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Thursday, April 7, 2022

Metzora: Leprosy, Exile, and the Final Redemption

by Rav Shimon Cohen, yeshiva.co, translated by Hillel Fendel

Two birds (Credit: McGill Library/Unsplash)

This week's Torah portion of Metzora is often read publicly together with its sister portion, Tazria, and both deal with issues of impurity: tzaraat, leprosy of the body, clothing, and home, as well as the purification process after such curses are visited upon us.

Let us discuss the connection between tzaraat and the Land of Israel. The relevant passage in Metzora dealing with tzaraat of a house – the last type of leprosy discussed in the Torah – begins as follows: "When you come to the [Land] that I give you as an inheritance, it can happen that I will place a leprous curse in a house in your Land of Inheritance" (Vayikra 14,34). 

On this verse, the Midrash HaGadol states something rather enigmatic: "After the Torah states that tzaraat applies after we arrive in the Land of Israel, the next issue to be mentioned should have been leprosy of the body (and not of the home) – but in fact, 'there is no first and last in the Torah,' meaning that the Torah is not written chronologically." 

What the Midrash means is that really the Torah should have begun its discussion of tzaraat with houses, and not with physical tzaraat, because the Sages teach the order as follows: "At first, a person is stricken with leprosy of the house, and if he repents, fine - but if not, he is hit with leprosy in his clothing, etc." 

In addition, why does the Torah mention "the Land of your inheritance" only here, in the middle of the discussion on leprosy? After all, our presence in the Land of Israel is a basic condition for the appearance of impure leprosy of all types. In the Land we must enter quarantine when leprosy strikes us – but outside the Land, we are as if in quarantine in any event! We are as if expelled from all three camps [the Sanctuary, the Priests/Levites, and the Camp of Israel], and Jewish society in general is separate, divided, and dispersed. Only when the Israelite nation is in its Land does it live the complete and normal life of a nation, life of cohesion and togetherness, life in which the special soul-point that unites the Jewish Nation is so potent and strong and inherent that any harm it suffers is immediately revealed in the walls of our houses, demanding instantaneous rectification.

Yet, despite all the above, the discussion on leprosy of the home is left for last. There truly is "no first and last in the Torah." And why is this? Because, as our Sages teach, "the Torah taught us about tzaraat in the desert [on our way into the Land], where we did not yet have houses at all! G-d is saying: 'You have no houses here, so I begin with physical leprosy; but after you enter the Land, I will begin with 'your homes.'"

As such, only when we are in our Land, living together in harmony with each other and with closeness to the Master of the Universe, does G-d then increase His supervision over us, and we are tested and measured more completely and all-encompassingly. When the Nation of Israel adheres completely to G-d, there can be no sin. This would truly have been the point that opened the Torah's entire discussion on tzaraat – had the Torah not been given in the desert.

More From Parashat Metzora:

The Foundations of Building the Jewish Nation

Leprosy appears in individual people, but in actuality, the very source of tzaraat is the concept of the integrity and wholeness of the entire nation. Rabbeinu Ephraim, one of the Baalei HaTosafot, says that the entire passage of leprosy of the home is a series of allusions to the first two Holy Temples, as follows: 

Verse 35:

The owner of the house, G-d Himself

shall come and tell the priest, the Prophet Yirmiyahu

that something like a plague 'has appeared on my house' – idol-worship.

Verse 36:

The priest, Yirmiyahu

shall order the house cleared of idol-worship

before the priest, G-d [the word for "priest," Cohen, is equal in gematriya to "judge," dayan]

enters to examine the plague, to decide the law as to whether the entire house and everything in it must be rendered impure – because idol-worship defiles everything in the home. 

And after Yirmiyahu has reproved them unsuccessfully, the Cohen will come – G-d will sit in judgement against them.

Verse 37:

….  [If] the plague [is found to be] in the walls of the house, penetrating streaks of green or red – these are the colors of forms of idol-worship. The plague of tzaraat alludes to idol-worship, and its presence on the walls of a house alludes to elements of idol-worship found within the Holy Temple, Heaven forbid. 

Verse 38:

The priest shall come out of the house, an allusion to the ten treks made by the Holy Presence in a form of Exile

to the entrance of the house, and close up the house for seven days – seventy years of Babylonian Exile.

