Leviticus 12:1-15:33 | Numbers 28:9-15 | Isaiah 66:1-24 | Matthew 20:17-28

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Tazria-Metzora
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
Looking Ahead

Questions & Commentary on Parashat Tazria-Metzora

1. This week's Torah portion mentions an affliction known as tzara‘at (e.g. Leviticus 14:3). Is tzara‘at identical to leprosy or is it something else? What is the connection between tzara‘at and the suffering of the Messiah? 

Rabbi Jason Sobel

The traditional Jewish interpretation of the affliction known as tzara‘at is that it is not the medical disease known as leprosy. Commenting on the spiritual nature of tzara‘at Ovadiah Seforno (16th century Italian commentator) writes: 

The tzara‘at lesions which the Torah speaks of as rendering an individual unclean have nothing in common with the leprous diseases known to medicine. Tzara‘at is a supernatural affliction imposed by God on a person to punish an individual for a sin or to help them make amends for a wicked deed. 

Thus according to rabbinic tradition, the primary sin that causes the supernatural spiritual affliction of tzara‘at is lashon hara‘, gossip and slander (Numbers 12:1-10). Two other major causes given by our Sages for tzara‘at include ga'ava, arrogance and tzarat ayin, miserliness. It is also important to note that this painful affliction is primarily redemptive and not punitive in nature. As Hebrew 12:6 says, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as a child." 

Several rabbinic texts describe the Messiah as a metzora', a leper who suffers on behalf of the Jewish people:

What is his name [i.e., the Messiah]? - His name is "metzora'/the white one/the leper" of the house of Rebbi," for it is written, "Truly he has bore our sickness and carried our pains, yet we considered him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53:4).

    b. Sanhedrin 98b 

Like the individual with tzara‘at, our Messiah's suffering is also redemptive. First, Yeshua suffered on our behalf in order to bring about forgiveness and purification for our sins. As Isaiah writes, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5) 

The word metzora' can be translated as "white." I believe this alludes to the fact that through Messiah Yeshua's suffering, as the symbolic leper of Israel, he takes the crimson stain of our sin and washes us as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). On the basis of Yeshua's atoning sacrifice, God offers us spiritual cleansing and transformation.  

Furthermore, Yeshua's suffering also brings about reconciliation on two levels. First, his death brings about spiritual reconciliation as Shaul writes, "God was in Messiah reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). 

Second, once we experience God's reconciliation through Messiah Yeshua, we are called to do whatever is in our power to have right relationships with those around. Yeshua clearly emphasized the critical importance of reconciliation when he said:  

Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

    Matthew 5:23-24 

By seeking reconciliation with others who we have wronged us or whom we have wronged, we emulate and bear witness to the love of Yeshua. We also fulfill God's calling to be agents of reconciliation.  

Another similarity between Messiah Yeshua and the metzora' is the way they are treated by the community of Israel. As mentioned earlier, the leper had to live outside the camp due to his uncleanness. He was forced to live alone and was considered stricken by God on account of his sins. This is exactly how the majority of our people view Yeshua today. As disheartening as this may be, we should not be surprised by this reality for according to the prophets the Messiah had to be rejected. Before Messiah can reign as Davidic King over Israel and the Nations, he first had to suffer and be rejected as the prophets write (Isaiah 53:3; Psalm 118:22-23) 

Unfortunately, many of our people will treat us like they treated him, as a metzora'. By following the leper of Israel, we become one as well. We must bear this reproach even as Yeshua did with love and forbearance. By suffering with him, we are spiritually transformed and can help bring hope and healing to other hurting people. Our leprous status is not a badge of shame but one of honor for it will result in great blessing for the nations, our people, and us.  

The good news is that there is coming a time, when all Israel will understand that the leper Messiah found in rabbinic tradition is Yeshua of Nazareth. At that time they will say concerning the suffering servant of Israel, "This was the Lord's doing; It is marvelous in our sight" (Psalm 118:23). Until that glorious day, let us find meaning in and embrace our marginalization by going fourth to him [Yeshua] outside the camp and bearing the disgrace he bore with joy for the God's glory and Israel's sake (Hebrew 13:12-13).   

