Am I as proud as Pharaoh or as humble as Moses? April 20, 2024 Shabbat Hagadol
Leviticus 14: 34 – 35 says, “When you come to the land of Canaan, which I give to you as a possession and I put the disease of tzaraat in a house in the land you possess, he who owns the house shall come and tell the cohen that it seems to me there is a disease in the house;”
Isn’t it interesting that God put the disease of tzaraat in the house affecting its walls, as well as the person and their clothing? Why wouldn’t a carpenter be brought in to renovate or tear down the walls to get rid of this disease? Why a cohen, a priest? It becomes obvious that this is a spiritual matter that is affecting the physical.
Then to make it even more challenging to understand, verse 51 says, “And he shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times…” This sounds like a pagan, voodoo ritual. How can cedar wood, hyssop, scarlet and two birds work together to cleanse the house?
Our rabbi constantly emphasized to us that Hebrew is not like our Western way of thinking; it’s like a mosaic where we need to step back to see the bigger picture. Our challenge is finding the principles from those rituals and applying them today.
Most of the stories in the Torah portray man’s struggle with pride. Today is Shabbat Hagadol, the great Shabbat before Pesach. The two main characters in the story of Pesach are the Pharaoh and Moses. Pharaoh’s character was the epitome of pride. He considered himself a god while Moses was the humblest of men. But when Moses lost his temper due to pride, he lost the opportunity to enter the Promised Land; Pharaoh lost everything.
Here we have three elements that depict the two characteristics of pride and humility: cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet thread. These would be used to heal the disease tzaraat. Cedar was the tallest of trees representing pride in the same way that yeast does at Pesach. This is why we are told to remove all the yeast from our homes before we celebrate it. On a spiritual level, we need to search and cleanse our hearts while we are removing the leaven, the yeast from our homes. We need to rid ourselves of any pride that would stop us from being a student of life and a follower of God. We are all equal in God’s eyes and pride can make us think that we are better than others. There is so much to say on the topic of pride but that can be for another day.
Hyssop, on the other hand, is the opposite; it is the lowliest of bushes. It was used as a broom and represents humility. Scarlet thread was obtained by killing a specific worm, the lowliest of creatures. When King David felt at his lowest, his weakest, he called himself a worm in Psalm 22:6 “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.”
The ritual of using these three elements to cleanse the house was hocus-pocus and intended for a people who had been steeped in the superstitions of Egypt. There is no room for superstition when we trust God. It’s mind control but many people are so stymied by superstition that they cannot experience the freedom that God offers them in their lives. We need to constantly check our belief systems and free ourselves from the ones that have become burdensome.
God is always giving us the way to choose life and here I believe He is showing us the effect that our spiritual life has on the physical in every way. Scientific studies have demonstrated that classical music makes plants thrive while heavy metal kills them. Could it be that there was so much negative energy in the house diagnosed with tzaraat that the very walls became contaminated? Negativity affects our psyches so deeply that perhaps the woman of the house, through her unhappy state of mind, might have neglected it so badly that the walls grew mold. Negativity can spread through an entire household. We’ve all heard the expression, “Happy wife, happy life”. Women do not realize the power that they hold over their little kingdoms. We saw that Eve was able to convince her husband Adam to disobey the one command that God had given them. The consequences are still reverberating around the world. The spiritual affects the emotional which then moves into the physical.
I have seen that the more I deal with my past, forgive myself and others who have hurt me, when my thought patterns, my paradigms have shifted as I learn God’s principles from the Torah, when I do not allow myself to drown in my emotions for long, I am being healed in all those places where I was and am still stuck. I can see that I am being changed in every good way… I can focus better, I am more organized at home, and I have fewer areas of stuff hidden away in the corners of my mind that need to be cleansed. I am no longer overwhelmed by negative feelings that don’t allow me to live fully in the present and in His Presence. It is where the natural and supernatural merge. We all have our areas that need to be cleansed and walking with God affects us in amazing ways where we slowly become the best person that we can be. We just need to ask and to act.
There is a level of the soul or the neshama that we cannot comprehend in these three-dimensional bodies. Although the Torah doesn’t speak directly about the evil tongue, Lashon Harah, we know that Miriam, the sister of Moses was afflicted with tzaraat for gossiping to Aaron about Moses. Gossip is a trap that is so easy to fall into. There is a difference between speaking with someone to get their opinion because we truly want the best for the other person and speaking about the other person in a way that destroys their character. We are each made in God’s image and when we gossip, we are debasing the image of God. There are spiritual consequences for this. Many of us get sick because we are gossiping and that is part of the search for the leaven within us at Pesach. Instead of spending so much time cleaning our houses of yeast, taking out our second set of dishes, some to the point of even having a second kitchen or a second home, let us remember to spend time searching for the chametz, the leaven, the yeast, the dirt in our hearts.
Many of us have been glued to the news, watching what is going on in Israel, the Middle East and around the world. I can’t stand watching people tear others apart on the news and social media. The gossip about politicians, corrupt or not, is rampant. Good people are losing their reputations instigated by those who thirst for power. Truth is not easily found. If a house can be diagnosed with tzaraat due to the negative spiritual energy within, how much more can cities, nations, and countries suffer from this disease? We may not be able to change the world, but we can change ourselves.
What we see happening in the world today didn’t start yesterday. The solution lies in knowing from where we come… our history is a long one. From the nations in which there were many gods, the Creator of the universe chose one man, Abram to whom He would reveal Himself and to whom He added His name, Yud Heh, when he would become Abraham. Abraham’s son, Isaac was chosen over his firstborn, Ishmael; Jacob was chosen over Isaac’s firstborn, Esau. Joseph was chosen over his eleven brothers to bring us to Egypt where God formed a new nation in Egypt’s womb. Moses was chosen to lead his people out after over 250 years of slavery, to bring us to Mount Sinai, and hand us the set of principles – the Ten Commandments which would change the world. God chose us, the people of Israel to be His emissaries and to be a living example to the rest of the nations, not to be like them. He made a covenant with us, and we accepted it and agreed when we said… “All that You have said, we will do”. You and I are chosen, and we are part of that agreement, that covenant. When we break it, there are consequences which, whether we realize it or not, resound around the world.
We are ignorant of our own history when we say, “Why did God choose us, let him choose someone else for a change?”
Many nations are screaming that their later books supersede the Torah that our God gave the world. Tzaraat is spreading through the nations of the world today and our Book, the Torah, most of which was written by Moses, alone holds the key to our healing.
Pesach is about you and I searching our hearts and crying out to God with King David’s words in Palm 139: “O LORD, You have searched me, and You know me. You know when I sit and when I stand. From afar, You understand my thoughts. You know my going out and my coming in and You are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, O LORD, that You do not know. You have hemmed me in on all sides and laid Your hand on me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; too lofty, I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from Your spirit? or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I ride on the wings of the dawn and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand leads me, Your right-hand holds me tight. …. For You have made my inward parts; You have formed me in my mother’s womb. I give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful and that my soul knows very well. … Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there is any way in me that is grievous to You, and lead me in Your way everlasting.” Pesach is the story of the redemption of Israel and is the prototype for every nation’s redemption at the end of times and for ours.
Shabbat Shalom
Peggy Pardo