Addict Torah: Metzora 5784/2024

Addict Torah's Mission: To interrogate Torah deeply so as to create space, connection and safety for people with addictive patterns and behaviors that have led them to a crisis of the spirit to tell and shape their stories for the purpose of healing, growth, and a return to their whole selves.

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Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 1667

14:5. living water. On the meaning of (mayim ayyîm): this seems to be indicated by Gen 26:19 and Song of Songs 4:15 to be freshwater flowing from a well or other natural source, as opposed to stagnant or stored water. I have heard it compared to a mikveh by Rabbi Martin Lawson. That is especially interesting in the light of Jer 17:13, where God is referred to first as “Israel’s hope” (—miqwh yir’l) and then in the same verse as “source of living water” (—mqôr mayim ayyîm).

Rabbi Shefa Gold, Torah Journeys, p. 115

There are many times in life when it may be necessary to seclude oneself for a time. Tzara'at, which is usually translated as 'leprosy,' can be understood as a difficult inner psycho-spiritual passage that manifests as a disturbance on the surface. Someone with this condition needs to separate himself from the community for a time in order to pay close attention to those inner changes, which are the causes of the outer confusion. At the time of inner geowth, it might feel like your life as become too small. There is a chafing irritability, and it is time to 'leave the camp.' It is time to go on a retreat. The blessing of Metzora comes to us as the force of re-integration, symbolized by the priest, as it reaches out to you in your place of alienation, recognizes your transformation and brings you back to the community. In the ritual, two birds are brought. One is killed, to symbolize the old self that has died; and one is set free in the open country to express the re-born self flying free into an expanded life.

Jay Michaelson, Torah Queeries, p. 145-146

In fact, the extended sugya (topical section) to which Tazri’a and Metzora belong begins in the previous parasha, Shemini, which describes how Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu brought “strange fire” (eish zarah, which can also be translated as “foreign fire”) into the Tabernacle and were destroyed. The Hebrew text, in the first verses of Leviticus 10, is actually a bit ambiguous as to exactly what happens; it is not clear whether God sends out a fire to destroy the young priests or whether they are consumed by their own creation (see Tamar Kamionkowski’s essay on Parashat Shemini for an alternative reading). But the response is clear: a “team meeting” between Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s remaining sons, in which new rules are set forth for regulating priestly behavior and maintaining the purity of the Israelite nation. The “minutes” of this meeting are quite lengthy. Their essence, both textually and in the context of what archeologists tell us regarding the cultic practices of ancient Canaan, which were varied, syncretic, and often ecstatic in nature, is contained in Leviticus 10:9–11: “Do not drink wine or strong drink, you and your sons, when you come into the tabernacle, so you don’t die. This will be an eternal law for your generations, so you can discern between holy and secular, and between impure and pure, and so you can teach the children of Israel the laws that God speaks to them through Moses.” The injunction—to discern and distinguish, separate and sanctify—is the essence of Biblical Judaism. Indeed, it is a double distinction, both internal (this is a worship of discernment) and external (it separates Israelites from Canaanites); Israel is distinguished by its distinguishing. Nadav and Avihu invented their own ritual and imported “foreign” cultic practice—a double sin. Israelite worship is not to be an ecstatic bacchanal in which distinctions are erased and the god(s) known in wild abandon. It is to be precise, mindful of distinctions, and separated from anything “unclean” or foreign. This general rule is explicated, in great and often gory detail, in the eight chapters that follow.

The Sefer Ha-hinukh cited by Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Vayikra, p. 129

The immersion in water symbolises that the unclean person is recreated at that moment, just as the world consisted wholly of water at creation, before man came into the world. The renewal effected on his body will prompt him to a reappraisal of his own conduct.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 660

This...describes the ritual of purifying and reintegrating the recovered leper.. We can read it as a description of the Israelites' attitude to the experience of recovering from illness...The formal description of the cleansing ritual masks the deep and possibly conflicted feelings of the person who has recovered...These might include feelings of relief and happiness together with a new appreciation of good health, perhaps resentment over what had been gone through as well as envy of people who had remained healthy. The offering of the recovered leper is sometimes referred to as the 'sacrifice of one who has returned from the dead,' either because the illness was so grave or because a life cut off from all human contact...was not really a life.

Rabbi Shefa Gold, Torah Journeys, p. 115

Often, a person's growth happens on the inside before it manifests in the outer world. The spiritual challenge lies in navigating this awkward time of dissonance between inner and outer. During this time the two realities must be reconciled. It is an uncomfortable time because there is a tendency to resist change and that resistance can manifest in the physical body. Retreat time is required in order to attend to and integrate the inner changes. The spiritual challenge of Tazira/Metzora is to know when to separate yourself from the community and to know how to return. The separation depends on having a community/ relationship / family who honor and trust the process. This means that they understand the process of retreat as necessary and valuable to the life of the community. When someone 'leaves the camp' to do the inner work that is calling them, they will be fully available upon their return and will have an integrated wholeness to give back to the community.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 660

