Parashat Metzora

In this week’s bizarre Torah portion of מְּצֹרָ֔ע, Metzora, we read of the rituals surrounding one who contracts leprosy and how the afflicted, through the intervention of the priests, can eventually transform back to a state of ritual purity. Our rabbinic tradition invokes a word play on the term מְּצֹרָ֔ע to suggest that the illness was due to the sin of lashon hara — or evil speech. In opposition to the phrase, “sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me,” the teaching is clear; words are important! By inference, if “evil speech” is prohibited, it stands to reason that “good speech” is encouraged. Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, of blessed memory, suggests we can find a model of what he refers to as focused praise in Mishna Avoth 2:11. 

In this well-known text, Yochanan ben Zakkai (who we introduce to our students as the founder of the “rabbinic revolution”) praises his students by describing their unique gifts. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus is described as “a plastered well that never loses a drop,” suggesting that he was gifted with superb memorization capabilities. Shimon ben Netanel is referred to as the “man who fears sin,” pointing to the reverential and spiritual nature of his learning, and a third student, Elazar ben Arach, is likened to an “ever-flowing spring,” indicating that he had a creative mind constantly giving rise to new interpretations of ancient texts.

As I was at school this past Sunday proctoring an ACT exam (and feeling badly for these students undergoing multiple hours of standardized testing, which we never had in Canada), I was thinking about how unnerving it must be for students to prepare for, and take these exams, which clearly only represent a thin slice of who they are as walking, talking, caring, loving human beings. Furthermore, the tests likely only tap in to one level of their intellect. 

Similar to Yochanan ben Zakkai, Howard Gardner, a Harvard professor, outlined a multiple intelligence theory in 1983 in a book called Frames of Mind. Gardner suggested that there are eight types of intelligences, which I would add, we can recognize in all our students — outside of a test center. 

Our students have immense skill sets: some excel at visual-spatial intelligence (they are experts in interpreting graphs, maps, and videos); some excel in linguistic-verbal intelligence (they are great readers and storytellers); some consider themselves logical-mathematical thinkers and can grapple with calculus and geometry. Others embrace bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical aptitudes, interpersonal wisdom, intrapersonal awareness, and even naturalistic intelligences (those who understand nature and the environment). 

Both Gardner, a twenty-first century Jew, and Yochanan ben Zakkai, a first-century Jew, offer us the opportunity as an academic institution to recognize the beauty and diversity of intelligence and use our words wisely to recognize the amazing nature of us all being created in the image of God. 

I know that our team is dedicated, through words of focused praise, to recognizing and accentuating the amazing gifts of all of our stakeholders: our colleagues, our lay leaders, our students, and all in our community. 

Shabbat Shalom.