Health of body is a necessary precedent to most cases of human accomplishment. Not many of us are able to rise over illness, pain and/or chronic discomfort on a regular and permanent basis. Medical science recognizes that our mood and our mind affect our physical state of wellbeing. The Torah injects into this insight that our soul also has such an effect as well.

 

The rabbis specifically found that the distress caused to one’s soul by evil speech, slander and defamation reflects itself physically in the disease of tzsorat. In biblical times, hurting other human beings by the intemperate use if one’s tongue, had clear physical consequences that served as a warning of the displeasure of one’s soul at such behavior. The human body is our mainstay. It is also the most fragile and vulnerable to decay and discomfort. It is therefore only logical that it is in this area of our existence that the possibility of tzsorat lurks and lingers.

 

Clothing represents our outer representation of ourselves to the society around us.  Originally, as described in the Torah itself, clothing was meant to shelter us from the elements and to provide us with a sense of privacy and modesty in covering our nakedness. As humanity evolved and developed, clothing became a statement of personality and even of the mental and spiritual nature of the person.

 

Clothing also became an instrument of hubris, competitiveness and even of lewdness. It also became vulnerable to the distress of the soul over its use for essentially negative purposes. And again in biblical times the angst of the soul translated itself into tzsorat that affected clothing directly.

 

And finally tzsorat was able to invade the physical structure of one’s own dwelling place. One is entitled to live in a comfortable and attractive home. All of the amenities of modern life are permitted to us. But the Psalmist warned us that we should be careful not to make our homes our “graves.” Homes are by their very nature temporary and transient places.

 

Our father Avraham described himself as a wandering itinerant on this earth. Again, as in all areas of human life, the Torah demands of us perspective and common sense when dealing with our homes. We gawk with wonder when visiting palaces and mansions of the rich and famous yet our inner self tells us that this really is not the way that we wish to live. The vulnerability of homes and houses to tzsorat is obvious to all.

In Jewish life, less is more.

 

Shabbat shalom

 

Rabbi Berel Wein