This week's Torah portion discusses the laws of Tzara'at (closest translation would be leprosy). Leprosy can afflict the skin, the clothes, or even the walls of one's house.
Like visiting a doctor to have a lesion, or any sort of virus examined, in the case of leprosy, or a possible indication of it, one must visit the kohein, the priest, who will examine the leprosy and rule whether it is pure or impure.
Why the Kohein? Why not a skin doctor, or a leprosy professional, maybe a Rabbi?
The answer is given, that the Kohein is known as an Ish Hachesed, a man of intrinsic kindness. When he is approached to analyze a man of leprosy, he will judge kindly and favorably.
This teaches us a powerful lesson, how we must look at another person. We may think that they are afflicted with some sort of spiritual disorder, but when we look with the eyes of a Kohein, the eyes of kindness, we might see that in truth they are pure and holy.
Even when there is a need to declare the person impure, which means that the person is in need of reproach or rebuke, it must be done in a respectful manner and with love, like a parent to a child.
Wishing you a Shabbat of love and peace,
Rabbi Chaim