Our guest this week is Rabbi Joshua Aaronson, Senior Rabbi of Temple Judea in Tarzana, California. Rabbi Aaronson attended the University of Michigan and was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, where he also received his Doctor of Divinity. Prior to coming to California, he served as the Associate Rabbi at Temple Beth Zion of Buffalo and Fairmount Temple of Cleveland, as the acting Senior Rabbi of Fairmount Temple and as the Rabbi of Temple David in Perth, Australia. Rabbi Aaronson has served on numerous boards and civic organizations including the People's Health Clinic, the Summit County Sheriff's advisory board and the Westminster College Hillel Advisory Board. He is also a rabbinic fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
This week’s double parashah – Parashat Tazria-Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33) – features rules concerning the purity and impurity of women and the horrible disease of leprosy. Our discussion focuses on the problematic idea of blaming diseases like leprosy on spiritual sickness and it tries to see what we can still learn from the Torah’s attitude toward the matter.
