Parshiot Tazria-Metzora
1 Iyar 5762
April 13, 2002
Daf Yomi: Baba Batra 24


Guest Rabbi:
Rabbi Nachman Kahana
Young Israel of the Old City
Jerusalem, Israel

This Dvar Torah is reprinted from �Words of Torah�- a collection of Divrei Torah written by Young Israel Rabbis. To purchase this book, please call: 212-929-1525.

The Parsha deals with a spiritual malady which expresses itself through physical distress.

The appearance of a white blemish on the outer skin and the paling of the hair within the area of the blemish, is �nega tza�ra�at� (the plague of tza�ra�at) and, when declared as such by a Kohain, the sufferer becomes �t�amay� (spiritually unclean). Under these circumstances he may not reside within a walled city in Eretz Yisrael and must live as a recluse as prescribed in the Torah.

Within the overall mysteries surrounding any and all of the Mitzvot of the Torah, there is a particular detail in the laws of Metzora which seemingly defies all explanation.

The Torah states in VaYikra 13, 12-13: �And if the Tzara�at breaks out on the skin and the Tzara�at covers all the skin from head to feet as far as the Kohain can see: then the Kohain shall look and behold if the Tzara�at has covered all his flesh he [the Kohain] shall pronounce him clean, it has all turned white, he is clean.�

We see here that if the blemish is limited to a part or even several parts of the body, he is considered a Metzorah with all the Halachic implications that implies but, if the blemish spreads to cover his entire body, he is decalred �clean� and may return to his home. This is surely a dilemma.

However, the matter may be explained by an event which occurred in the period of the Kings of Israel.

The book of Melachim II, Chapter 14, 23-27: �In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, son of Joash, King of Judah, Jeroboam, son of Joash, King of Israel, began to reign in Samaria...and he did that which was evil in the sight of the L-rd, he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nevat, who caused Israel to sin: He (Jeroboam ben Joash) restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamat to the sea of Araba...for the L-rd saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter...neither was there any helper for Israel: And the L-rd did not wish to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven...�

We have here a king who rejected the Torah and is even compared to the arch-evil Jeroboam ben Nevat, who according to the Mishna in Sanhedrin is one of three kings who do not have a place in The World To Come. Nevertheless, Jeroboam ben Joash was victorious in all his military campaigns, extending the boundaries of Israel to their fullest.

How is it that such a total denier of Torah succeeded in his reign as king? The answer is stated in the verses: �For the L-rd saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter...neither was there any helper for Israel. And the L-rd did not wish to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven.�

Jeroboam ben Joash lived in times where the spiritual situation of the nation was so neglected, that according to the strict letter of the law the people were worthy of the harshest of treatment. However, since the L-rd did not wish to destroy His chosen nation of Israel, He had no choice (so to say) but to condescend to their human frailties and with compassion aid them in victory.

This, in effect, is the principle behind the cleansing of the Metzora whose entire being became afflicted with Tzara�at. This man had reached a spiritual level so low as to make Tshuvah almost impossible.

According to the letter of the Torah, he has lost the privilege to remain alive; however, since for reasons known only to the Al-Mighty, Judge of the world, this inidividual must still remain alive, HaShem must �go out� from the Midat Ha�Din (the quality of pure justice) and adopt towards him a compassionate attitude, the expression of which is the revocation of the severe laws of Metzora.

In our times, beginning with the Haskala and denial of Torah from Sinai and the authority of Rabbanim to interpret and impose Halachic decisions, not only by individuals but even through movements such as Reform and Conservative, the Jewish nation has reached a low point in our spiritual mission in this world. We do not have the benefit of a prophet or a judge and we flounder through mediocrity and reject the status imposed upon us by HaShem as His chosen nation.

The establishment of Medinat Yisrael three short years after the Holocaust was a repetition of the manner in which HaShem reacted to the generation of Jeroboam ben Joash twenty-seven hundred years ago.

Today, fifty years after the Holocaust, one cannot deny the great advances made in the Torah world but neither is one permitted to deny the enormous weaknesses of our generation. When inter-marriage is running at the rate of fifty percent in New York and eighty percent nationwide, when Eretz Yisrael thirsts for the mass Aliya of Torah dedicated people who can fight the assimilating tendencies of secularists who have infiltrated into the leadership of the Jews in Eretz Yisrael, we cannot deny that there is a spiritual Tzara�at within us.

But perhaps our weakness is also our strength. Perhaps, the absence of giant Torah leaders, the mediocrity of our accomplishments and the ferocity and cruelty of our enemies will �force� the Al-Mighty to have pity on His nation Israel. As the verse says, �For the L-rd saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter...neither was there any helper for Israel: And the L-rd did not wish to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven... (see the last Mishna in Tractate Sota).