Positive Commandment 112
Proclaiming the Impurity of a Metzorah
Leviticus 13:45 "His clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall grow long and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry; Impure, impure"
Do you like to play detective? Do you try to gather facts about people by their looks? Do their clothes provide a clue to their personalities?
Does their appearance give you information about them?
The Torah makes it easy for others to recognize a person considered to be impure.
In order to prevent the impurity from being transferred to another person, it is necessary that the impure person stand out so others will take notice and be careful.
A person who has become impure by Tzara'at is commanded to have a tear in his clothes, grow his hair long and let people know - by declaring himself impure.
Other types of impurities must also be made known to the public.
Hayom Yom
The Shpola Zeideh ("Grandfather of Shpola"), a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch, was a man of intense fervor, far more than any of his colleagues - the Maggid's other disciples. When he visited the Alter Rebbe in Liadi in 5569 or 5570 (1809 or 1810) he related that when he was a child of three he saw the Baal Shem Tov. "He placed his holy hand on my heart and ever since I have felt warm."
A gesture of a tzadik, certainly seeing him and hearing his voice, must make an impression never to be forgotten.
1 comment:
thats really cool that you mention the shpola zaidy, i have ancestors that used to live there in shpola, i could even be related to the shpola zaidy, because there was a very small population of jews there
Post a Comment