2. Why does our parasha for this week include rituals for addressing the presence of Scale Disease on people in the ancient Israelite community? What does this tell us about Israel's corporate calling? 

Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan

This week's Torah portions present us with topics which we rarely discuss in modern religion: Tzara'at topical maladies both on person and property and emissions from parts of the body people tend to blush at when mentioned. Metzoradeals specifically with the purification ritual for what modern scholars have loosely termed as Scale Disease (not the leprosy with which we traditionally associate these sections of Leviticus) and with the phenomenon of genital discharges and the rituals for purifying one's body afterwards.  

Some modern commentators like Isaac Klein have suggested that the material in this parasha related to genital discharges is merely a manual of sexuality morality that balances the excesses of modern paganism and the prudish Puritanism of some forms of contemporary Christianity. Klein tells us that in this parasha, from a Jewish perspective, sex is good but only within God-given bounds. Others tend to view this parasha as a public health manual designed to keep disease outside of the center of this fragile, new Israelite community. Like with the respiratory ailment SARs, the only option is exclusion and isolation for the sake of the people. Certainly, both these interpretations are valid, but they tend to reduce this parasha to the categories of public health and sex ed. when the Priests compiling these documents were more concerned with God's holiness.   

As it says in Leviticus 15:31 vehizzartem et-bene-yisrael mittum'atam velo yamutu betum'atam betam'am et-mishkaniy asher betocham - "You shall put the Israelites on guard against their uncleanness, lest they die through their uncleanness by defiling My Tabernacle which is among them." God is clear that Israel's impurity does not mean that they are sexually immoral or that they are risking the public health of their community. Rather, Israel's impurity threatens God's ongoing presence in their midst. Bodily fluids in particular, are the stuff of life only when they remain as God created them to be. As Jacob Milgrom, in his Anchor Bible Commentary on Leviticus, points out, "Their common denominator is death. [Bodily fluids] represent the forces of life; their loss - death." This loss brings impurity (tum'a) that threatens God's holiness (qedusha). Being unclean means there is death in the community and that death threatens God's very presence, God's holiness betocham - "in their midst." 

Matthew 20:17-28 - The Cost of Leadership

Sean Emslie

In this week's reading from the Besora, we come to the important topic of leadership and we get some important lessons on leadership from our Messiah. We read first of Ya‘aqov and Yochanan, the sons of Zavdai and their desire for a prominent role of leadership in the Messianic kingdom: 

Then Zavdai's sons came to Yeshua with their mother. She bowed down, begging a favor from him. He said to her, "What do you want?" She replied, "Promise that when you become king, these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right and the other on your left." But Yeshua answered, "You people don't know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?" They said to him, "We can." He said to them, "Yes, you will drink my cup. But to sit on my right and on my left is not mine to give; it is for those for whom my Father has prepared it."

    Matthew 20:20-23 

Yeshua's response demonstrates that Ya‘aqov and Yochanan were not aware that leadership, as Yeshua demonstrated it was a path of sacrifice. In the next verses we get some important words from Yeshua on what a leader should be: 

But Yeshua called them and said, "You know that among the nations, those who are supposed to rule them become tyrants, and their superiors become dictators. Among you, it must not be like that. On the contrary, whoever among you wants to be a leader must become your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave! For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve - and to give his life as a ransom for many."

 Matthew 20:25-28 

The path to follow to be a leader like Yeshua is not the path of seeking power or position for selfish motives, to be a tyrant, or to be a leader without taking into account that sacrifice is required. Yeshua explains here that leadership requires one to be a servant and, like our Messiah, to demonstrate a life of leading by serving others. So then let us seek to be like our Messiah and follow his example and lead by serving.

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - PARASHAT ACHAREI MOT-QEDOSHIM

Leviticus 16:1-20:27
Amos 9:7-15 (Ashkenazim)
Ezekiel 20:2-20 (Sephardim)
Luke 19:1-10