Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch shares a most powerful message:
If I had the power I would provisionally close all synagogues for a hundred years. Do not tremble at the thought of it, Jewish heart. What would happen? Jews and Jewesses without synagogues, desiring to remain such, would be forced to concentrate on a Jewish life and a Jewish Home. The Jewish officials connected with the synagogue would have to look to the only opportunity now open to them – to teach young and old how to live a Jewish life and how to build a Jewish home. All synagogues closed by Jewish hands would constitute the strongest protest against the abandonment of the Torah in home and life. (Introduction by Translator to Horeb, “The Classification of the Mitzvoth,” p.1xix)
I understand Rabbi Hirsch to be speaking about priorities. In Jewish life, it starts in the home and extends outwards to include communal involvement and synagogue life. As one Rabbi once put it to me- If you want a kind society, it requires kind individuals… and kindness begins in the home.
The Metzora of this week’s parsha- the person afflicted with a physical ailment a result of the spiritual failing of speaking ill of others- is told to sit in isolation, away from the community and from spiritual gathering spaces. Heretofore, the metzora used the power of speech to divide and put others down. Henceforth, s/he is tasked with owning this failing by becoming humble and responsible for their tongue (for we know, “life and death are in the power of the tongue- Proverbs 18:21). Communal harmony is prioritized above the desire to gratify themselves and speak ill of another (even if it’s true.)
To conclude with another teaching of Rabbi Hirsch; perhaps, a key to how to realign and re-connect with what matters most. He says that in trying times, one need not ask LAMA (לָמָּה), meaning, why (is God doing this to me) for who can be so presumptuous to claim to know but rather, LEMA (לְמָה), for what (is God doing this, what do I need to learn, to change). We should all be blessed with clarity, health, happiness as we enter the new month of Iyar (the month, the mystics say is a month of healing.)