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From:          "Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To:            yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject:       INTPARSHA -28: Parashat [Tazria-] Metzora


                   YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
      ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
*********************************************************

            INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA
                           

                 Parashat Tazria-Metzora
                           
                    By Rav Ezra Bick
                           
     Almost the entirety of this double-parsha is
devoted to laws of tum'a and tahara - ritual impurity and
purity. There really is no English equivalent for these
terms, since the very concepts of tum'a and tahara are
not present in western life, so I will continue to use
the Hebrew terms throughout today's shiur.

Tahara - purity
Tum'a - the opposite

[Note: What is a double parsha? The Torah is read in its
entirety during the course of one year, from the Shabbat
after Sukkot until Simchat Torah. A Jewish year can have
between 48 and 53 Shabbatot however, while, on the other
hand, some of those Shabbatot will coincide with
festivals, when there are special readings. Hence, in
most years, there are more parshiot - weekly divisions -
than there are weeks in the year. Certain sections are
separate in some years but combined in others.]

     Most discussions of Judaism do not dwell extensively
- if at all - on tum'a and tahara, but even a cursory
glance at the first great compilation of Jewish law - the
Mishna - will disclose that one-sixth of that book deals
with this topic. Most of the laws relating to tum'a and
tahara, however, are not particularly relevant today, so
our understanding of these concepts has gradually become
very limited. We will try today, in the context of the
parsha, to begin to understand them, as best we can.

     There are several cases listed in our parshiot which
engender tum'a. The first one is a woman who gives birth.
The second, to which the rest of the parasha is devoted,
is a skin condition called "tzaraat," which is usually
translated as leprosy, though the symptoms described by
the Torah do not match the disease known as leprosy
today. At the end of Metzora we find tum'a in the context
of a menstruant. Aside from these cases, there is tum'a
also for one who touches a carcass, and, most
importantly, for one who comes into contact with a
corpse.

     What are the laws pertaining to one who is "tamei"
(one who has contacted tum'a)? These differ depending on
the severity of the tum'a. The "hero" of our parsha, who
has contacted tzaraat, bears the most severe consequences
of all - "All the days that the plague be on him, he
shall be tamei, he is tamei; he shall dwell alone,
outside of the camp shall be his dwelling" (Lev. 13,46) -
but all those who are tamei bear some degree of
EXCLUSION. This is based on a verse later in the Torah -
"Command the children of Israel, and they shall send out
of the camp all who have tzaraat, or an issue, and all
who are tamei from the dead" (Numbers 5,2). The "camp" of
this verse is interpreted variably by the oral law, since
there are three "camps" in the desert encampment of the
Jewish people, the "camp of the Presence" (the
tabernacle, or its future parallel, the Temple), the
"camp of the Levites" (who dwelled surrounding the
tabernacle - the future parallel is the Temple Mount, the
courtyards surrounding the Temple, which is the area
within the Western Wall today), and the "camp of Israel"
(the actual dwelling of the Jews around the tabernacle,
equivalent to the city of Jerusalem). The metzora (one
who has tzaraat) is the only one who is expelled from the
"camp of Israel." The other ones who are tamei in our
parsha - tuma'a which derives from an internal condition
of the tamei (childbirth, menstruation, seminal
discharge) are excluded from the "camp of the Levites."
Lighter forms of tum'a are excluded only from the Temple
proper. But what is common to all is a measure of
exclusion, of alienation, of the ability to relate to the
sphere of sanctity.

