Tazria-Metzora
April 29, 2017 (Iyyar 3, 5777)
www.facebook.com/DorTikvah
@DorTikvah
Shabbat Times
Friday April 28
7:00 pm - Mincha
7:41pm - Candle Lighting
Saturday April 29
9:00 am - Shacharit
(9:56 am - Latest preferable time to say the shema)
10:00 am - Shabbat Morning Youth Groups
10:30 am - Youth Tefilla Begins
6:30 pm – Week Parsha Shiur
7:15 pm - Mincha
8:40 pm - Havdalah
Kiddush Sponsor:
Dor Tikvah Events
April 30 at 8:00 am - Breakfast Minyan at Dor Tikvah. Join us for
Minyan and breakfast.
May 2 at 6:00 pm - Yom HaAtzmaut Celebration at the
Arvivs/Dobkins - 2003/2007 Gammond Street.
May 5 - Carlebach Friday Night Service
May 7 at 9:30 am - Senior Social Society will meet in the Barnes
and Noble coffee shop.
May 9 - First Class in the Tuesday Night May Series - Getting to
the Foundation: "The Lonely Man of Faith" by Rabbi Soloveitchik,
7:30 pm at the Dor Tikvah House
May 13 - Dina Schager Bat Mitzvah
May 20 – Nadav Goldkin Bar Mitzvah & Shabbat Afternoon Tisch
May 30 - Erev Shavuot
May 31 - Shavuot Day 1
June 1 - Shavuot Day 2
Sima and Jon Sigman and Kirstin and Uri Kirshstein in
honor of Nathan's completing reading of the entire Torah.
Dor Tikvah Youth Programs
Upcoming Kiddush Sponsors:
Always stay updated about Congregation Dor Tikvah's youth programming
with
our
youth
page
on
the
Dor
Tikvah
website
https://www.dortikvah.org/youth.
May 6: Arlene and Peter Rosenthal in honor of the 50th
anniversary of Peter's Bar Mitzvah
May 13: Jennifer Schager in honor of Dina's Bat Mitzvah
May 20: Amy and Alan Goldkin in honor of Nadav's Bar
Mitzvah
*To schedule a Kiddush, contact Lenny Zucker.
Weekday Services
Next Monday and Wednesday Mincha/Maariv services at 6:15 pm.
The Monday evening service will be followed by
a special service for Yom HaAtzmaut.
Dor Tikvah Classes
(All classes at the Dor Tikvah House. Please park in the Shul
parking lot, not at the house.)
1. Lunchtime Talmud - Thursdays - 12:00 pm
2. Chaburah-Thursdays -8:00 pm on hold until further
notice.
3. Torah Study-Sundays -7:30 pm is off this week.
Refuah Shlemah
Shimon ben Shoshana (Sy
Ruthie Kaplan (Rivka bas Yehudit)
Stricker)
Mary Butler
Yechil Yeshiahu ben Fradel
Hodel bas Raozel (Linda Kirshstein)
Hakohen
Chaim ben Naomi Malka
Esta Rochel bat Chana Penina
Dovid Efrayim ben Yenta Liba
Haiki bat Maria
Hillel ben Chaya Breena)
Simcha bat Chana
Pam Rosen
Howard Snyder
Joyce Williams
Beryl Yaacov ben Sarah
Rosanne Stanford (Shoshana bat
Robert Levinson
Miriam)
Heidi Woody
Armond Ben Simcah
Betzalel Moshe Ben Ruth
Contact Charles Steinert at [email protected] for additions, etc.
