YIGN Parsha Shiur
MetzorahRabbi Lerner - April 15, 2010
14:2: The metzorah is brought to the Kohain on the day he becomes tahor. Ramban: he doesn't become healed by his own determination - he only becomes Tahor after the kohein examines him, pronounces him no longer a Metzorah, and he then brings korbanos; this does not all happen on one day.
What does it mean when it says that he is brought to the kohain - this would give us the false impression that he is brought from outside all of the camps of Israel to see the kohain - but this is not the case. The very next pasuk, 14:3, tells us that, in fact, the kohain goes outside of the camp to see him, and not the other way around? He can't go back into the camps because he is still a Metzorah, and someone with Tumas Tzaraas must remain outside all of the camps? Rashi: he does not have an indeterminate type of tzaraas - a metzorah muzgah - he has a confirmed one and cannot enter the camp. Ramban: on the day he wants to be brought to the kohain he cannot wait around many days - we don't want him remaining as a metzorah muchlat - a confirmed metzorah. He is brought even against his will to the kohain on a day that he thinks he might already be clean. If someone suspects his tzaraas has cleared up, he is brought that day to be seen by the kohain. There is a spiritual demand on him to be inspected and readmitted to machaneh yisrael rather than being left out by himself in a non-productive life. But he is not actually brought into the camp itself.
Oznayim LaTorah and Bechor Shor: he is not brought back into the camp - he is brought to the Kohain at the outskirts of the camp, at a special appointed place - he doesn't come into the camp yet; and the kohain does not actually go to the place of his residence outside the camps.
Oznayim LaTorah: earlier in 13:2 the Torah talks about the appearance of different skin lesions, and when noticed, the kohain examines him to determine the nature of the ailment. In pasukim 13:5, 13:9, 13:29, 13:47, 13:59 the plague is constantly called a negah or negah tzaraas; it never uses the term metzorah until the beginning or our parsha, in pasuk 14:2. Now it first focuses on the person. Metzorah is a contraction of motzi raah - one who is spewing lashan harah from his mouth. But the gemorrah tells us that there are actually 7 different reasons one can become afflicted with this disease - how do we know that the afflicted person has spoken lashan harah - what about the possibility that he was guilty of one of the other 6 sins (such as one who is stingy)? None of the other sins are called a metzorah? Maharshah: All of the other six are secondary - this is the primary cause of tzaraas. Oznayim LaTorah: All of the others lead to metzoras muzhak, the indeterminate type. The one who is confirmed as a definite form of tzaraas, the metzorah muchlat, is brought outside the camp - he is the one who is spewing the lashan harah - he is the one who is cast out of the camp until he changes his ways.
Oznayim LaTorah: Why is lashan harah the worst of these sins? The person is deemed sick with an underlying spiritual disease. Other sick people we treat with compassion; we visit the sick, we don't leave them alone by themselves, we show them that we miss them. With this disease we cast him out into isolation and no one is allowed to visit him - so very different than all other illnesses. Rabbi Chiyah in Mesechtas Arachin: Lashan Harah is a terrible sin because he causes lots of problems and machlokes with his slander - he causes discord between friends and within families. Since he causes separation of others, he too is separated from the rest of society. The three major sins of Judaism - idolatry, murder, and gilui arayos - are all called gadol, big sins. Lashan Harah is called the tongue that speaks gedolos - the sins that are bigger than big - on a certain level it is worse than the three cardinal sins. Why? Because in our minds it is so small - we can just say a few words without thinking and we can ruin one's life; in our minds it doesn't seem like a sin - the person doing a murder or illicit relation knows he has done something major and has guilt and will likely be remorseful; with lashan harah we often thinks it is nothing. But we kill three people with lashan harah in an insidious way - yourself, the person listening, and the target of the speech. If we don't come down hard on this sin, we would make light of it; the Torah therefore makes a big deal out of it because it is so dangerous a sin.
Nachshoni: the Or Hachayim says that we learn an important lesson from the whole process of Taharah; it is the biggest proof that this sickness is a spiritual disease, not physical. Normal physical skin disease comes from a lack of cleanliness - infections come from poor hygiene, exposure to filth. The refuah is taking care of the body with lotions and ointments, living with clean clothes and clean bedding. The metzorah is thrown out of his house and comfortable surroundings, and is living out in no-man's land, sleeping on the ground - it if was a physical condition, this treatment would exacerbate the problem. The fact that it can get better when out in exile without the comforts of home tells us that the initial cause was not hygienic - it was a spiritual problem, a flaw in his neshama. His teshuva corrects his inside condition, making him a better person, and that heals his outward appearance. A physical ailment would not be helped with this type of treatment.
Alshich: this outward expression of Hashem's wrath at this person causing this physical manifestation only happens in a generation of knowledge and righteousness. This person has to be the exception to the rule, a danger to the people in the community. There is no tzaraas nowadays because Hashem would end up making the whole nation into metzoras - it has to be in a time where all people are righteous, otherwise the whole people would have to be exiled, serving no purpose. This is similar to the case of the Sotah, whose miracle also only happens in a time of great righteousness. It is not just an issue of Hester Panim, where God's role in society is hidden.
14:4: the metzorah brings two birds. Rashi: they are kosher birds. Ramban: these birds fly high, are very healthy birds - perhaps they fly high and soar to represent the sin of Lashan Harah which can be boundless. He also takes a cedar tree branch, a thread of scarlet, a bunch of the small Hyssop plant. Rashi: These items that he takes to become Tahor all are a remez to his sin. It is the nature of birds to chirp, representing lashan harah, where the sinner talks to everyone; the cedar tree is the strongest and tallest of trees - this represents height and arrogance of the sinner, a cause of lashan harah and tzaraas. He has to first recognizes his sin - the sin is scarlet, and that is why God afflicts him. The eizov, hyssop, is the lowest of the low - we take the big shot and smash his arrogance to get repentance. Arrogance gives rise to lashan harah - if you know you are not perfect, you won't look down and say bad things about other people.
We dip the living bird into the blood of the dead bird. Abarbanel: the metzorah is like the dead bird - he was made into something like a dead person - Chazal say that a "metzorah chashuv c'mas" - a metzorah is considered like a dead person. People will naturally tend to avoid contact with him. But after he does teshuva he no longer is spiritually contagious. The live bird gets dipped into the blood of the dead bird to say that the people (represented by the live bird) shouldn't fear coming in contact with the dead bird after he becomes tahor - they shouldn't worry about being contaminated by touching him etc. He is not contagious and he will not contaminate them. Tzaraas is a spiritual disease, not physical, and he has now been declared cured of that illness.
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