     Is there a common factor underlying all forms of
tum'a. I believe we can conclude that all those who are
tamei have come into contact, to one degree or another,
with death. Death is the common factor of all forms of
tum'a. Obviously this is true for one common form of
tum'a, the one which is relevant even today for kohanim -
contact with a corpse. Indeed, a dead body is called by
the Sages the "grandfather of tum'a." But a moments
reflection reveals that other forms of tum'a are also
connected with death. A dead animal body conveys tum'a.
The internal condition forms of tum'a of our parsha are
all connected with death, or rather, with the forfeit of
life. Menstrual blood represents the dissolution of the
conditions to support a new life. The venereal discharges
listed at the end of parashat Metzora are also counter-
indications to reproduction. "Aha!," you will say, "what
about childbirth, the very opposite?" Obviously,
childbirth is the epitome of producing life. But, from
the point of view of the body of the mother, childbirth
is a separation from life, for where before there was a
multiplicity of life, there is now only one. A birthing
mother, in the moment of producing life, is also
experiencing a measure of death. The experience of death,
in any form, engenders tum'a.

     Tum'a in the Torah is clearly a real metaphysical
state. It is hopeless to try and translate it into states
more familiar to us (not that tum'a is unfamiliar - it is
omnipresent today. It is not capable of being assimilated
to the sorts of experiences of our normative, empirically
defined life). But by understanding its cause, we can
categorize it in relation to our experience. And by
relating that cause to the consequences, we understand
how it operates. What we have seen is that death, the
experience of death or contact with death, excludes man
from a full relationship with God, and, at times, even
with other people.

     Tzaraat, the condition describes at length in our
parsha, is also viewed by the Torah as a state of death.
The reason why it is the most severe of all states of
tum'a is because it is not merely contact with death, or
the experience of a missed opportunity for life, but an
actual experience of death itself. The flesh of the
metzora is described by the Torah as being dead. When
Miriam, Moshe's sister, is struck with tzaraat, Aharon,
her brother, says to Moshe: "Let her not be as one dead,
who when he comes out of his mother's womb, half his
flesh is consumed" (Numbers 12,12). The Sages sum it up
pithily: "A metzora is considered dead."

     With this in mind, we can examine the purification
ceremony dictated for a metzora in the second part of our
double-parsha.

     This shall be the law of the metzora, on the day of
     his purification: he shall be brought before the
     priest. The priest shall go forth, out of the camp,
     and the priest shall look, and behold, the plague of
     tzaraat has been healed in the leper.
     And the priest shall command to take for the
     purificant two live pure birds, and cedar wood, a
     scarlet thread, and hyssop.
     And the priest shall command to slaughter one of the
     birds in an earthen vessel over running water. The
     live bird shall be taken, and the cedar wood and the
     scarlet thread and the hyssop, and he shall dip them
     and the live bird in the blood of the slaughtered
     bird, over the running water. And he shall sprinkle
     over the purificant from tzaraat seven times, and
     shall purify him; then he shall send the live bird
     free into the open field.
     The purificant shall wash his clothes and shave off
     all his hair, and bathe in water and be pure;
     afterwards he may come to the camp and wait outside
     his tent for seven days.
     And on the seventh day, he shall shave all his hair,
     his head, his beard, his eyebrows and all his hair,
     and he shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in
     water and be pure.
     On the eighth day, he shall take two unblemislambs
     and one unblemished ewe-lamb of the first year....
     and sacrifice them....
     The priest shall take from the blood of the guilt-
     offering and the priest shall place it on the tip of
     the right ear of the purificant, and on the right
     thumb of his hand and on the right thumb of his
     foot.... (14, 2-20).

