Torah Weekly

For the week ending 24 April 2004 / 3 Iyyar 5764

Parshat Tazria - Metzora

by Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair -
The Color of HeavenArtscroll








So Far Away

"The Kohen shall look, and behold! the affliction has covered his entire flesh, then he will declare the affliction to be pure" (13:13).

Tzara'at, frequently mistranslated as leprosy, was a disease caused by spiritual defects, such as speaking lashon hara (slander). (Nowadays we are on such a low level spiritually that our bodies do not reflect the state of our spiritual health in this way.)

The verse here is puzzling for if "the affliction has covered the entire flesh" of the person that must mean that he is far from pure, and yet the Torah tells us that the Kohen shall "declare the affliction pure". How can he be pure if the affliction covers his whole body?

The answer is that he is so far from being cured, having ignored all the warnings to do teshuva repentence, that the disease ceases to perform any further purpose. Thus the Torah specifically says not that the Kohen shall declare him pure, rather that "the affliction is pure" he, on the other hand, is as far from purity as is possible.

  • Based on the Ha'amek Davar and Rabbi S. R. Hirsch



"...and he shall be brought to the Kohen." (14:3).

When a person speaks lashon hara it indicates that he has no concept of the power of speech; that he considers words to be insignificant in comparison to actions. As the nursery rhyme says "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me."

Nothing could be further from the truth. When a person speaks evil, he awakes a prosecutor in Heaven, not only against the target of his speech, but also against himself. An angel stands by the side of each of us recording our every word. In order to teach those who speak slander the power of just one word, the Torah instructs that the offender be brought to the Kohen. But, even as he is on his way to the Kohen, his body covered with tzara'at for all to see, and until the Kohen actually pronounces the word "Impure!" he is still considered totally pure. Similarly, he cannot regain his former status, although his disease has healed completely, until the Kohen again pronounces him to be spiritually pure. From this, the speaker of lashon hara is taught to reflect on the power of each and every word. For with one word he can be made an outcast, and with one word he can be redeemed.

  • Based on Ohel Yaakov

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