Mem Moment | Creating Community at Home
Parashat Tazria-Metzora “She Bears-Leper”
The double parashah of Tazria-Metzora describes in great detail the kinds of bodily afflictions known as tzaraat, often translated as leprosy or some other skin disease. But it is not only the body that can be affected by tzaraat; one’s garments, and even one’s house, can develop this impurity, which manifests as a red or green discoloration on skin, on clothing, and on walls. How does a house come to develop a skin disease? The Talmud (Arakhin 16a) asserts that the stinginess of its owners — who treat the house as exclusively theirs, and do not allow others to enter the property — causes the house to be afflicted. A house, in the eyes of these parashot, is an extension of its inhabitants, in this case for the worse.
It stands to reason, however, that if a closed-door policy and other negative social behaviors can bring disease onto a house, the opposite should also be true: a house whose inhabitants are constantly welcoming in neighbors and friends and sharing their bounty with others will bring blessing onto the very walls that make up the house. This is the sacred magic of building community specifically in each other’s homes — and the walls themselves should be considered active participants in the holy equation.
How are the physical places where you build community serve as an extension of yourself? How do we ensure our homes are places not of plague, but of blessing?