Commentary on Parshat Metzora (Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33)
One of the most powerful experiences I had during my rabbinic training was serving as a hospital chaplain. I practiced chaplaincy with a group of five other people on the path to becoming clergy of various faiths, and we were trained by a supervisor – an ordained minister, in this case, who was an expert chaplain and who helped us to hone our skills through dialogue and reflection.
On the surface, my role was to visit patients in the hospital, to listen to them, and also to provide spiritual counsel. In some way, it was quite obvious what needed to be done – as a chaplain we were to be present to the person in need of healing, and attuned to their needs. But in truth, it was quite challenging to truly see patients, and to meet them where they were on a spiritual level. As my supervisor taught me, often times, it required a great deal of clarity on the part of the chaplain, to understand what from the chaplain’s own experience might be getting in the way of reaching a patient.
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I remember one instance when I was having great difficulty empathizing with a woman with breast cancer. I realized through reflection with my supervisor that I had set up boundaries within myself due to my family’s history with breast cancer – I was letting my own fear get in the way of seeing the pain of a patient who needed spiritual accompaniment. Once I could separate my fear from her lived experience, I could more authentically serve as a presence and a mirror to her pain.
In this week’s Torah portion, Metzora, we learn of the priestly laws related to purifying a person suffering with tzara’at, a disease involving a scaly affliction of the skin. The focus of this section is how the diseased person may be brought back within the boundaries of the camp by means of a priest performing a ritual on his or her behalf. One fascinating detail of this portion has to do with the role of the priest himself. In Leviticus 14:3, we read that the priest must go outside the camp and visit the person afflicted by tzara’at. In other words, a priest could find out about the diseased person via an intermediary of some kind, but in order to bring the person back, the priest must himself visit the sick person and see for himself that healing has taken place. Afterwards, the priest performs a sacrifice on behalf of the sick person, and only then can the person re-enter the camp.
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As we work to make our society a whole one, and a healed one, may we be cognizant of the importance of going beyond the walls we have created for ourselves, and truly seeing the disease and sickness of others – even when it causes us personal pain. May we embody our roles as priests, not to remain untouched and unfettered inside our comfortable self-imposed boundaries, but rather to reach out past those boundaries, even when that requires digging deep within our own experience so that we can truly relate to others. To truly see the pain and meet the pain of others, sometimes, we need to get in touch with exactly how we ourselves are wounded. In that recognition we can go out to reach others in a more authentic way, and aid in bringing them back in complete healing.
Rabbi Rebecca Epstein is the Associate Rabbi and Educator at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn.