Parshat Tazria: Life
by Rabbi Lobel

We tend to believe that our day-to-day lives are governed by the laws of nature; anything outside of nature is either miraculous, hidden, or on a mystical level. However, this week’s Torah reading, Parshat Tazria, teaches us that when the Jewish nation lives according to its lofty ideals, the miraculous is, in fact, a part of our everyday lives.

The Torah discusses an affliction called Tzora’as, which is commonly translated as leprosy. It affects the skin, clothing, and even walls of a house and requires the affected individual to be quarantined.

The Sforno (Harav Ovadiah ben Yaakov Sforno, Bologna, Italy 1475 – 1550; Leviticus 13:2) teaches us Tzora’as is certainly not leprosy nor any other natural disease. As proof, the Sforno (Leviticus 13:43) explains that it is completely unnatural for clothing to change appearance without external factors. Yet, Tzora’as changes the appearance of clothing. Rather than be a physical ailment, Tzora’as is a spiritual affliction that forces a person to display his spiritual impurities resulting from sin.

Yet, it is a spiritual affliction that has a very obvious physical impact. This is the spiritual height that man can reach – that his skin, clothing, and home can be physically afflicted by sin and cured by atonement.

As the Sforno explains, the world was created for mankind. Man’s highest purpose is to serve G-d. And, when the Nation of Israel dedicates itself to serving G-d, the laws of nature becomes intertwined with the miraculous so that Israel can better serve G-d. In other words, the more we dedicate ourselves to serving G-d, the greater spiritual heights we achieve, in a very physical sense, we rise above the constraints of nature.

This is the natural order of things, when our daily lives are so imbued with holy pursuits that the physical world around us becomes intertwined with the spiritual.

The world was built for us. As we learn from the laws of Tzora’as, once we completely dedicate ourselves to Hashem, we can rise above our natural limits and even the laws of nature.