Parshat M’tzora

This week’s parashah, M’tzora, teaches about homes that required purification because of certain molds or funguses growing in their walls. A person who saw such a  home was to go to a priest and say “it appears to me like a plague in the house.”

The Mishnah, in its reading of that passage, focused on the word “like.” It taught that a person should never declare that what he saw is definitely a plague,  even if he is a scholar and knows for sure that it is. Instead he should say that it is “like” a plague” (Negaim 12:5). In other words, it is a mitzvah to withhold judgment on a person’s home, and all the more so on a person’s self.  In Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Perahya taught that, when we judge another person, we should always tip the balance in that person’s favor.

To be part of a sacred community is to do that for each other. It is to strive always to see the holiness in one another’s homes, and in one another’s characters.

• Shabbat services at The New Shul are on Friday evenings from 6 to 7 pm and on Saturday mornings from 9 am to 12 noon. Our guest teacher this Shabbat is Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz. He is the founder and president of Uri L’tzedek, an Orthodox Social Justice Organization, and the director of the Valley Beit Midrash. Rabbi Yanklowitz will give the drashah, and teach after kiddush.
• Childcare is available from 10 am to 12 noon on Shabbat mornings. Munchkin Minyan for pre-schoolers and parents meets this Shabbat from 11 to 11:30 am.
• Minyanim during the week are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am and on Wednesday mornings at 7 am.
• Pesah begins on Monday evening April 14. Services for the first two days of Pesah, Tuesday and Wednesday April 15 and 16, and for the last two days, Monday and Tuesday April 21 and 22,begin at 9 am. The service on the last day includes Yizkor, the memorial prayer.
• The New Shul is collecting food donations for “Just Three Things,” to help young adults who have aged out of the foster care system. Please bring packaged items that are either ready-to-eat or require only microwave preparation. To arrange a drop-off, call or email the shul.