     There is a lot here that is mysterious, and, to our
ears today, very unusual. The commentators offer a few
suggestions as hypotheses. For instance, the use of
birds, especially where one is let free rather than
sacrificed, drew a lot of attention. Rashi writes:
"Tzaraat is brought about by evil talk, which is the
action of chattering; therefore his purification requires
birds, who chatter incessantly aloud." This is based on a
statement of the Sages (Talmud Chullin 140), who claim
that tzaraat is the punishment for slander. You may
recall that when Moshe was sent by God to take the Jews
out of Egypt, he demurred, claiming that the Jews would
not believe him. God gave him a number of miraculous
signs to perform, one of which was to place his arm in
his clothes and take it out - and it would be covered by
snow-white tzaraat (Exodus 4,6). As a sign, this would be
definitely effective, but the Sages were struck by the
fact that it appears to be a rather unpleasant experience
as far as Moshe is concerned. They draw the conclusion
that God is hinting at criticism of Moshe for having
slandered the Jews by doubting their faith level - and
tzaraat is the punishment for slander. Similarly, Miriam
was struck with tzaraat after speaking against Moshe
marrying a Cushite woman (Numbers 12). Continuing in this
symbolic moralist vein, Rashi explains the other objects
of this part of the purification:
     Cedar wood: For tzaraat is brought about by course
     spirit (pride). A scarlet thread (the scarlet color
     is produced from a worm, "tolaat"): What is the
     remedy and cure (for pride)? He should humble
     himself from his pride like a worm and hyssop.
In other words, the purification is dependent on the
contrast of the mighty cedar - the most majestic tree of
the Middle East - and the lowly hyssop, a mere weed, and
the worm.

     One could attempt to continue in this manner with
the rest of the purification ritual, though symbolic
explanation is necessarily speculative. I would like to
supplement this method with a comparative analysis of the
different stages of purification of the metzora. This
method will not necessarily explain the details, but
will, hopefully, uncover the significance of each stage,
and will, as a result, give us an understanding of the
meaning of tum'a as well.

     The four elements of the purification ritual are:
1. Shaving;
2. Bathing in water (immersion in a "mikve," a reservoir
of fresh water);
3. Sprinkling;
4. Placing of blood on the right ear, finger, and toe.

     Each of these elements of the purification ritual is
found in at least one other place in the Torah. By
examining the other context, we can understand the
purpose in the case of metzora as well, even without a
detailed explanation of the particular symbols of each.

1. Shaving

     The members of the tribe of Levi were sanctified to
serve God in the mishkan (desert tabernacle) and the
Temple. The inauguration ceremony of the Levites in
described in parashat Baha'alotcha:

     Take the Levites from the midst of the children of
     Israel, and PURIFY them. This is what you shall do
     to them to purify them - sprinkle water of
     purification on them ( we shall discuss this part
     below, in point 3), and LET THEM SHAVE ALL THEIR
     FLESH, and rinse their clothes and be purified....
     Bring the Levites to the Tent of Meeting... and the
     children of Israel will lay their hands on the
     Levites. And Aharon shall offer the Levites as an
     offering before the Lord from the children of
     Israel, and they shall be (dedicated) to serve the
     service of the Lord. (Numbers 8,6-11)

     The verse clearly connects the shaving with
purification. The positive dedication of the Levites
takes place in the Tent of Meeting later. The shaving
then does not have a positive significance, but is a
preliminary purification before the sanctification can
take place. Speculating on the symbolic significance of
the procedure, it seems fair to conclude that shaving off
all body hair is a way of detaching oneself from all
extraneous elements of one's previous life. The hair,
which is connected to the body but not part of the life
of the body, symbolizes external entanglements which must
be unraveled and expelled before total dedication to the
service of God can take place.

2. Bathing (mikve)

     All forms of tum'a require immersion in a mikve; in
all the minor forms, immersion alone is sufficient.
Immersion then is the equal of purification. Comparing it
to the preliminary of shaving, we may suggest that it
lacks the idea of removing extraneous parts of one's
previous existence, symbolizing purity itself. Relying on
a widely-accepted symbolic explanation of mikve, I would
suggest that the waters of the mikve symbolize the waters
of the primordial creation ("... and the spirit of God
hovered over the waters" - Genesis 1,2), or
alternatively, the waters of the womb. In other words,
immersion in a mikve is equivalent to rebirth, to a
return to the primordial (pure) state of the beginning;
in other words, renewal. It is important to remember that
there is a basic difference between the concept of purity
(tahara) and that of holiness (kedusha). The natural
state of all things is purity; tum'a is an added
(negative) quality. Holiness is an elevated unnatural
state; the natural state of all things is mundane. A
return to birth is a return to purity.

