The Torah portion of Tazria discusses the laws of tzaraat, an unusual illness, iden- tified by a white patch appearing on the skin of a person, that was symptomatic of a pro- found emotional and spiritual blemish within this individual. This, plus several secondary symptoms, determined the person as being temporarily "impure" and required him or her to separate from the community and under- go an intense program of introspection and healing.
The Torah states that only a Kohen (a priest), a descendent of Aaron, the High Priest of the tribe of Levi, was authorized to diagnose a tzaraat-leprosy and pronounce the malady as such. Even in a case where all the symptoms of the illness are clearly present, and a multitude of scholars recog- nize it as tzaraat, the person cannot be diag- nosed as possessing this malady unless a Kohen states so explicitly.
The ramifications of this Biblical law are far-reaching. For example, even if the only Kohen present is a child, so that he is unable to examine the person in question, a trust- worthy scholar needs to report his findings to the Kohen, and it is only the Kohen who may pronounce the white-patched person as im- pure. Even if the only Kohen around is an imbecile (“shoteh”), lacking the knowledge and understanding required to give a diag- nosis, it is only he who is entitled to make the verbal pronouncement under the instruction and guidance of an adult scholar.
Why was the Kohen so indispensable to this process? Shouldn't the scholar, who is intricately familiar with the symptoms of this malady, be trusted more than a child-Kohen who can do nothing more than utter a diag- nosis determined by someone else? What is needed here is an expert in these illnesses and symptoms, not a priest!
CONDUITS OF BLESSING
More than three millennia ago, the Ko- hanim were charged with the mission of blessing the Jewish people.
The Kabbalah explains that the Kohanim were designated to be the conduits for Divine blessings because their souls evolve from the celestial chamber of love, granting them a unique ability to cultivate compassion and kindness toward others, and hence, making them uniquely suitable conduits for G-d's love and grace.
The Zohar, the basic text of the Kab- balah, explains that this is why, traditionally, an unmarried Kohen could not serve as an agent of the Jewish people performing the services in the Holy Temple (Beit Hamik- dash) in Jerusalem.
In order for the Kohen to be worthy of this extraordinary position, he had to ful- ly develop his innate capacity for love and selflessness, and it is only through marriage, in which one learns to share one's life with another human being, that a person is chal- lenged to bring out their full potential for car- ing and affection.
Ultimately, when you are unmarried, you need not answer but to yourself, which is why so many people today opt for the sin- gle life. It is only in the institution of marriage that you are consistently called upon to take another person and their needs and feelings seriously. For a marriage to work and blos- som, you can't be selfish. That is why it was only the married Kohen who was charged with the responsibility of serving G-d in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
RABBI YY JACOBSON
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