Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 7 Nisan, 5784
Parsha Metzora’ – “Tzara’at sufferer”: (Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33)
Second Portion: Leviticus 14:13 – 14:20

Good morning!  As we jump into the fullness of the week, I have been contemplating expectations vs. hope. Do we latch onto outcomes in our future because we are afraid to hope? If we attach to an outcome and it does not arrive, we can just tell ourselves either we aren’t worthy (we are victims) or the universe sucks. Or doesn’t exist. (Villain).

What we lose is the idea that the issue may be our expectations of future outcomes are getting in the WAY of hope.

With this energy, let’s dig into the portion today!  We’ve been working through the process of cleansing the Tzara’at sufferer – which all of us are. It involved a ton of shaving of hair, bloody birds, and now standing at the entrance of the holiest place in the community.

We stand at the entrance, and bring a lamb as a guilt offering – with a log of oil.  Pointing us once again to releasing our guilt. We have already BEEN forgiven. And yet we hold the guilt. We have covered over our shame. It’s time to let go. And here is what the priest did with our guilt offering:

13He shall slaughter the lamb in the place where one slaughters the sin offering and the burnt offering, in a holy place. For regarding the kohen[‘s service], the guilt offering is like the sin offering. It is a holy of holies.

14The kohen shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the kohen shall place it above the cartilage of the right ear of the person being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

This offering is holy.  The releasing of guilt. And. Once again we take the blood of this offering, and we place the blood on our right ear (binah – listen for understanding), the thumb of our right hand (gevurah – act in our strength), and the big toe of our right foot (Hod – surrendering to the universe around us and flowing).

This is what we are to go with our past.  Release it. And be fully present in this moment.

15And the kohen shall take some of the log of oil, and pour [it] onto the kohen’s left palm.

16The kohen shall then dip his right index finger into some of the oil that is on his left palm, and sprinkle some of the oil with his index finger seven times, before the Lord.

This is beautiful. The oil goes into the priest’s left palm. The left palm is the place in Kabbalah of loving kindness. From this place of loving kindness, the priest dips his right finger (gevurah – strength) and sprinkles this before Hashem.

17And some of the remainder of the oil that is in his palm, the kohen shall place on the cartilage of the right ear of the person being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, on [top of] the blood of the guilt offering.

And the priest takes this loving kindness and covers up the blood of guilt on the ear (listening), thumb (acting), toe (surrender).

18And what is left over from the oil that is in the kohen’s palm, he shall place upon the head of the person being cleansed, and the kohen shall effect atonement for him before the Lord.

With the left over strength, it gets placed on the person’s head – their Keter – their crown.

All this. For the person with lesions.

This is beauty in the Torah.

19The kohen shall then perform [the service of] the sin offering and effect atonement for the person being cleansed of his uncleanness. After this, he shall slaughter the burnt offering.

20And the kohen shall bring up the burnt offering and the meal offering to the altar. The kohen shall thus effect atonement for him, and he shall be [completely] clean.

It is a complete cleaning.  No matter what we’ve done. We can be kind to ourselves. We can listen with strength, covered in loving kindness. We can act in strength, covered in loving kindness. We can surrender in strength, covered in loving-kindness.

First within. Then to others.

This is the beauty of Torah. The Torah is life.

Here are my thoughts from two years ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts For 3 Nisan, 5782

I hope you had a great weekend as we go into this week! Yesterday we started off looking at the process of someone with a Tzara’at and how they regain their purity. We connected this with restoring relationship when Leshon Harah (spreading gossip and speaking poorly about someone) is committed; which many believed caused the Tzara’at.

The portion yesterday stopped in the middle of the eighth day rituals after the seven day purification rituals.

The priest next would take the lamb brought as a guilt offering and slaughter it where the sin offering and burnt offering are slaughtered.

The priest should take some of the blood and place it above the cartilage of the right ear of the person being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and the big toe of his right foot.

There is a wonder symbolism here as written about by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsh;

“The tzara’at sufferer, when bringing this sacrifice, is striving for a more spiritually noble lifestyle. Therefore the priest places oil on the sufferer’s ear, hand, and foot, symbolizing that he ought to make improvements to his mind (hearing and understanding), creative actions, and aspiration (advancing).”

This is a beautiful symbolic gesture to remind us of what goes in our ears, what we do with our hands and where our feet take us is very important in our spiritual development!

Next, the priest takes the oil and pour it into the priests palm, dip his finger in it and then sprinkle it seven times towards the holy of holies

Then with the oil in his palm, the priest should place some on the persons right ear, right thumb and right toe; on top of the blood that is there.

Then the rest of the oil in the palm should be placed on top of the persons head thus atoning for him. Nachmanides writes the following:

“The word “atone” is mentioned three times in the verses discussing the sacrifices of the tzara’at sufferer (14:18-20). This points to three dimensions of atonement:

• • The guilt-offering atones transgressions committed before he was afflicted with a lesion.
  • The sin-offering atones for blasphemous utterances he might have made out of pain during the time he had the lesion.
  • The burnt-offering and meal-offering, is a purification for the future, when he returns to his daily routine, worshiping God more carefully.”

As much as these sacrifices seem clinical, and without reason; there seem to be some deeper connections to be made here!

Finally:

• • The priest should then perform the service of the sin offering, to atone for the person being rendered ritually pure from his ritual impurity.
  • The priest should then slaughter the burnt offering
  • The priest should then bring the burnt offering and meal offering to the altar.
  • The priest will thus atone for him, and he will be completely ritually pure.

Wow! It is amazing that Hashem provides a way for us to have healing even when our words cause lesions both in our own bodies and others.

What are your thoughts?