Parashat Tazria-Metzora 5783 – Rosh Chodesh Iyar – Earth Day

by Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields

This week’s Torah reading is the double portion of Parashat Tazria-Metzora, which reads like a dermatology textbook. There are many descriptions of leprous lesions, and often people needed to leave their tents, and live in other areas of the community while they healed. Why so much description about skin lesions? Perhaps it is because a skin lesion shows differences in people. This is truly a section of the Torah that comes to teach us about tolerance for others. We need to embrace the other, and understand those who are not the same as us. That is why Women’s League for Conservative Judaism has partnered with the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs to create The Inclusion Resource Guidebook. This resource will assist in creating an atmosphere in which we can embrace everyone in our Sisterhood affiliates. May this be a mission for all of our Sisterhood Affiliates, to make sure that no one is ever again left out, but rather embraced and loved. Chazak v’Ematz – Be Strong and Courageous!