Tazriah Metzorah
The Halachik Act
A woman conceives and gives birth to a boy, or a woman conceives and gives birth to a girl. The experience is much the same. Yet the halachik outcome, the dinim that result, are radically different. Halachikly it is an altogether different event entirely. We usually view things using our senses or intellect, but Halacha views things seeming different as being essentially the same, and things that look identical as being very different.
Our lens is just that; our take on things. It is not the only, nor the paramount, arbitrator of reality.
Consider only the Halachik act: the doing that holds Halachik meaning and causes Halachik distinction. Inasmuch as the Halachos of having a girl are different from having a boy, we conclude that the act of bearing a boy is essentially different from that of bearing a girl, even without taking into account the different result – here a boy and there a girl. Although the act of bearing a girl is experientially identical to bearing a boy, Halachikally they are two entirely different happenings.
Perhaps this explains the Torah’s mention of conception; “a woman who shall conceive and bear a son…” The discussion is about birth, why does conception matter? Why is it significant?
Perhaps part of the episode that creates the Halachos that come upon her – the Tumas Yoledes – is conception itself. The Torah is not merely pointing out WHEN a woman becomes Tamei, it is also expressing WHY she becomes Tamei. The reason includes conception itself.
The Dynamics Of Tzaraas
What’s the differences between human tzaraas and tzaraas on a house or clothing. One difference is that a person’s tzaraas is white, while the tzaraas on a house or shirt is red or green. Another is that a person who turns totally white is tahor, indeed, the appearance of healthy skin is considered a Nega. To my knowledge, the same does not apply to tzaraas on clothing or a house. If they turn totally green they are still Tamei. Why?
Perhaps the two tzaraas manifestations are different in principle: A person develops tzaraas because there is something wrong within him – he is sick. The tzaraas is a sign of his illness. However tzaraas on a shirt or wall is the opposite – they are not sick, rather the tzaraas growing there – like a fungus – CAUSES impurity.
As a result, the sign of tzaraas in a human is relative – if he is normal, a white spot signals that something is amiss. If he turns white, then a skin-colored spot is the sign. The idea is that something doesn’t fit in. However the Nega on a shirt or wall is static, always the same, and it is green and red. Those are the colors of the Nega growing there, and whatever size it takes makes no difference.
Integrity
A nega of tzaraas makes one a metzorah. The white spot causes impurity. However should that spot grow to cover the whole body of the metzorah – suddenly he becomes pure. Not only does white stop becoming the sign of impurity, but the Torah indicates that if part of his skin clears he becomes impure again. Not, as we would expect; because he his white nega now does not cover his entire body, but rather because he has a pink nega – the normal skin he has grown is considered a nega to this fellow and generates impurity. Amazing – normal skin as a sign of impurity!
What is the explanation to this?
I suppose the answer is that a nega is a discoloration. The reason why when a nega covers the entire body it ceases to cause impurity is because the person now has a new skin – a white one, but not a discoloration of skin. For the same reason, when a pink spot appears to this white-skinned fellow he becomes impure because of a pink discoloration in his skin. The key to nega is that it is a discontinuity of the skin. This explains why a human tzaraas is white, but garment tzaraas is green or red, not white. Since clothes are white naturally, an abnormality is green or red.
This applies to man’s spiritual makeup as well. A fellow can be thoroughly good, and he can be thoroughly bad. Both are normal. Being bad is not encouraged – he is in a sad state – but he is consistent: healthy and whole. However, suppose a good person consistently slips up on certain things, this indicates that something is amiss. A screw is out of place. Something needs to be healed in his makeup.
Wholeness exists on many levels, and someone can be whole in certain areas alone, but at least in those areas he ought to be consistent. When he is not there is cause for concern.
The Path Splits Here
The ceremony of purifying a person or house with tzaraas involved taking two birds, slaughtering one of them, dipping the live bird together with grass, a ceder branch and some red wool into the blood of that bird mixed with water, spraying that on the fellow/house, then sending the live bird free to the fields.
The ceremony is reminiscent of the Yom Kippur ceremony of the two goats, one offered to Hashem and the other to Azazel. (This parallel in noted in the commentaries). Both start off with two, which are supposed to identical in size, color, look and even are bought together, yet have the dichotomy of one going off in one direction and the other in the opposite one.
Perhaps the general idea is that the very same thing can be either this or its opposite. That’s why we start off with identical beings, so that we realize that the difference lies not in the subject, but in its destiny.
On Yom Kippur many people believe that they are predisposed to sinning. Bringing the two goats shows how the very same thing can be brought up to Hashem or be the lot of the Satan. The metaphor expresses that we can really be anything we desire. The choice is ours, and our behavior is not ingrained in our genes.
What is the symbolism in Tzaraas? One idea was that one bird killed and the other sent to life symbolizes that life and death is in the power of the tongue. I suggested that tzaraas is described in the Torah as dead flesh (by Miriam). It is a shade of death. Therefore when it leaves we symbolize the difference between life and death.
Our Daily Tragedies
Rashi says that its good news that Hashem will give our houses tzaraas in Eretz Yisroel, because we will find hidden treasure while tearing down the house.
Tzaraas is commonly viewed as a punishment for lashon harah or stinginess or other aveiros. Can the two reconcile?
Some explain that tzaraas is indeed a punishment, yet has a silver lining; even while punishing us Hashem slips us a consolation prize – hidden treasure.
The Chinuch disagrees. He explains that if someone is really worthy of a treasure Hashem puts tzaraas on his house. If Hashem wants to give him a treasure why not just send a prophet and inform him of the treasure behind the stove? Because Hashem doesn’t like the supernatural way. Tzaraas is more natural than prophesy.
We asked the kinderlach: if so, why would Hashem put someone through the mental anguish of having tzaraas in his house, couldn’t He do it in a kinder way?
One suggestion was that this is the only way available short of prophesy. Even though it’s harsh, the ends justifies the means. The lucky fellow is glad after all.
We suggested that Hashem didn’t cause him any anguish; any anguish he had was his own doing. Who told him that getting tzaraas and losing his home is a hardship, perhaps it is to his great fortune? He – only he – caused anguish to himself. This ought to be our attitude; we will not anguish over a problem until we have one. A French philosopher once wrote ‘My life has been full of tragedies, most of which never happened…’
Who Needs Tzaraas??
We have no tza’raas today. Surely we are better off without it – who needs pain?
A. Would you buy a car with no warning system? Nothing to tell the driver when gas is low, oil missing or the engine overheating? Nope. Its like a person who feels no pain: he does not know when something is wrong with him. He is in a very precarious situation.
Tza’raas is our warning system. Its indicates where we stand spiritually. We have lost our system, and are much the worse for it. Imagine how much better we would act if we received heavenly feedback for our actions!
B. The Zichru Toras Moshe explains that Shabbos is a sign Hashem made the entire world, for it is something we all plainly feel. We feel Shabbos coming in, its holiness is personally experienced and sensed. (At any rate, HE did. Do we??)
He experienced spirituality that we don’t. We might not miss that. A person blind from birth does not miss sight. But how richer and more satisfying would be living that we would actually feel holiness? We are missing an entire aspect in our lives! This missing dimension, impacts both on the fullness of our life’s experiences and also on our sensitivity to spiritual change. It is all part of the same system. With the decline of our spirituality we lost much life, and also lost our sensitivity. Sadly, spiritual disease does not made us sick; we lost tza’raas.
©2013
kollel parshah | Tiferet Ramot 83-21, Jerusalem, Israel, 97290
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