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Tazria

Leviticus 12:1-13:59

II Kings 4:42-5:19

Parashat Tazria, containing detailed and perplexing laws of ritual purity, may seem like an unlikely place to find a message about the place of humanity in the order of creation. But for some traditional commentators, if you look closely enough, this is precisely what our parashah wants to teach.

The commentators point out the peculiar transition between last week's parashah and the start of Tazria. Last week's parashah ended with a chapter devoted to a survey of clean and unclean animals, articulating which animals are kosher and which are not, and enumerating which animals convey ritual impurity to one who touches them. Our parashah then proceeds to discuss cases of impurity that arise from human life experience, such as childbirth and skin disease.

Rashi, the medieval French rabbinic scholar, wonders why the laws of animal impurity precede those of human impurity. Would it not have been more logical, more respectful to humanity — the pinnacle of creation — to teach the laws of human impurity first? Rashi quotes a classical midrash that answers the question: Just as the animals were created before humanity, so too the laws of animal impurity are enumerated before those of human impurity.

Another midrashic source explores whether or not humanity stands, as we so often think, at the forefront of creation. Reflecting on the verse in Psalms, "You have hedged me in me, behind me and in front of me" (Psalms 139:5), the midrash suggests that sometimes humanity stands before all of creation, and sometimes humanity is the lowliest of all the creatures. "When humanity acts with merit, it is said, 'You take precedence over all of creation.' If not, it is said, 'The mosquito came before you' [was created before you]" (Vayikra Rabbah 14).

One commentator even questions the view that elevates humanity above the other creatures. After all, it is obvious in Genesis that humanity was the last to be created, on the sixth day. By this literary logic, how could one ever say, "You take precedence over all of creation"? Strikingly, he is questioning what we consider so basic, humanity's primacy over the earth.

The commentary answers that yes, humanity is elevated above all of creation, but only to the extent that we act in such a way that God grows more beloved in the world. When we do not act in this way, we are last — as in the order of Genesis — the lowliest of creatures.

Another commentator asserts that the order of creation, as described in Genesis, was intentionally planned to teach us that our place in creation depends on how well we develop ourselves spiritually. To the extent that we live in accordance with primitive animal instincts, we cannot transcend the original order of creation.

Only if we grow beyond the animal within us, in which primitive rage and selfish instinct prevail, only to that extent do we elevate ourselves beyond our original place in creation. Yet if we live without spiritual refinement, without emotional and spiritual intelligence, then even a mosquito — the least of creatures — can rule over us and trip us up.

Our culture is completely convinced of our superiority over other species. Our capacities, and our hubris, far exceed what the ancients could have imagined in their wildest dreams. We fly through the air, we cure disease, we defy time in ever-expanding ways. But has our emotional intelligence kept pace? Have our spiritual capacities been refined?

It is not clear that we, as a culture, are more patient or less driven by instinct than are animals. It is not clear that we are consistently more compassionate with one another even than are animals in the wild. We are regularly driven by rage, competitiveness, hunger and need for turf. We do not consistently act in a way that brings honor to our Creator.

The question of our relationship with Creation is, of course, far more urgent than premodern rabbis could have imagined. The theology that asserts our superiority over our fellow creatures is more dangerous than ever before — mortally dangerous. We have the capacity to destroy God's creation. And we also have the capacity to truly elevate ourselves above creatures less richly endowed than we are. The choice is ours.