Parashah Metzora (Shabbat HaGadol)
12 Nisan 5784 \ April 20, 2024
By Rabbi Kirk Gliebe
This Week’s Readings:
Torah: Leviticus 14:1 - 15:33
Haftarah: Malachi 3:4-24
Brit Chadashah: Matthew 8:1-17
I am actually a very clean person. I bath daily and, thanks to my wife Carla and the dry cleaner, wear mostly clean clothes. This has not always been the case. When I was growing up, I used to love getting dirty! Since my brothers and I were home alone most of the time, we used to get into all kinds of trouble, including making messes. One time we flooded the backyard of our house to create a huge lake area, that really became one massive mud pool. Needless to say, we receive a very serious “punishment” for this. We were so dirty my dad made us strip naked outside and he used a hose to wash us off. Another time we were at the beach by the Pacific Ocean and dug a massive six foot deep fort with extending tunnels through the sand. We were filthy with sand! It’s also a miracle we didn’t kill ourselves. My dad again made us strip down and bath in the ocean to clean off. You probably couldn’t do that today. This indulging in filthiness that I am telling you about is pretty funny (and normal for boys), but it’s not really the same kind of “uncleanness” that our portion Metzora is talking about, and it’s this that I want to explain this morning.
In this week’s Torah portion we read about laws regarding several different medical conditions and circumstances. The uncleanness of tza’arat (traditionally considered leprosy) is actually a serious medical condition in verses 14:1-32, while in 14:33-54 it’s about a serious destructive mildew that is infecting a house. In chapter 15 we read about something completely different. It’s about uncleanness of a zav and zavah, individuals who are experiencing unusual bodily discharges. This is a chronic physical condition of some kind involving bodily fluids that makes a person suffering from it ritually impure. The chapter also lists normal bodily fluids that make one impure for a day or seven days, but this is something much worse that makes this person a walking source of impurity: “Unclean, Unclean! Of all the ways to be unclean, leprosy was definitely the worst because your body would rot away, but being a zav or zavah was really just as bad, because you looked fine, but were still an outcast. You had to live your life outside of the community until you could be healed.
The special Haftarah reading for this week doesn’t talk about uncleanness of the body, but of the heart: the sin of being greedy toward G-d. The Jewish people are back in the Land, but instead of showing their generosity to G-d for all that he has done for them, they act stingy by not tithing or giving special offerings to show their appreciation for G-d’s blessing. Do you want G-d to bless your life? Then you better practice generosity toward G-d through giving back to him a generous portion of what he has blessed you with!
In the Brit Chadashah portion, Yeshua healed a leprous man who believed in His power to make him well. Yeshua then told him to "show [himself] to the kohen and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them" (v.4). Not only does this statement provide evidence that Yeshua did not abrogate the Torah, as many today believe, but it is important to note that Yeshua, according to Torah, became unclean by touching the leper. And He did it in front of large crowds, among whom were Pharisees. Was Yeshua really unclean after touching this man? Of course not! The subsequent story of the centurion's servant's healing makes the healing of the leper that much more powerful. In the centurion's case, Yeshua only needed to say the word, and the servant was healed. But why then did He need to touch the unclean leper to heal him?
Most of us are pretty clean, physically speaking. We are also probably ritually clean, at least in the basic sense of what our Torah portion says about normal bodily fluids. But all people need a good cleansing on the inside that only is possible through acceptance of Messiah Yeshua’s atonement. As those who profess belief in Messiah’s atonement, let’s also be sure that we don’t become complacent about our daily spiritual cleanliness, from sins like stinginess and greed before G-d and others. Let’s work hard to keep ourselves spiritually clean!