Spring finally seems to have arrived.
As we move to more outdoorsy activities and start making our summer plans, our lives begin to expand. The added hours of sunlight, the additional venues available to visit or simply the change of temperature and clothing. They all contribute to the way that spring literally springs us forward and outward. We discard the confined mentality of winter and explore the world around us.
The benefits of sunny spring and summer abound. Connecting with our neighbors, blooming flowers and a more cheerful attitude are just a few to which many people look forward.
I too await the exciting moments of spring. Family bike rides, backyard barbecues and hiking are all special moments that were missed during the human hibernation of winter.
But, there’s a part of me recognizing that the unbridled excitement can be dangerous.
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Last Shabbat we began an ancient practice of studying Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers). It is the one tractate in the Talmud that does not discuss Jewish law.
How can a tractate of Talmud be about anything other than Jewish law?! Isn’t that what Talmud is all about?
Let me clarify: Pirkei Avot is about ethics. In Judaism, ethics doesn’t mean respecting other people’s property, or saying the truth. That’s the law. Those things are mandatory and nonnegotiable. Ethics means going beyond the letter of the law. Which is why Pirkei Avot does not discuss Jewish law. It gives us instructions how to lead an ethical life, surpassing the actual across-the-board requirements of halacha (Jewish law).
During the spring and summer months we study a chapter of Pirkei Avot each Shabbat afternoon.
As explained by our online editors, “Summer is generally a time when people are more active, tend to vacation, and all too often relax their moral and religious standards. The chapter-a-week of Avot is meant to keep us spiritually strong and healthy, and prepared to face the moral challenges the summer months present."
In fact, it’s a lesson taught in this week’s Chapter 2. Rabbi Yossei teaches that the best trait a person can acquire is a good neighbor (and, conversely, a bad neighbor is the worst trait). A negative and unhealthy environment will often have a negative and unhealthy influence. A positive, healthy environment is a great recipe for stability and personal growth.
This week’s parsah, Tazria-Metzora, also teaches us the importance of our environment. When a person is recovering from tzaraat or other ritual impurity, one of the remedies is purification in a mikvah.
Why does the Torah require someone who has become impure to become ritually clean through a mikvah?
To achieve purity, the subject must completely immerse in the purifying waters of the mikvah. One of the explanations of mikvah is that the absolute submersion causes the person to be encompassed and subservient to the waters. Becoming totally consumed by and nullified to the sacred waters allows a person to reemerge as a pure entity.
In large part it is the act of being completely surrounded by holiness that imbues a new spirit of sanctity on the individual. By fully entering a holy environment, we can become changed people.
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Impurity is not who we are at the core. It is something that we absorb from the environment around us. To remove that impurity, we need not change from the inside-out. Rather, we simply need to immerse ourselves completely in a sacred space, from the outside-in. With the impure environment removed, our natural sense of holiness will return.
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A mikvah is not the only environment that lifts us up. In other ways, being around positive people makes us more positive. Surrounding ourselves with moral role models will bolster our own morality.
As spring surrounds us and summer approaches, let’s look to the Torah and Pirkei Avot for guidance. And, let’s make sure we have a great environment to create a holy world for G-d.