Shalom Friends;
This week, our Parshat HaShevua, Tazria/Metzora is being sponsored by Dr. Edo and Atara Lavi and family Lilui Nishmas for the Yahrtzeit of Atara’s Father Eliezer Chaim ben Shlomo Zalman. To the Lavi family, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
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Rabbi Shmuel Goldin writes in his sefer “Unlocking the Torah Text”, Sefer Vayikra as a summary and context on the double Parshiyot of Tazria-Metzora (pages 81, 101) :
After a… section reviewing the laws of tumat yoledet (impurity resulting from childbirth), Parshat Tazria quickly turns its attention to the primary topic of these two Parshiyot: the diagnosis and treatment of tumah brought about by the plague of tzara’at, biblical leprosy.
The Torah reviews, in great depth, a wide variety of physical ailments, conveying critical information to the Kohanim who will be responsible for the identification and management of afflictions falling into the category of tzara’at. Included in this review are afflictions affecting persons, garments, and dwellings.
…Parshiyot Tazria and Metzora deal with a description of the dramatic effects of tzara’at…
Parshat Metzora closes with additional laws concerning zav, impure bodily emission, and niddot, the laws surrounding a woman’s monthly cycle.
The Torah delineates in fine detail the specifics of this… affliction — which affects individuals, clothes and dwellings — and the steps to be taken under the guidance of the Kohanim toward its diagnosis and treatment, (ibid, page 101, Rabbi Goldin providing an overview of Sefer Vayikra, Perakim 13-14)
The following are posukim from our twin-parshiyot, first from Parshat Tazria, followed by Parshat Metzora illustrate the parallel between the two Parshiyot:
Parshat Tazria begins:
“Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to the B’nei Yisrael, saying: When a woman conceives and gives birth to a male, she shall be impure for a seven-day period, as during the days of her menstruant infirmity shall she be impure.” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 12, posukim 1-2 as rendered to English in the Sapirstein Edition, “The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary) “If she gives birth to a female, she shall be impure for two weeks, as during the days of her menstruant period…” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 12, posuk 5 as rendered to English in the Sapirstein Edition, “The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary)
Near the end of Parshat Metzora:
“A woman with whom a man will have carnal relations, they shall immerse themselves in the water and remain impure until the evening.” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 15, posuk 18 as rendered to English in the Sapirstein Edition, “The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary) “When a woman has a discharge — her discharge from her flesh being blood — she shall be in her state of separation for a seven-day period and anyone who touches her shall remain impure until the evening.” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 15, posuk 19 as rendered to English in the Sapirstein Edition, “The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary)
Similarly, Parshat Tazria deals with the appearance of the various types and degrees of tzara’at on the skin of visible parts of one’s body, as well as the appearance of tzara’at on one’s garments and the Kohen’s review of the affliction, the Kohen’s diagnosis as to whether or not the person, garment, etc. is afflicted, while Parshat Metzora deals with the actions the Kohen mandates regarding one’s separation from the kehal, or the degree of affliction and resultant status of the garment, as well as the meeting between the Kohen and the here-to-fore Metzora, once he has followed the Kohen’s instructions, the ceremony of the two clean birds, cedarwood, crimson thread and hyssop; and the Kohen’s judging whether the person is now pure, followed by the korbonot the person brings to the Mishkan.
Parshat Metzora seems titled for the identification of one afflicted with tzara’at: Metzora. R’ Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, z’l provides commentary in the new Hirsch Chumash (published by Feldheim in 2005 and translated to English by Daniel Haberman) defines Metzora and explains (Sefer Vayikra, Parsha Tazria, pages 420-422) :
Metzora, … Motziya rah [transliteration of the 2 words which form Metzora], a slander.
[The appearances of Tzara’at are defined as] Negi’yim — spots, Tzara’at.
…Every spot of tzara’at that strikes a member of the Jewish nation is to remind him of the experience of Miriam. This will lead him to careful observance of relevant halachot. Every spot of tzara’at, is to be regarded as punishment for social wrongdoing; and the confinement outside the camp — the national area around the Sanctuary of the Torah — has no other purpose or reason than…. to instill in man the awareness of his unworthiness.
Why just for the Metzora is it ordained, ‘…He shall dwell apart, outside the camp shall his dwelling be’ (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 13, posuk 46)? He induced a rift between a man and his wife, between a man and his neighbor; therefore he too, is to be separated from everyone and remain alone outside the camp.
In a wider sense, seven social sins are cited (Arachin 16a) as causes of negi’yim [spots]…. “slander, the shedding of blood, perjury, sexual immorality, arrogance, robbery and stinginess.”
Parshat Metzora goes further in providing laws where the tzara’at extends to one’s home, is cured by removal of the afflicted stones, and where tzara’at reappears as well as spelling out the steps of the Metzora’s teshuvah.
Sefer Shem Mishmuel (by R’ Shmuel Bornstein, as translated by R’ Zvi Belovski, page 253) writes regarding the Kohen’s command for the affflicted to bring two clean birds, cedarwood, crimson thread and hyssop:
“The Kohen shall command, and he [the Kohen — as cited from Rambam, Hilchot Tumat Tzara’at 11:1,5 by the Artscroll Stone Chumash] shall slaughter one of the birds into an earthenware vessel over living waters.” (Shem Mishmuel, translated by R’ Zvi Belovski, rendering to English Sefer Vayikra, Perek 14, posuk 5)
“The Kohen shall command, and he shall slaughter one of the birds” — Why does he slaughter one and leave the other? To teach us that just as the slaughtered one cannot return [as it is dead], so too, the spots of tzara’at cannot return [since he has done teshuvah]. (Shem Mishmuel citing Vayikra Rabbah 16:9)
This is the function of the offerings: to ensure that the Metzora’s repentance is absolute and final. This last stage is necessary. We cannot be sure before this that the Metzora is entirely sincere. Only when both steps have been traversed — the humility induced by living outside the camp as a leper and the humbling effect of the offerings — can he be truly rehabilitated.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, all at total government expense; due to alt-leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized Yassamnik gunpoint. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his third year at home in Eretz Yisrael and has embarked on a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of nine years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese corona virus pandemic and all like viruses. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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