Tazria and Metzorah
"When she sows seed" and "Leper"
Leviticus 12:1-13:59 & 14:1-15:33
2 Kings 4:42-5:19 & 2 Kings 7:3-7:20
Psalm 106 & 120
Matthew 5:33-37 & Revelation 6:1-11
Our previous Torah portion, Shmini, or Eighth Day, is understood to have occurred on the 1st day of Nisan, only two weeks before Passover.
Sin sacrifices have been offered for Aharon and his sons so that they could in turn offer sacrifices for the people. They needed to make atonement for the Golden Calf, an event still very much in the consciousness of the young nation. With proper preparation for the moment, the Presence descended on the Eighth. This theme of the Eighth extends into the next two Torah portions, Tazria and Metzorah.
If we draw a relationship among the types of “eighth” in Shmini and Tazria/Metzorah, then the circumcision on the Eighth Day in Tazria, and a cleansed metzorah [leper], and purified zav [one with a non-natural discharge] which require a sacrifice on the eighth day in Metzorah, also usher in a closer, restored Presence of the Holy One. This person may re-enter the Sanctuary.
Even the infant boy must live through one Shabbat and absorb its holiness before he is fit to be a living “sacrifice” for the Garden on his Eighth. By setting the eighth day, the boy will experience one Shabbat of holiness before his circumcision.
Shmini, or Eighth, shares a shoresh with shemen, or “oil, fatness, abundance.” Anointing oil is what rooted the priests within the Sanctuary. Shmini is what re-plants an Israelite within the Sanctuary.
In Yom Shekulo Shabbat, the earth experiences a millennium of the “Day That is All Shabbat” before the removal of the veil on the Eighth Day. They absorb that Garden holiness, which prepares them to ascend to an even closer experience in the Presence of Adonai. Another veil will be removed, another type of circumcision.
Since we know that the Mishkan was a type of “Creation” week, then it represented the Garden of Eden to Israel. How could a person re-enter the Garden of Eden and immortality? By rejecting the slander, or lashon hara, of the beast of the field, the serpent. By not conforming to the image a beast. In the order of Torah, the uncleanness imparted by a dead non-kosher animal is addressed first, then at last, the management of human uncleanness. It seems that since humans are more important than animals in Creation, then they should be addressed first. Instead, the text follows the order of Creation. Just as Adam was created after the animals, so human uncleanness is address subsequent to the beasts’.
The implication, say the sages, is “Do you know who and what you are if you fail to keep the Almighty’s laws? Nothing but another species of animal, one which belongs at the end of them all.” (The Midrash Says to Tazria, p. 114)
This casts another side to “The Beast” language of the prophets. The beast is no more than a human who fails to keep the laws of their Creator. The King of Babylon is the golden head of the lion-beast who made the earth tremble and forced them to bow to his image. The plainest of messages is that Babylon is man defying his Creator. In the end, mankind will see “the man” as the beast: “Those who see you will stare at you, they will closely examine you, saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms?..." (Is 14:16)
No one who defies his Creator will re-enter the Garden and attain immortality there. Instead, he will descend to Sheol. This Isaiah 14 passage links this man/king of Babylon person with the cleansed leper...
- Even the juniper trees rejoice over you, and the cedars [אַרְזֵי] of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you have been laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’ (Is 14:8)
The cedars of Lebanon are symbols of how the Holy One causes His children, His precious creations, to flourish. They magnify the Creator, not the created man, who in turn try to build great edifices to their own glory. As King David acknowledged, he felt uncomfortable living in a palace of cedar when the Temple had not yet been built. In contrast, the King of Babylon wants to cut down the great cedars of Adonai's planting in order to build his own kingdom to the Heavens.
Some of this arrogance resides in the metzorah. He has done something to elevate himself over his brothers and sisters, boasting great things before others, or simply nurturing the arrogant words as thoughts of the heart. The cedar of his cleansing reminds him that just a hair of leprosy stands between him and the animal kingdom.
