When a woman conceives and gives birth.
(Leviticus 12:2)
Just as the creation of human beings follows that of
all of the animals, so Torah laws pertaining to humans follow those of animals.
(Rashi on Leviticus 12:2)
In last week's portion, we learned about all kinds of animals, permissible and forbidden. Tazria begins with laws about human behavior.
Unlike gnats, cockroaches and sowbugs that can do no wrong,
human beings have free will to choose between right and wrong.
Don't blame bugs for bugging up the works. They're innocent. Like computer bugs, people mess up their
lives by their inner failings.
There are two faces of humanity (Adam in Hebrew). Adam is formed from the dust of the earth
(adamah). He is lower than bugs.
On the other hand, Adam is created in the divine
image to be God's partner in the ongoing process of creation (adameh –
resembling God).
If a man wishes to attain the rank of holiness, he
must be a creator of worlds. If a man
never creates, never brings into being anything new, anything original, then he
cannot be holy unto his God. (Rabbi
J. B. Soloveitchik in Halakhic Man)
A few months ago, we saw artist Eva Avidar (Mel's colleague
at Emuna College) studying cockroaches under a magnifying glass in her studio.
This week, we marveled at her creation of a ceramic
cockroach, the highlight of the Biennale of Israeli Ceramics at the Eretz
Israel Museum.
The roach, helpless on its back, light pulsating from its
eyes, reminded us of the man who turns into a cockroach in Kafka's Metamorphosis.
For Mel's 60th birthday, Miriam made him a large ceramic
sowbug. The ecology of sowbugs was the
subject of Mel's research as a biologist.
