Dear Friends;
I hope that you will enjoy the following Parasha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;
” Parsha in a Nutshell “
The Torah describes the purification procedure for a metzora (a person afflicted with tzara’at) upon conclusion of his isolation. This process extends for a week and involves korbanot and immersions in the mikveh. Then, a kohen must pronounce the metzora pure. A metzora of limited financial means may substitute lesser offerings for the more expensive animals.
Before a kohen diagnoses that a house has tzara’at, household possessions are removed to prevent them from also being declared ritually impure. The tzara’at is removed by smashing and rebuilding that section of the house. If it reappears, the entire building must be demolished.
The Torah details those bodily secretions that render a person spiritually impure, thereby preventing his contact with holy items, and the Torah defines how one regains a state of ritual purity.
” Dvar Torah “
Parashat Metzora, which is usually read together with last week’s Parashat Tazria, is always read in the month of Nissan. Accordingly, the Chachamim say that there must be a connection between the parsha, the month of Nissan and Chag HaPesach. So, what is the connection?
Well, we all know that Pesach starts on 15th of Nissan, and from the beginning of the month, we, specially the women, are all extremely busy with final stages of house cleaning and getting rid of all the Chametz. I don’t think there is any other Mitzvah in the Torah that the Jews, especially in our community, take it so seriously and perform it at its best. Getting rid of the Chametz is so important to us that we clean our homes from top to bottom so immaculately, by cleaning behind every piece of furniture, scrubbing behind the stove and under our refrigerators, switching over the dishes, covering the countertops, cleaning our basements and much, much more. By the 14th of Nissan, there won’t even be a trace of any chametz left in our houses!
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah also talks about some kind of “house cleansing”. The Torah says: ” When you enter the land of Canaan that I give to you as a possession, and I inflict a tzara’at disease upon a house in the land you possess, the owner of the house shall come and tell the Kohen saying, “Something like an affliction has appeared upon my house.” The Kohen shall command; and they shall clear the whole house before he enters to examine the affliction, so that nothing else in the house shall become contaminated.”
As we had discussed in last week’s Parsha, according to most commentators, “Tzara’at” is a heavenly disease that falls upon people’s homes, furnitures, clothing and eventually on human skin due to committing the sin of “Lashon Ha’ra”, gossiping and negative talking about someone else. The affliction process was something as follows: The wall of the house of the person who indulged in evil talk will undergo a color change. If the person repents, the house becomes pure again; but if he persists in his evil ways, so much so that his house is demolished, then his furniture and accessories will suffer discoloration, but they will regain their purity if he repents. If he fails to abandon his bad ways, to the extent that they have to be burnt, then his garments are affected by the tzara’at. If he repents, they regain their purity…. and if he continues with his ill behavior, the affliction will eventually fall on his body.
This evaluation brings up the following question. We know that this disease was not contagious because it was brought upon a person who committed a specific sin, and could only be stopped if he repents and stops his evil ways. So, why does the torah tells the person whose house walls are afflicted by tzara’at to empty the contents of his house before the Kohen comes to examine it so that the household items won’t become contaminated? We know that if he repents and stops from his slanderous ways, the disease is going to go away and the house will become pure again?! So why to go through the hard process of cleaning the house?
Rabbi Frand gives the following beautiful explanation. The household items of the person whose walls might be afflicted by tzaraat is not going to become contaminated. The only reason the Torah is telling him to remove all the contents of the house, is to give him a warning that if he doesn’t stop from his slanderous ways, his household items are going to be afflicted by the disease too. During the process of taking out the household items, the person may come to realise that what he is doing is wrong and he needs to stop. There is no way to purify the house unless he purifies himself! House cleansing has to be accompanied by spiritual cleansing! All the effort that he has put into taking out all the contents of the house is going to go to waste, if he doesn’t stop from his evil ways. Only then, when he changes himself, does the hard labor of house cleansing become productive and the household items will remain pure!
Yes my friends, in Judaism, physical cleaning has to be accompanied by spiritual cleansing too. They go hand in hand. When you clean your house so thoroughly from any Chametz in your possession for Pessach, you have to make sure to clean the chametz inside you too! Chametz is a fermented dough that rises. The Chachamim say that the chametz within us or the “spiritual chametz” so to speak, is the “Ga’ava”– the person’s ego and the sense of superiority that he has over the others. Pessach is the time to get rid of all these. We should respect every human being for what they are and we should never look down on other people. Just because we might have more money than others, or better looks, a better looking wife or a larger family, doesnot make us superior over them. We are all children of Hashem who deserve to be respected equally. Keep in mind that all the effort and the energy that you’ve put into cleaning your house will be worthless if you don’t get rid of the chametz inside you too!
Pessach is the time to get rid of any grudges you might have towards your fellow Jew. Pessach is the time to get rid of any anger you might have toward your loved ones. Pessach is the time to forgive others and to come close to them again. Pessach is the time to love and not to hate. If we can do all these, then we can proudly say that we have got rid of ALL of the chametz in our possessions, both physically and spiritually! And then, we can be sure to have a Happy and a Kosher Passover!
Shabbat Shalom and Regards;
Martin