May 21, 2010 | 9 Sivan 5770

We all have areas in our life that we hope to improve upon.  Habits, vices, addictions, that we are all working towards expunging from our long list of behavioral traits.  Some of us are highly motivated to change while others are working through them slowly.  There are many factors that will dictate the speed at which a person works towards resolving their personal issues.  Of those reasons, one of the most powerful is the realization that said behavior is negatively impacting our lives. 

Unfortunately, avoidance is a defense mechanism that is alive and well in the human psyche.  Most of us can avoid and ignore the most debilitating condition and even go so far as to rationalize them into acceptance.   Unfortunately, avoidance causes us to miss some of the early signs which indicate that something is wrong. 

Among the initial signs are changes that happen to us socially.  Our ability to interact with the world and the world’s willingness to interact with us begins to transform without notice because we simply avoid acknowledging that these changes are caused by our own behavior. We quickly describe friends ho don’t want to interact with us when we drink alcohol, as boring.  We reject invitations to go for dinner and dancing with other couples because our weight makes this type of socializing too strenuous and embarrassing.  We brush off slights from family, friends and co-workers when we are uninvited from social gatherings because we often instigate arguments. Whether it’s addiction, weight, anger or any number of behaviors the result is the same – if gone unchecked, they can lead to ostracism. 

This week’s parsha, Naso, offers us a hint into this very problem.  It states:

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:  Instruct the Israelites to remove from the camp anyone with an eruption or a discharge and anyone defiled by a corpse. (L’nafesh) (Number 5:2)

On the surface, this commandment appears to be a call for hygienic responsibility, ensuring that contagious diseases don’t run through the camps of Israel.  However, our midrashic tradition reminds us that the experience at Mt. Sinai was so miraculous that every person present was healed, noting that all the people stood at the foot of the mountain implying that people with abnormalities or disabilities were healed in preparation to received God’s revelation.  Not long after the Sinai experience, we are told here that people are beginning to have all sorts of ailments – eruptions, discharges and defilements. 

By looking closely at the Hebrew we see that the word for corpse (l’nafesh) also can be translated as “soul.”  The implication is that the defilement is not just something that is spread through physical contact, but is also something that happens on a “soul” level.  There are ways in which our soul becomes defiled, tainted and diseased.  Unfortunately, soul contamination is often self-inflicted.  Whereas contact with a poisonous plant or infection of a cut or scrape is visible upon the skin, soul defilement is usually expressed by our behavior.  Just as with a skin infection, the person who defiles their soul must be sent outside the camp until the contamination is contained and treated.

In our day, unless severe, we don’t have to worry about an official, authoritative council expelling us from our social circles because of disease, whether physical or behaviorly. However, there are still plenty of ways to find ourselves outside of the camp.  It is easy to avoid and rationalize why things are the way they are.  However, let us take a hint from parshat Naso.  When you find yourself excluded, ask yourself, “What is my part in this exclusion?”  If you come up with an answer, you might want to take some time to address it honestly before you find yourself so far outside the camp that you can’t find your way back.  I promise that if you are diligent in making a change, the gates for your return will be swung wide open.

Shabbat Shalom.