17. The oil is placed on the leper's head, hand, and foot and sprinkled on the altar, to convey the idea that recovery from illness is the combined result of actions, our attitudes, and grace.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 1671

14:14. blood on the right earlobe, thumb, and big toe. This is the same as the ceremony for ordaining Aaron and his sons as priests (Lev 8:23–24). In both cases, there is a transition. Here it is from impure to pure. In the priestly case it is from secular to holy. Both apparently call for placing blood on the body’s three extremities (ear, thumb, toe) to convey that the entire body is thus covered by this purification.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in the Torah, p. 193

[A] reason for performing this anointing ritual is to let the metzora know that with healing comes responsibility. Just like spiritual leaders are required to be messengers of light, when we are healed we must bring the message of healing, doing t’shuvah, and taking appropriate action back to our communities. We are now responsible to carry the message, as the twelfth step of Alcoholics Anonymous states. We who have been healed must care for and teach others that healing is possible. We have to reach out and help others heal. We are responsible for creating a plan of action to ensure we will not make the same error again. We are also responsible for becoming more attuned to the silent desperation of people who feel lost. We must remember and reach out to all to spread the message of the power of t’shuvah and divine grace. In Judaism today, there are no more priests. Therefore, the metzora, like the baal t’shuvah (master of return or returning), is required to do the work of the High Priest. We must reach out and bring all those who are lost back to community, to healing, to God, and to life.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 1674

14:20. and he will be pure. My old classmate Danny Siegel says concerning Parashat Meora that it is about bringing people who are infirm back into the community. As derivative practices in our own time he gives as examples: (1) synagogues that have installed ramps to the bimah for handicapped persons; and (2) balloons for the deaf so they can experience the vibrating sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. As we were once responsible to return and include those who were impure to the congregation, so we may learn to include the handicapped as well. It is inspirational that we can derive this essential principle from a parashah in the Torah that seems so remote to readers in this age.

Mercutio, in William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

A plague on both your houses.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Vayikra, p. 137

Our rabbis stated in the Talmud, 'the house affected by the plague never existed and is not destined to exist. It was stated for the purpose of edification.' Alshikh follows this view, but adds that the plague teaches us that society should take notice of the first signs of misconduct, however small. Just the same as a disease begins with hardly noticeable symptoms and can be stopped if detected in time, so a moral disease in society can be prevented from spreading, if immediate steps are taken.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 195

The house that becomes impure is a house that is not a home. It is a place where God, decency, and community have been replaced by slavery, hatred, and narcissism. It is a house in which the people living in it are metzoraim. They have a spiritual malady and do not want to be healed.

Rabbi David Kasher, Parshanut, p. 221-222, Kindle edition

These plagues are indeed devastating. But according to the Kli Yakar, they are not meant as a punishment, exactly. They are God’s way of slowly, methodically breaking down all of the barriers we have that keep us at a distance from the world. We move about in society, playing out a role, amassing possessions and accomplishments. We wear nice clothes, carefully selected to project an image of style or wealth, modesty or beauty – as if these were our essential traits. We try to present an impressive, invincible self to the world, and hope that we are convincing. And then we run home, lock the door, and only there, behind the cover of the walls, are we left alone with our true selves. But even then, we have our masks. You look in the mirror and see a face. Is that really you? Are you just your skin, your flesh? Or is there something more to you? Where is the essential self? What are we, when everything is stripped away? If we took off all of our coverings, what would we find? It would not be hidden gold, that much is certain – not our money or our success. Not our intelligence, our charisma, or our beauty. Forget about where you live, what you wear, or what you look like – none of that matters. When you are finally and completely exposed, what is waiting inside, at the core of your being? Who are you, really? That is the question that haunts us.

Bekhor Shor, cited in Michael Carasik, The Commentator's Bible: Leviticus, p. 108

44 If the plague has spread in the house. All of the explanations of this passage by our Sages are words that were spoken at Sinai.

George Robinson, Essential Torah, p. 416-417

In short, these laws represent nothing less than a means of sacralizing the daily world in which we live, of acknowledging our connection to the Eternal in even the most ordinary aspects of life, of elevating even “the biological foulness of human existence,” to use Yeshayahu Leibowitz’s evocative phrase. (Remember that Judaism even has a prayer to be uttered after going to the bathroom.) By doing so, Judaism offers its own take on the mind/body problem. As Leibowitz observes, one must worship God not merely with the mind but with a unity of mind and body.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 196

No one is exempt from spiritual maladies; we all suffer them from time to time, yet most of us do not do anything to heal. We think, “This is just my lot in life,” or “Nothing will ever change.” This is a major problem the world faces today; we cannot think our way out of these maladies, we cannot just take a pill and they will disappear. A spiritual discipline is required to find our way to spiritual health.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 670

31. My Tabernacle which is among them Even when the Israelites are impure, God's presence is found among them. Abravanel understands 'My Tabernacle' as referring to the human body. Thus 'defiling my Tabernacle' refers to rendering our bodies impure. Because each person is created in God's image, his or her body is a temple of God.