it is a
> though the blinds where torn from his eyes and he is compelled to
> realize that the entire tractate in truth deals with the book
> Chafeitz Chaim and the laws of malicious speech! And this student
> will be devastated, how he, with all his development of the
> tractate, didn't sense that he was busy with the severity of the
> law of lashon hara. And is it not an explicit verse in the Torah:
> "Watch the affliction of tzora'as to guard well and do etc....
> Remember what Hashem did to Miriam on the way as you left Mitzrayim"
> -- Rashi: "If you want to be careful not to be afflicted with
> tzora'as, don't utter lashon hara. Remember what was done to Miriam,
> who spoke about her brother and was afflicted." (Ki Tetzei, shishi)
> And it's good for someone who learned this, for he learned Tractate
> Nega'im, but without hislamdus...

It would seem the Torah wants us to spend a lot of time thinking about
the enormity of LH. (Or ga'avah, or any of the other chata'im
associated with tzora'as.)

: 2  When did tzora'as cease to be prevalent? ..

Today we have psychosomatic illness -- they aren't imaginary, but the
origin of the physical issue is an emotional one. High blood pressure
is often an example. Psychosomatic skin disorders are more common
among Holocaust survivors shlit"a.

I think of tzora'as as a spiritusomatic illness. But in order for such
a thing to happen someone would have to be sufficiently unified in guf
and neshamah for one to be able to impact another.

If speaking LH doesn't stress mind or soul, how would either (*)
influence the body.

*) Tangent: I do not believe that mind and soul are distinct things;
rather the mind is something the soul does, a facility referred to by
the label "ruach".

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
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