Let There Be Light In Lawrence

By Samuel Nahmias

Parashas Tazria begins by telling us that after childbirth, if the baby is a boy, the mother is tamei (ritually impure) for 7 days; if the baby is a girl, the mother is tamei for 14 days. Why the disparity? Why give credence to those who say that the Torah is misogynistic and make it seem like having a baby girl is somehow worse than having a baby boy?

One of the nicer answers that I have heard, is based on Newton’s Third Law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Darkness is the absence of light. Tumah (ritual impurity) is the absence of taharah (ritual purity). Contrary to the argument that a baby girl is somehow less than a baby boy, the exact opposite is true. Because a baby girl has more taharah than a baby boy, that larger amount has been removed from the mother, leaving her tamei for a longer period. It therefore takes a longer period of time to get back to her state of taharah because of how much taharah she has lost. But then, once she gets past these initial days, she is tahor for twice as long for a girl (66 days) than for a boy (33 days)!

As I have written about in my previous pieces, the Village of Lawrence has for the last few years, been going through a state of darkness. But that is not a reason for us to despair. As the Chairman of the Nassau County Bridge Authority, who as I have discussed previously, made it a priority of mine to fix the lighting issues near the Atlantic Bridge, I can unequivocally state that there is a light at the end of our tunnel. Although things may seem dark now, that is only because of how much light we have lost. We know how great Lawrence was, and we know how great it can be. And it will be great again.

Thankfully, the issues we face are fixable, and require nothing more than a strong leader with a strong vision and team. Lawrence can easily go back to being an even happier and better place to live without the constant fighting that has dominated our lives the past few years. Instead of inter-community fighting, new leadership will be willing and able to work with our neighbors, such as the Village of Cedarhurst, to ensure that a unified Five Towns is the best possible place to live and raise our families. A new leadership with the proper vision can balance a budget and repair our fiscal deficits. A new leadership can fix the over-congestion that crowds our streets and the overdevelopment that has plagued our community. A new leader can restore our public places and recreational facilities. A new leader can ensure that the local county clubs are self-sufficient and not reliant on the taxpayer dollar. A new leader can resolve the issue of double-parking, resolve the issue of obtaining better lighting, and resolve the issue of our broken roads. These are problems, yes. These are annoyances, yes. But thankfully, they are not beyond repair. In my position on the Bridge Authority, I have seen that our problems can be fixed; we just have to have the will and leadership to fix them.

With the upcoming election, Lawrence’s days of darkness are coming to an end. We are about to enter a period of light, a light that is our inherent nature and right, and it will be twice as strong as before. The Gemara tells us that that “Where ba’alei teshuvah (penitents) stand, people who have never sinned cannot stand!” This is because people who have never sinned don’t know what they are missing. It is only the former sinner who knows what he has given up in order to live a life of purity.

In Lawrence, we know how good things can be. We unfortunately had to go through a period of darkness to remind us of that. Now that we have seen the type of Lawrence that we don’t want, we can elect new leaders to bring us back to the type of Lawrence that we do want. Our days of taharah are here. Let us seize our moment and make Lawrence great again.