Voices of WRJ: Parashat M'tzora

by Alexis Rothschild Parashat M’tzora (Restoring Ritual Purity) completes the laws of purity presented in the last week’s parashah. For many women, this portion presents some troubling issues of ritual purity, but upon close examination, one realizes that these laws may have helped women and children to live healthier lives at a time when disease spread rapidly, life expectancy was short, and infant mortality was commonplace. Tzarat, scale disease, or perhaps what we now call psoriasis, is not leprosy, but rather is presented as a skin rash. We know that many diseases are transmitted through close contact. This parashah requires that a person who has a skin rash stay outside the camp to eliminate the spread of disease to the rest of the tribe. Today, we ask parents to keep sick children home from school to prevent infecting other children in their class. What is more challenging for us as modern, liberal women is the issue of discharges of a sexual nature. We must remember that sex is a theme that begins in Genesis with the instruction to “be fruitful and multiply.” It is considered a mitzvah to have marital relations on Shabbat. We do not have a tradition of life-long celibacy. However, cleanliness and purity are recurring themes in the Torah. This parashah spends a lot of time on how women should deal with their menstrual discharge, suggesting that women are in a weakened state. Today, we know that menstruation is just part of woman’s natural life cycle and, in some communities, a girl’s first period is celebrated as a step along her growth into womanhood. Despite the discomfort some of us may feel about the tone and instructions in Parashat M’tzora, we can view it as a challenge to women to find our voices in Torah and make Torah relevant to us today. As Rabbi Elyse Goldstein said in the Women’s Commentary, “We can also consider a connection between menstruation and covenant.” WRJ has been a leader in women’s rights, especially on the issues of Human Trafficking of Sex Trade Workers in North America and the protection of women’s reproductive rights and health. My own sisterhood, together with other Canadian sisterhoods, was instrumental in the passage of Canadian Parliamentary Bill C-268 in 2008, which provides mandatory minimum sentencing for offences against minors who were victims of human trafficking in Canada. Since 1935, WRJ (formerly NFTS) has been fighting for women’s reproductive and health rights. In the United States, our sisterhoods continue the battle with protests and resolutions. We have been at the forefront of protecting Planned Parenthood’s mandate to help women receive appropriate and adequate health and reproductive care. As with many parashot in the Torah, it is sometimes difficult to understand the intent when reading the portion through a modern lens. We succeed when we can find a thread, such as maintaining health and healthy relationships, and weave a new fabric of understanding for our modern age. Alexis Rothschild is a WRJ Board member, URJ Camp Kalsman Commission member, and Immediate Past President of the Sisterhood of Temple Sholom, Vancouver, B.C., Canada. She has been married to Shawn Gold for almost 35 years and have two daughters, Annette Kozicki, who also serves on the Sisterhood of Temple Sholom board, and Rebecca.