Parshah

It’s a first-hand account of the Exodus – thousands of years later.

The Torah instructs each of us to tell the next generation about all of the miracles that “Hashem did for me as I left Egypt” (Sh’mos 13:8). It is based on the first-person narrative in this verse that Chazal famously declared: “In every generation, a person is obligated to view himself as if he had personally left Mitzrayim” (P’sachim 116b).

When is chesed not so kind after all?

Parshas Sh’mini identifies the kosher status of various animals and birds. One of the non-kosher birds listed is the chasidah, the stork. Chazal say that this creature was aptly named for its tendency to perform chesed, sharing food with its friends (Rashi, VaYikra 11:19). Even if it doesn’t really deliver babies, this stork sounds like a real baalas chesed!

Think before you tweet.

A most unusual ritual is performed as part of the purification process of a m’tzora (a person stricken with leprosy for speaking lashon ha’ra). Two identical birds are taken; one is slaughtered, while the other is set free (VaYikra 14:4-7). Rashi (v. 4) explains that birds were fittingly chosen for the atonement of a baal lashon ha’ra, because they, too, chatter and twitter incessantly. The person with tzaraas is supposed to view these animals as a representation of what brought about his punishment in the first place: his unbridled gossip and chirping. By taking this lesson to heart, he can move one step closer to purification.

Let’s blast it on the loudspeakers!

Parshas Tzav introduces a unique korban: the Todah, an offering of gratitude. A person who survives a dangerous experience brings this korban of thanks (B’rachos 54b), as can anyone who celebrates a joyous occasion, such as marrying off a child (Rabbeinu Bachya, VaYikra 6:2).

Why isn’t lashon ha’ra considered treif?

Rav Yisrael Salanter zt”l noted a symbolic meaning in the placement of this week’s parshah. Tazria, which deals with the laws of a person who speaks lashon ha’ra and his resulting tzaraas, immediately follows Sh’mini, which ends with the laws of kashrus. Rav Salanter explained the juxtaposition as follows: We are all quite careful about what we put into our mouths; the Torah then proceeds to remind us to be just as careful about what comes out of them.

If we cannot have it all, would we rather none at all?

Chazal have a tradition that the main characters of the Purim story can be found in veiled allusions throughout the Torah, written prophetically many years before the events of Megillas Esther (Chulin 139b). Where is there a Biblical reference to Haman? The Gemara identifies the verse at the beginning of Chumash in which Hashem chastises Adam and Chavah for eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (B’reishis 3:11). The Hebrew words in this verse, “ha’min ha’eitz (from the tree)” can also be vowelized Haman ha’eitz, referring to the wicked Haman who would later be hanged on the wooden gallows (eitz) he had prepared for Mordechai.