The too hard basket – Tazria
“He shall dwell alone: outside the camp shall his habitation be” (Lev. 13:46).
The leper sent outside of the camp, by Gustave Dore
We understand why the community had to be protected from contagion when a person had a loathsome disease.
By extension, even today we tend to want to isolate ourselves from anyone and anything that might be problematic.
When Rav Kook saw that some groups wanted to separate themselves from the irreligious, he said they were being idolatrous.
He would have preferred people not to flee for fear of being contaminated but to remain amongst ordinary people despite their lack of religiosity, and to “contaminate” them with their own faith and belief.
