Tazria- 5772 April 28, 2012 A Taste of Stories For The Soul Get Real The 3-String Violin By Mordechai Fleisher (13:58) preempts the question by It was November 1995 and Itzhak stating that when the Torah demands Perlman, the violinist, came on stage Ritual. A term usually associated with a second “laundering”, it actually refers to give a concert in . religion, it indicates a set, prescribed to immersion in a mikvah. So although Stricken with polio as a child, he has way by which something is done. There the Torah uses the same Hebrew term braces on both legs and walks with is another word that conveys a similar – kevisah – which normally means the aid of two crutches. To see him idea: directions. Yet one seldom uses laundering – both times, the latter walk across the stage one step at a the term direction in conjunction with does not refer to a process of physical time, painfully and slowly, is a sight. religion; directions are usually associated cleansing of the garment, but rather That evening, just as he finished with arts-and-crafts projects, cake mixes, to a spiritual cleansing process usually the first few bars, one of violin strings and pre-GPS journeys. What is the referred to as tevilah (immersion). broke. You could hear it snap - it went difference in the usage of the two terms? Which raises another difficulty. If off like gunfire across the room. The I believe that ritual conjures up the idea the Torah meant to say tevilah, then say crowd knew he’d have to make the that there is no good reason to follow the tevilah! Why use the misleading term painful trek off stage to find another prescribed steps other than the fact that kevisah which usually refers to physical string, or another violin. “that’s how it’s done.” “Directions”, on laundering? But he didn’t. He signaled the the other hand, are necessary to ensure Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895-1986) conductor to begin again. And success. Failure to follow “directions” is explains that the Torah deliberately used he played with such passion and to court disaster; it can mean an upside- the same term both times to debunk power and purity as they had never down model airplane, a flopped cake, the notion of ritual. Just as kevisah, or the need to stop at the nearest gas laundering, is necessary to cleanse the heard before.Everyone knows it is station to extricate oneself from the garment, tevilah is also required to impossible to play a symphonic work state of being lost. cleanse the garment. And although with just three strings. But that night So it may come as a surprise, then, the garment may appear to be perfectly Itzhak Perlman refused to know that the mitzvos of the Torah, if we are clean after the initial laundering, its that. You could see him modulating, to follow the aforementioned criteria, state of spiritual defilement leaves it as changing, recomposing the piece in fit far more neatly into the category of unclean as it was before the physical his head. “directions” than “ritual”. Take tzara’as stain was removed. When he finished, there was an (commonly translated as leprosy, Mitzvos are not ritual. And the awesome silence. And then people although it is a spiritual malady that details involved in their performance rose and cheered. He smiled and said, manifests itself similarly to that dreaded are not there “because that’s how it’s not boastfully, but in a pensive tone, ailment), for example. The Torah tells done”. They are directions. When a “Sometimes. it is the artist’s task to us that it is possible for a garment to is performed, there is a very real find out how much music you can be afflicted with tzara’as. Under certain effect on the universe. Spiritual, to be still make with what you have left.” circumstances, the Torah requires that sure, but an effect that has tremendous After giving birth, a woman brings the garment be laundered to remove ramifications for the physical well-being a purification offering to the Temple. the affliction. If the affliction does of the world. And in order for that The offering consists of a and not return, the garment is free from effect to occur, the directions must be a dove. The Torah says that if she any issues, and must be laundered a followed. Or the mitzvah will flop just cannot afford a sheep then she brings second time. Why the need for the like that cake you tossed in the garbage two doves. We see a simple idea that second laundering, you ask? last . a person should never give up, but should make do with what he has. Adapted with permission from ShulWeek, by Rabbi Baruch Lederman.

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