O pinion
For #Metoo Transgressors,
the Only Cure is Banishment
Impure!” as they walk.

The rabbis
suggest that tzaraat is not simply a
random occurrence. Instead
they cast it as a punishment,
most famously associating
tzaraat with “lashon hara,”
cruel speech, but the Talmud
in Arakhin offers seven sins
that would cause a person to
be afflicted with tzaraat: “For
malicious speech, for blood-
shed, for an oath taken in vain,
for forbidden sexual relations,
for arrogance, for theft and for
stinginess.” Today we know to avoid
framing illness or bodily
differences as signs of moral
degradation. But the commands
given to the metzora can be
understood in another way:
not as a response to a bodily
condition, but as a model for
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Exponent Should Verify Letters
I’M CATCHING UP on the last few issues of the Exponent
and just read a letter from Stephen A. Shalet (“Co-author’s
Anti-Semitism Should Have Been Acknowledged,” April 1). The
writer complains that a book review written by Exponent Staff
Writer Jesse Bernstein and published in your March 18 issue
neglected to mention that one of the authors of the book under
review was a virulent anti-Semite.

This is a matter in dispute that has been denied by the author
himself, and I don’t cite his name here because I do not want to
perpetuate an allegation that I am not able to verify.

I understand that you disassociate yourselves from the
comments expressed in the letters to the editor that you publish.

Mostly, that’s fine. But when a letter specifically charges an
individual with being an enemy of the Jews and also accuses a
staff writer from your paper with neglect, then, at the very least,
I hope you would solicit a response from your staff writer to
publish alongside the letter.

And, ideally, since the reputation of the co-author of the book
is also being seriously attacked, he, too, should be given the
opportunity to respond. Publishing an ad hominem attack on
anyone without giving them the opportunity to respond is not
best practice.

major academic positions.

Hundreds of Jewish leaders,
rabbis and rabbinical students
have pushed back against these
recent gatherings in public
letters, arguing that Cohen had
not demonstrated the kind of
repentance necessary for such
acts of public rehabilitation.

“As Jewish clergy,” reads a
letter signed by more than 500
rabbis and cantors, “we know
BY AVIGAYIL HALPERN
that actively participating in
the rehabilitation of unrepen-
IN THE YEARS following the
tant abusers is not value neutral,
reckonings with sexual harass-
and we know that lifting up the
ment and assault prompted by
work of unrepentant abusers is
the #MeToo movement, there
not value neutral.”
has been debate over the correct
I was involved in drafting a
communal response to those
similar letter from rabbinical
accused of sexual misconduct
Neil Litt | Princeton, New Jersey
and cantorial students.

and whether perpetrators
In social media conversa-
should be pushed to the edges
tions and elsewhere, this has Give Murrow His Due
of a community.

raised conversations about how
In your article about Sen. Joe McCarthy (“Series Examines
Today we know to avoid framing illness or bodily differences as signs of Legacy of Sen. Joe McCarthy,” April 8), Staff Writer Sophie
Panzer omitted a reference to the extremely important broadcast
moral degradation. But the commands given to the metzora can be un-
on May 17, 1954 (three weeks before the appearance of Joseph
derstood in another way: not as a response to a bodily condition, but as a Welsh at the Army-McCarthy hearings) of Edward R. Murrow
on his CBS program “See It Now.”
model for repairing the damage caused by misdeeds.

It was courageous and risky at the time, but Murrow devoted
much of his program to the abuses McCarthy was committing.

Questions of sin, quaran- repairing the damage caused by far might be too far in socially Probably more people watched that program than Welsh’s
tine and repentance are central misdeeds.

sanctioning those who have appearance, which was during the day. Murrow’s denuncia-
to last week’s Torah portion,
The debate over how to committed sexual harassment tion was the very beginning of McCarthy’s ultimate downfall.

Tazria-Metzora, prompted repair such damage was and assault. Is it really fair to Murrow at the time was probably all of broadcasting’s most
by the rules surrounding the reignited in recent weeks push someone fully “out of the prestigious and respected journalist.

metzora, a person afflicted with when it came to light that camp”?
Ron Kaiserman | Wynnewood
tzaraat. Sometimes translated Jewish studies scholars and
When the Talmud in
as “leprosy,” tzaraat is a skin community leaders had been Arakhin goes through its list
PA Must Step Up If They Want Vaccine
disease that, per the descrip- participating in closed-door, of sins that cause tzaraat in
tion, can also affect houses and invitation-only conversations more depth, the prooftext it My response to the author of “Israel Should Help All Palestinians
clothing. After an inspection convened by a group that offers for sexual misbehavior Get Vaccinated — Obligated or Not,” (April 18), Matan
by a priest, a person who is included Steven M. Cohen, a comes from Genesis, citing the Arad-Neeman, a past president of J Street’s national board, is
found to have tzaraat must prominent Jewish sociologist episode when Pharaoh kidnaps this: When the Palestinian Authority recognizes that Israel is
tear their clothes and leave the accused of making both verbal Abraham’s wife, Sarah, and is on the map to stay, stops rewarding Arab terrorists by paying
camp until they are found to and physical advances on punished by God with “great families of these terrorists, stops teaching their school children
be pure by a second inspection, junior women colleagues and afflictions.” The Hebrew word that it is their destiny to destroy Israel and murder Jews and stops
and they must cry out “Impure! subsequently resigned from his for afflictions is “negaim,” the glorifying these terrorists by naming sports facilities and streets
after them, then Israel should do all it can to work in partnership
See Halpern, Page 27 with the Palestinian Authority to vaccinate every Palestinian.

Furthermore, Arad-Neeman has it backward. Israel is not
occupying so-called Palestinian land. The so-called Palestinians
STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
are living in Jewish land. So says our Holy Torah. l
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and letters to the editor published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They
do not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing Group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Exponent. Send
letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to 215-569-3389. Letters should be a maximum of 200 words and may be edited for clarity and brevity.

Unsigned letters will not be published.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM JEWISH EXPONENT
Zachary Margolies | Philadelphia
APRIL 22, 2021
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