27/28 Tazria-Metzora: Day 2 (Monday) | The Center is Where Jews Thrive



26 Nisan 5786 AM | 1 AVE. 

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by Your Spirit and invited the nations to share in the richness of Your Word. We thank You for the people and state of Israel, including the Messiah, our First Fruits, through whom the harvest of life has begun.

Today is the ninth day of the Omer according to the minority Sadducean count, which is 1 week and 2 days.

May the Spirit of Truth prepare my heart for the revelation of the 50th day.

6:44 AM EDT in Albany. 

Jonathan writes:

The reading for this morning is Leviticus 13:24-13:39.

This is the link to the Daily Chumash with Rashi at Chabad.

The Daily Wisdom from the Lubavitcher Rebbe is titled "Pride and Arrogance." 

The teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe makes me think of the cancerous lesion I recently had removed from my nose, and how it appeared not too long after I was discharged from the psychiatric hospital back in early 2020. It's hard for me to say in retrospect that the sins of pride and arrogance, as well as evil speech, weren't part of my psychiatric diagnosis. I don't want to suggest that people with skin cancer, or any type of physical illness, should go see a Kohen to determine if they have a spiritual disease. But maybe, if I accept that the physical and the mental are deeply intertwined, there is nevertheless a spiritual aspect to some or most physical illnesses. It "just so happens" that I am scheduled to have my nose looked at again today. How do I know that the convergence of this appointment with today's Torah reading, and the Rebbe's wisdom, isn't a sign from Hashem that I am healing from a sin of extreme pride and arrogance? 

I don't know, and I cannot draw a conclusion one way or the other, at least not if I accept the principles laid out for me by Gemini with respect to the Mishnah (Negaim 2:5), according to which a Kohen cannot diagnose himself as a metzora.

But I don't want to suggest that I am at epistemological ground zero, either - that now, after my psychiatric treatment and my skin surgery, I am sinless with respect to pride and arrogance. Which is a bit scary. Will my skin cancer come back if I don't fully purge my pride and arrogance? That doesn't sound scientifically accurate, but in terms of moral accuracy, if I don't correct a character fault, it will tend to produce a negative outcome for myself and others that I will eventually need to face.

Aquinas is helpful here. I need to be wary of Pusillanimity and Simulata Humilitas, not just the straightforward manifestations of Superbia.

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