Today’s Scripture Reading
(November 4, 2018): Numbers 19
One of the important lessons to
be learned from the bomb scare in October 2018, in which explosive devices were mailed to two former Democratic
Presidents, current high ranking Democratic Party Leaders, and CNN, was how
quickly we could be tainted by the comments of
others. There is little doubt that the targets were tainted by comments made by the President of the United
States, Donald Trump. These were his enemies and shooter considered himself one
of Trump’s soldiers. He was doing the will of his leader. And while no one
would say that the President was guilty of the bombings, after all, this was a
deranged follower; but the President has
struggled with the idea that he too had been contaminated by the actions of the
bomber. This is not about fault and
guilt, which seemed to be the cause of
the President’s and his followers, reaction, but about the uncleanliness of the
situation. When we live with each other, we become contaminated by what happens
in this world, and with the people with whom we might have even just incidental
contact.
We sometimes struggle to
understand the cleanliness laws of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. In our culture,
we are continually reminded to contain disease with the frequent washing of our
hands. We understand that these unseen things called germs can have a
devastating effect on our lives if we do not do regular cleansings. We live in
a society that is quickly offended by the normal odors that our bodies produce,
and so we wash ourselves well to combat
those smells. But the Jewish cleanliness laws have nothing to do with any of
these concerns. The Jewish cleanliness laws had to do with the uncleanliness
that we naturally collect simply by living our lives. Touching a corpse was one
way in which someone in Israel could become unclean. And another way that they
could become unclean was through interaction with people who were unclean.
But we also need to understand
that being unclean was not necessarily sin. Sin could be a reason why we became
unclean, but simply being unclean did not mean that we were caught in sin. Jewish uncleanliness had nothing to do with
issues of blame, fault, or guilt. It was a recognition of how easily we become
contaminated by others.
And again, this is not about
issues of guilt and fault. But it can become an issue of sin if we refuse to
acknowledge the sources of our uncleanliness. According to the Law,
uncleanliness must be acknowledged and
the ritual to restore our cleanliness must be
followed. And if that happens, then that finishes the process. You are
unclean until sundown, and then you are restored to the community. But if you failed in that task, if you fail to
acknowledge how the actions of others might impact your life and even the way
that you are viewed, then your
uncleanliness becomes sin, and that sin must be
atoned for to be restored to the community.
Living is messy. And it is easy to become contaminated.
It happens to all of us. And this is something that we must own if we are going
to live in this messy world.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 20
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