Tazria-Metzorah
Lev. 12:1-15:33
PrĂ©cis: Tazria begins with laws concerning the need for ritual purification of women following the birth of children and the laws of what is usually referred to as “leprosy” of the skin and on garments (although this translation is most certainly erroneous; it appears to refer to an affliction which renders the person, garment, or home ritually impure).
Metzorah discusses laws for the purification of “lepers” with sacrifice and water. It also discusses growths on walls of a house which cause ritual impurity. The parasha concludes with a discussion of bodily secretions which are another source of ritual impurity.
Lev.14:34-35 “When you enter the land of Canaan which I gave you as a possession, and I inflict an eruptive plague upon a house in the land you possess, the owner of the house shall come out and tell the priest, saying ‘There is something like a plague which has appeared on my house.’”
As I have previously noted, the reticence of the priest to make the statement in this verse is strange for a Torah which has little difficulty in defining what is and is not appropriate. “Something like a plague” is unusually tentative language! The Sages of the Mishnah, stated that “Even if he is a Torah scholar and knows for certainty that it is a plague-spot, he shall not declare outright, ‘It is a plague-spot,’ but rather ‘Something like a plague-spot.’”
The reticence can be understood on several levels. We do not want to “make a scene.” We do not want to impugn the integrity of another explicitly. We want to assume that every individual is good.
But this reticence also can stand in the way of criticism which is needed and merited. To remain silent or tentative in the face of a plague cannot be right, be it a plague of disease, of intolerance, of hate, of bigotry, or of totalitarianism.