- ...then the priest shall give orders to take two live clean birds, cedar wood [אֶרֶז] a scarlet string, and hyssop for the one who is to be cleansed. (Le 14:4)
The objects of a metzorah’s (leper’s) cleansing represent vital reminders to the metzorah not to return to the sin of lashon hara, or evil speaking. Lashon Hara is the most serious of all sins which call for tzara’at (leprosy) as punishment. The leper is the metzorah in Hebrew. Ultimately, all sin goes back to the slanderous speech of the serpent in the Garden. It spawned the other sins that followed: murder, idolatry, greed, etc. The “title verse” of the portion Metzorah forms the Hebrew acrostic of this root problem:
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This shall be the law of the person with leprosy on the day of his cleansing. (Le 14:2) Reish Lakish says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “This shall be the law of the leper [metzora] in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest” (Leviticus 14:2)? This means that this shall be the law of a defamer [motzi shem ra].
This is used to recognize the underlying sin of the metzorah as a kind of acrostic or contraction of “Bringer of an evil name.” Here are the symbols of the Eighth Day of purification:
Two birds, scarlet wool, cedar, earthenware vessel, spring water.
Birds twitter at both real danger and nothing. They sing, yet they chatter and fight. They are a verbal symbol:
“Life and death are in the hands of the tongue.” (Pr 18:21)
This is the progression of the Seven Abominations of the Wicked Lamp: an arrogant look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart devising wicked plans, feet that run quickly to evil, a false witness breathing out lies, and one who separates brothers. This is a great summation of lashon hara, a tongue with bloody hands.
There is a Yom HaKippurim “goat” analogy in the ritual of the cleansed metzorah. If the metzorah is truly repented, his marks will never return, just like the slaughtered bird (goat) will not return. If he reverts to his sin, then like the live bird (goat) turned loose in the field, it could return.
The red wool string is the sin, which is likened to scarlet in Isaiah 1:18. Wool is hair. The red dye was made from a worm, a symbol of death to the flesh. Rashi notes that it is a “tongue” of crimson wool.
The Apostle James teaches on this Torah portion, mentioning the difference in the uncleanness incurred by animals versus humans and how the human imparts greater uncleanness than the “tamed” animal kingdom, how the tongue incurs tamei to the whole body (the metzorah and then to the community) the “tongue” of birds and red wool, and the need to yield the tongue to the fresh spring of life in Torah and reject the bitter spring of death coming from the same opening.
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Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? (Ja 3:5-12)
Binding together the cedar, tallest of trees, with hyssop, the lowliest of herbs, reminds the metzorah to bring himself down from the heights of arrogance to be healed and purged. Stop climbing over others through evil speech, to improve one's position. Glorify the creator of the cedar; don't cut down the human being, the "tree," to make one's own position secure and high.
The breakable earthenware bowl symbolizes the human being in this world, frail, vulnerable.
The pure spring water represents the Word sprinkled seven times to cleanse the seven abominations of blood, among them, “hands” that shed innocent blood.
The Jewish sages discuss Gehazi’s sin that incurred leprosy: arrogance, greed, a vow on the Holy One’s life based on deception, lashon hara. The midrash makes an odd statement, though. It says that Gehazi’s three sons were stricken with tzara’at as well because they were complicit in the lie that followed Gehazi’s vow based on falsehood. It even suggests these were the four lepers in 2 Kings 7:3.
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Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.’ But I say to you, take no oath at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, nor by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. Nor shall you take an oath by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. But make sure your statement is, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil origin. (Mt 5:33-37)
If all the sins that cause tzara’at can be traced to rebellion against the Creator, then Yeshua’s context makes sense. Since tzara’at is strictly a SPIRITUAL disease, Divinely imposed, Yeshua is saying that no human being is capable of striking another with such a disease that turns the hairs white or black.
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The Midrash states, “Even the growth of a hair on a person’s body may not be attributed to mere coincidence. Rather, the hair appeared or failed to appear as dictated by the Divine Will. If the person was deserving, Hashem caused the symptoms of tahara, purity, to appear; if not, the symptoms of tu’mah would develop on his body.” (The Midrash Says, Tazria, p. 140)
The colors of the four horses in Revelation bring the reader to the worldwide examination of the suspected metzorah. By Divine Will, the marks of tzara'at will emerge and propel the world through tests of repentance:
A white horse/white hairs
A red horse/raw, red flesh
A black horse/seclusion
DID IT SPREAD?
A yellowish-green horse/two yellow hairs unique to the head and beard are the axis of the seven seals. In them resides the arrogant lashon hara against the Creator and His beloved ones. Just a hair makes a difference.
To continue the study of the four horses and their relation to the examination of the metzorah, join us on the YouTube live stream tomorrow at 4:00 pm.