3. Sprinkling

     Sprinkling is found in the purification ritual of
one who has become tamei by contact with a corpse
(Numbers 19, see verses 12-13). The comparison is
strengthened by the presence there as well of the cedar
wood, hyssop, and crimson thread. As we saw above, the
inaugural ceremony of the Levites also included this
element. These two cases are different from that of the
metzora in regards to the ingredients of the sprinkling
medium. In the other two cases, water mixed with the
ashes of a red heifer is sprinkled, unlike the metzora,
who is sprinkled with the blood of the slaughtered bird.
The use of ashes would suggest a symbolizing of
cleansing, a washing away of negative elements; and, in
fact, the Torah uses the verb "lichatei" in this context,
which seems to mean "to clean" (check your English
translations - Numbers 19,11;19, where it is usually
translated simply as "purify," avoiding the problem of a
difficult Hebrew word). The case of contact with a corpse
is, as we have seen, the paradigm case of tum'a, the most
direct contact with the cause of all tum'a. In such a
case, rebirth in the waters of mikve is not sufficient;
the tum'a must be cleansed - in other words, the
personality must be cleansed. I leave it to you to
speculate on the difference between the use of blood or
ashes, mentioning only that both blood and ashes are
directly connected to life and death, and that the
metzora is understood by the Sages to have been involved
in sin (as we saw above, slander or pride), whereas tum'a
by contact with death can have been innocent or even
meritorious.

4. Placing of the blood

     We find this strange ceremony in the inauguration of
the original priests, Aharon and his sons, which we read
four weeks ago:

     Take Aharon and his sons with him, and the garments
     and the anointing oil, and the sin-offering bull and
     the two goats and the basket of matzot. And gather
     the entire congregation before the Tent of
     Meeting....
     (Moshe dresses the priests in the priestly garments)
     Moshe poured the anointing oil on the head of
     Aharon, and anointed him to sanctify him....
     Moshe took some of the blood and placed it on the
     tip of Aharon's right ear, and on the right thumb of
     his hand, and on the right thumb of his foot
     (Leviticus 8,2-23).
    
     The context here is clear - this is an inauguration
ceremony. Notice that it is performed after the priests
are already dressed in the special garments which mark
their special status (the clothes, as is said, make the
man). Engaging in another bout of speculation, which
sefairly well-based in this case, the "ear, hand, and
foot" seems to suggest that their actions (hand and foot)
are dedicated to God, but only under the supervision of
the ear dedicated to hearing God's commands. Here we have
a positive state being conferred, rather than a negative
one being removed. There is no mention of purification
here, but of sanctification.

Back to metzora

     The summation of all four ceremonies for the
metzora, taken after the exclusion of the metzora from
all religious and communal life, indicates the following:
Tum'a, contact with death in one way or another, strips
man of the spiritual status necessary to relate to God,
to act as one created in "the image of God." In order to
return to functioning as a spiritual being, he has to
undergo, at least in the most severe forms of tum'a, four
processes: Excising the dead elements, renewal,
cleansing, and inauguration. This indicates how deeply
death contradicts the meaning of life and spiritual
activity. The last process especially, even though it is
found only in the case of the metzora, indicates how even
being normal, simply pure and ready to act as a regular
person, requires inauguration, dedication, and a measure
of sanctification, analogous to the inauguration of the
priests of God. In most cases, simply returning to the
natural state of birth accomplishes this, but in the
deepest experience of death, where the death has taken
hold with oneself in the form of the tzaraat, one must
not only be reborn, but rededicated as well, after
removing all traces of the previous life and its
contamination.

     Although tum'a would seem to us to be an arcane and
esoteric state, removed from our experiences today, this
analysis shows us that the underlying state of human
personality reflected in tum'a and tahara, purity and
impurity, encapsulates a deeply significant view of the
relationship of man to his freedom, life and to God.

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YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433

Copyright (c) 1999 Yeshivat Har Etzion
All Rights Reserved

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