Life Cycles


Birthdays: Charles Steinert (April 30); Jonathan Zucker (May
5); Aaron Manaker (May 5); Bernard Jay Novit (May 6)
Yahrzeits:
o
Julius Moses Katzen, Father of Marvin Katzen (April
29)
o
Isaac Solomon Oberman, Grandfather of Marvin
Katzen (April 30)
o
Andrew David Arenson, Father of Kirstin Gros
Kirshstein and Grandfather of Henri Gros (May 4)
Supporters of Congregation Dor Tikvah
We acknowledge contributions given:
In Memory of:
Jerry Zucker, by Laura and Jonathan Zucker
Phyllis Hyman, by the Terry and Walter Solomon Family Fund
In Honor of:
Sandy and Gerry Katz for all of your special greetings at every new Yom
Tov and Season, by Arlene and Peter Rosenthal
Building Fund: Esther and David Beckmann
Other: Mathew Engel
We appreciate all contributions - those of $10 or more will be acknowledged here. To
support Congregation Dor Tikvah, please make contributions on our website,
www.DorTikvah.org or send checks payable to Congregation Dor Tikvah | PO Box
80301 | Charleston, SC 29416
Condolences
On behalf of Congregation Dor Tikvah, we extend our deepest condolences
to Rabbi Michael, Ora, Yehoshua, Chana, Shmuel, and Moshe Davies on the
passing of Rabbi Davies' grandmother, the children's great-grandmother,
Rose Davies. We pray that the entire Davies family be comforted among
the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Diagnosing Tzoraas
By Rabbi Yaacov Haber
In this week’s parsha we learn about the diagnosis and treatment of “tzoraas” (a leprous disease, which one would
suffer because of some moral failing) by a kohen. The kohen might observe a whitish sore on the person’s skin, and, if
he diagnosed it as “tzoraas”, he would declare the person “tamei” (inadequately translated as “unclean” or “impure").
In general, the whiter the sore, and the larger the area it covered, the more “tamei” the person would be; but—and here
is a remarkable thing—once the sore covered the whole body, the person became “tahor” ("clean", “pure") again!
(Lev. 13:13)
How can we explain this? The Gemara (Sanhedrin 97.) quotes R’ Yitzchak as saying that the Messiah will not come
until all the governments of the world will have become heretical. His pupil Rabba says: Where did he learn this from?
From the above verse. (meaning: everything will be bad before good can come.)
Well, that was not much of an explanation of our original puzzle! If anything, it made it more puzzling.
I cannot claim to give a complete explanation, since the laws of purity and impurity are difficult to understand, but
perhaps we can give some clue to the situation.
There is a story in the Gemara (Avoda Zara 17.) about a certain Eliezer ben Durdaya, who visited every house of sin
that he could. One day he heard of a prostitute who lived overseas, and was very expensive. He collected the money,
and sailed “across seven seas” to visit her. While they were together, she suddenly started to berate him about his
lifestyle, saying “Eliezer ben Durdaya, there is no hope of forgiveness for you!” (Many questions arise here: What
moved her to admonish him thus? How could she know that there was no hope of forgiveness for him? And who was
she to talk? But let us leave these questions aside for now.)
Eliezer, hearing this from her, fled to the countryside. He said to the mountains and valleys: “Pray for mercy for me!”
But they responded: “We cannot, we are busy praying for mercy for ourselves.” He made the same request of the sun
and moon, and the stars, but they gave the same answer. Finally he exclaimed: “I see that my salvation depends on no
one but me!” He lowered his head between his knees screamed out with cries of anguish and died. At that moment, a
heavenly voice said: “Rabbi Eliezer ben Durdaya, there is a place for you in the world to come.”
What can we make of this story? The best way to approach G-d is through years of hard work, improving oneself. But
in some cases, teshuva (penitence) can come quickly (although never easily). Eliezer ben Durdaya only rose to teshuva
after he had fallen as low as he could. We must be careful here—this does not mean that someone can deliberately sin,
with the idea of doing teshuva afterwards! (The Rambam speaks explicitly against this.)
If Eliezer ben Durdaya had deliberately sinned with such an idea in mind, his teshuva would never have been
accepted. But sometimes it can happen that someone who is steeped in sin becomes so disgusted with himself that he
reacts against his behavior, and finds the energy to lift himself up to a more virtuous life. The very lowliness of his
situation serves somehow as the inspiration to drastically better himself.
In Koheles (7;20) it says: “There is no tzaddik who has only done good and never sinned.” The Gra comments: Why
does it include the phrase “has done only good”? Why not just say: “There is no tzaddik who has never sinned?” The
reason, says the Gra, is that it means that every tzaddik has done at least some good as a result of some sin.
This, I suggest, is the explanation for the puzzle we started with. The spread of the leprous sore reflects the spread of
sin in the soul of the sufferer. When it reaches a certain point, with the sore covering the whole body, the soul reacts to
its sinful state, rises to teshuva, and the person is pure again. The Torah tells us that a tzaddik must fall seven times,
and then he may rise (Proverbs 24:16). Sometimes it is possible that the path upwards entails some falling. The fall is
one step closer in the direction upward.