Metzora

In this parsha

Metzora describes the purification of one healed from tzaraas: a ritual using two birds, cedar wood, crimson thread, and hyssop, followed by shaving, immersion, and offerings brought on the eighth day to complete the return to purity. The Torah then presents tzaraas that appears on the walls of a house in the Land of Israel, with the kohen's inspection, quarantine, and possible dismantling of its stones. The parsha concludes with the laws of bodily discharges that render a person impure, for both men and women, and the purification each requires.

Themes

• Guarding the power of speech
• Speech as the cure for tzaraas
• Impurity expelled becomes elevation
• Distance as the path of healing
• Humility, the fruit of teshuvah
• Shabbos opens the soul's gate

Must-read teachings

1. 1Guarding speech and the soul's inner lightIn the Midrash: "Who is the man who desires life (mi ha'ish hechafetz chaim)…" (Tehillim 34:13), and it is written "Remember… what Hashem your God did to Miriam…" (Devarim 24:9). The Midrash links the metzora's affliction to the verse about…תרמ"ט
2. 2The mouth as the soul's circulationIn the Midrash: "This shall be the law of the metzora (the one afflicted with tzaraas)." The Sefas Emes opens with the verse introducing the laws of the metzora, on which the Midrash will be brought. This is as the verse states: "But to the…תרל"ה
3. 3Tzaraas as Closed Speech, Torah Reopens ItIn the Midrash on "But to the wicked Hashem said..." (Tehillim 50:16) — that the Holy One does not desire the praise of the wicked. The Midrash teaches that Hashem does not want the resha'im to recite His praise. The Sefas Emes will explain…תרמ"ו
4. 4Impurity expelled becomes elevationOn the pasuk: "And I will place a tzaraas affliction upon a house in the land of your possession" (Vayikra 14:34). The Torah speaks of a plague that appears on the walls of a house in Eretz Yisrael, and the Sefas Emes builds his idea from h…תרמ"ו
5. 5Distance itself becomes the path of healingAnd in the Midrash: "This shall be the law of the metzora" (Vayikra 14:2) — "but to the wicked, God said..." (Tehillim 50:16), etc. The Holy One, Blessed is He, does not desire the praise of the wicked — see there. The Midrash connects the …תרמ"ח
6. 6Afflictions reveal blemishes in the three-leveled soulIn the Midrash: "[Yisrael is] awesome and dreadful... from him issues his judgment and his dignity (s'eiso)" (cf. Chavakuk 1:7). The Midrash applies the verse to Yisrael: their judgment and elevated status both come from their own selves. "…תרנ"ג
7. 7Oneg Shabbos opens the soul's closed gateIt is brought in the Zohar: one who is able to take delight (oneg) in Shabbos and does not do so — the oneg turns for him into nega (affliction/plague). The Zohar plays on the letters: the same letters that spell oneg (delight) spell nega (…תרנ"ד
8. 8Guarding speech as the essence of manOn the pasuk, "two live birds (tzipporim chayos)…" The Sefas Emes begins with the purification offering of the metzora, which uses two live birds. In Rashi: because the nega'im (afflictions) come on account of lashon hara, and birds are con…תרס"א