Verse 39:

On the seventh day the priest shall return. If he sees that the plague has spread on the walls of the house – If G-d sees that Israel has sinned even more, then - 

Verse 40:

The priest shall order the stones with the plague in them to be pulled out and cast outside the city into an impure place – G-d will order the Holy Temple to be burnt and its sanctuary destroyed. The days of quarantine allude to the years of exile, and the removal of the stones refers to the destruction of G-d's House.

Verse 41: He shall then have the house scraped off inside all around, and the dirt that is scraped off shall be dumped outside the city in an impure place – The holy utensils of the Temple [see Job 28,6] shall be taken to Babylon. And then: 

Verse 42:

They shall take other stones – large ones, after 70 years - and replace those stones with them, and take other coating and plaster the house. They shall construct the Second Temple. 

Verses 43-44:

If the plague again breaks out in the house – then the Second Temple will be destroyed as well … this is a malignant [mam'ir], impure leprous mark, as is written (Malachi 3,9), "You will be cursed with a curse [me'erah]."

Verse 46:

Whoever comes to the house during its period of quarantine, is impure until the evening. Whoever goes to the Holy Land during the difficult period of our subjugation to the Babylonians is in violation of the verse, "They will be brought to Bavel and there they will be, until I redeem them" (Yirmiyahu 27,22). This is in accordance with the view of Rav Yehuda in Tractate Ketuvot; he was the founder of the great Yeshiva in Pumbedita, and forbade his students to leave Bavel and go to the Land of Israel – because Bavel had become a very strong Torah center, and he felt that whoever left Bavel would be weakening Torah study. Similarly, we find that one who enters a defiled, leprous house violates a Torah commandment and becomes himself impure. 

Verse 48: If the Cohen surely returns – as is written, "If he tarries, await him, for he will certainly come" (Habakuk 2,3) –

and sees that the leprous mark has not spread, as is written, "I will remove all your stains" (Yeshayahu 1,25),

he shall declare the house purified; see Yechezkel 43,20.

Verse 49-50:

To purge the house, he shall take two birds, as is written: "I will rescue you, one from a city and two from a family" (Yirmiyahu 3,14). Another possible interpretation is "two Mashiahs," one Ben Yosef [who will redeem Israel physically and materially] and one Ben David [who will redeem Israel spiritually and absolutely, and will rule over Israel].

and cedar wood, crimson stuff, and hyssop – Torah scholars, the House of Jacob, and the simpletons -

and he shall slaughter the one bird – Mashiah ben Yosef -

over fresh water in an earthen vessel.

Verse 51:

He shall take the cedar wood with which G-d will ingather the exiles of Israel and the remaining remnants,

and he shall dip them in the blood… - as is written, "I will sprinkle pure waters over you" (Yechezkel 36,25)

Verse 53:

He shall send the live bird outside the city, over the fields. This is the Mashiah ben David; G-d will send him first to Zion, which is called a "field" (Micha 3,12).  Tzipor chai, live bird, is 358 in Hebrew numerology (gematriya), just like the word Mashiach.

This amazing drashah by Rabbeinu Ephraim, which sounds just like a Midrash from Tannaitic Time, teaches us the real message of this passage of leprosy. It is truly wondrous that he takes Parashat Metzora, of all Torah passages, and finds that it contains all the elements of the build-up of our nation. Why did he choose this portion above all others? 

It appears to me that the basis of Rabbeinu Ephraim's treatise is that which we said: The concepts of tzaraat appear after the Divine Presence has entered the Sanctuary, the Holy Land – because the laws of tzaraat teach us the fundamentals that are destined to buttress the House of G-d and make sure it stands strong.

A few centuries later, the famous Rabbe Elimelekh of Lizensk wrote something similar in his commentary to Parashat Metzora. Connecting the laws of tzaraat to the Temples of Israel and the Redemption, he likened the two birds of the leper's atonement to the two types of sins that brought about the destruction of the two Holy Temples. The sins that led to the destruction of the First Temple were idol worship, sexual sins, and murder, while the Second Temple was destroyed because of the sin of hatred between Jews. The first sins are those of a young, strong hothead; he repents of his sins when his strength begins to wane, but still sins with hatred and discord – until the Cohen, or the righteous person of his generation, comes with "two birds" and teaches him to repent of both types of sins that otherwise would lead to the exile of the Divine Presence. 

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