Weekly Message

16 April 2026

The second of this week’s two parshiyot, Metzora, teaches about the process by which one who was tamei — ritually impure, alienated from the divine — made the journey back into God’s presence in the days when the Temple stood. That process can serve as a metaphor for our own spiritual searching today.

Rabbi Meir Simha Dvinsk, the author of Meshekh Hokhmah, pointed out that the Torah uses an odd grammatical form to refer to the one has has been ritually purified by the priest. Instead of using the normal passive form nit’har (“purified”), it uses a reflexive form, mit’taher, meaning one who has participated in his/her own purification

The point, according to the Meshekh Hokhmah, is that, when we are alienated from God, we must play an active role in making our way back. No priest or other intermediary can do the work for us. We are all ultimately responsible for our own journey.

Then why is the priest there at all? Although no one else can do the work for us, neither can we make the journey alone. We need the support of others along the way, to help us see the path before us when our vision fails. That is where community comes in. Our task, as members of a spiritual community,  is to be like priests for one another, to offer the support that makes it possible for  each of us, as individuals, to find our own path back.