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This week we read what is famously the very worst Torah portion to get for your bar or bat mitzvah. It is a double-portion known as Tazria-M'tzora, both of which deal with some sort of horrible, contagious illness. The portions explain both the details of the sickness itself and the various ways in which it needs to be treated and contained, and they are really not terribly fun. We have always had a special fondness for students who end up with this portion, not only because they’re in this unique club (who else got the leprosy portion?!) but because they have to work particularly hard to find personal meaning in a Torah portion that seems so incredibly irrelevant. It’s not easy, but it’s a wonderful, powerful challenge for anyone, especially a 13 year old.

And then there was this year. As we studied with Samantha for her bat mitzvah, which, like so many others this spring, will be rescheduled for a later date, the focus changed drastically over time. In our early meetings, we talked at length about what different rabbinic commentators had written about the disease, about different ways to interpret it metaphorically, and in her case, since her older sister had the exact same Torah portion a couple years ago (of all the mazel!) we had a great deal to work with. Yet in the weeks when the threat of COVID-19 started to become more apparent, it was clear that this year, this portion would really mean something.

We will share more about this parasha at services on Friday night, but it’s worth noting that during most years, Tazria and M'tzora are two different Torah portions. That means two students dealing with this difficult topic rather than one, two weeks coming up with sermons and study topics about disease and despair. However, this year, which is not a leap year on the Jewish calendar, we combine the two. And there is a comfort in reading them together, and not just because we only have to spend one week studying it. The first portion, Tazria, describes the disease itself; what it does to your system, how the outbreak happens. We read anxiously the conditions of the person who has fallen ill, the way they must isolate themselves, the hardships it brings. The second portion, though, is what happens when the person is healed. It explains the ways in which we welcome them back into the community, the ways we treat them and help them feel back at home. There is a hopefulness in being able to read these portions together, remembering that bad news will be followed by good, that there is a return to normalcy.

Each day we are all reading the news anxiously, wondering when the end will be in sight, when we’ll hear news about testing, about cures, about vaccines. And while the future is still uncertain, we find, perhaps for the first time ever, some comfort and hope in reading Tazria-M'tzora; remembering that even our ancestors faced plagues and sickness, and that they were able to find their way to a place of healing and normalcy once again. We pray that we, too, will find this time shortened, that healing will quickly follow sickness. And, we long for the days when once again, we’ll be able to joke with b’nai mitzvah students about the absolute irrelevance of this portion. This year, it’s just too real.