By Yael Horowitz

So this week's parashot are about the separation of the pure and the impure. (Oh gee, so much to unpack already). First the parashat discusses women, how they must enter the mikvah after giving birth and after menstruation, and how males must be circumcised after 8 days. But what the main chunk of the parashat is talking about is this super-natural disease or plague (sometimes translated as leprosy) and what to do if this is contracted. The afflicted person must dwell outside the city limits until they are healed. Once they are healed they must be purified by the kohenim.

There are a few things I want to talk about in discussing the parashot:

Healing:

In talking about the separation between the pure and the impure we (as leftist feminists) often dismiss the idea of the cleansing mikvah. Menstruation is not impure #divacup and a woman should not need to be cleansed after it. Still there is something powerful in separating and designating for ourselves the healthy and the unhealthy. There are things in all of our lives that allow us to grow and other things that are toxic towards us. Consumerism, bad relationships, unnecessary competitive stress are just some of the toxic things we encounter almost daily. Challenges, an ideal to strive towards, and love are some of the good. By being able to distinguish and separate these things we are able to be cleansed and maybe able to take steps towards healing. This is a process to engage in individually and as a community.

How can we create these spaces for healing as a movement? As kvutzot? Are there more intentional and directive conversations we need to have?

Inclusion/Exclusion:

Clearly the kohenim implemented a pretty exclusive policy when it came to the people infected with whatever mystical disease was

going around at the time. #swineflu #swine-ohnine. What does it mean when we intentionally exclude people from our communities? We all participate in exclusionary practices either intentionally or not. Our machanot aren't as accessible as we would like them to be. Many of the institutions some of us attend are elite and founded on legacies of misogyny, racism and colonialism. How can we take ownership over these communities by minimizing exclusion? By being better than the kohenim and not waiting for a person to be fully healed. How can we do this in a way that is safe and healthy?

At the same time, the politics of inclusion are dangerous. When we include members of our movement are we homogenizing experience? Are we including people in order to place them lower down on a hierarchy? How are we including, from a place of pity or from a place of shivyon erech ha'adam and I-Thou (or even I-I) love? What would it mean if the kohenim included the "lepers" back into society without the proper resources to allow them to live full and healthy lives?

Healing and Inclusion are related. We are all on different paths of healing from many different toxins in our lives. How can we challenge and support each other to continue on these paths?