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Metzora

Most years, Parasha Metzora is read together with Parasha Tazria. Click here to go to that entry and find my menu for these combined portions, as well as all the delicious recipes you could want or need for a fabulous Shabbat dinner.

There is something to explore in this parasha that’s specific to it alone.

We’re given a careful list of the types of tzara’at that can erupt on the body, how to identify them and what to do about them. And then, Parasha Metzora addresses the issue of tzara’at of the house. If a priest determines that the blemish on a house is a tzara’at, we’re told how to remedy the problem. But what if it doesn’t work? What if it comes back?

If the lesion erupts again in the house after the workers had removed the stones, and after the wall of the house had been scraped around, and after the wall had been re-plastered, the priest must come and examine it. If the lesion in the house has spread, it is an onerous tzara’at-lesion in the house; the house is ritually defiled. He must demolish the house, its stones, its wood, and all the mortar of the house, and he must take them outside the city, to a ritually defiled place. (Leviticus 14:43-45)

Wow! Can you just imagine? Your house has developed an incurable defilement and it must be torn down, leaving you homeless. How can we even relate to that?

Tzara’at, a spiritual rather than a physical affliction, no longer exists.

And there has never been a case of tzara’at in a house, neither in the present or in antiquity.

So what’s the purpose of this strange and disturbing law?

From the lessons we can learn from it, of course.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

It’s written that while the Israelites were in the wilderness, the Canaanites knew they were coming and would be conquered. They hid their wealth, their gold and silver, within the walls of their homes, believing that the day would come when they would reclaim the land and drive the Israelites out. So, if the priest has declared that your house must be demolished, you can have high hopes that silver and gold will be spewing forth from the demolition.

Sometimes, when we’re devastated by the loss of something that is precious to us, we find that even greater treasure will come to us through that destruction.

There are times in life when what we’ve built has become irreparably damaged. As difficult as it is to let go—of a relationship that’s become toxic, of a way of life that no longer serves us, or anything that’s become too fundamentally damaged to repair—ties must be cut. In these times that are almost unbearably painful, we need to find the strength and the faith to be willing to start again.

So what shall we eat?