יד יוסף: Metsora מצורע – Personal Cleanliness

Parshas Metsora deals with the purification of tuma טומא, generally understood as spiritual defilement. Examples of it in this week’s Torah reading come from leprosy, venereal disease, semen, and menstruation. Leprosy or צרעת can strike a person, garment, house, or object. Semen defiles through physical contact and masturbation. Similarly ordinary physical relations מטמא defile both the man and the woman. Other sources of ritual impurity include contact with a human corpse, eating the flesh of unkosher creatures, contact with the carcass of a kosher animal that was not properly slaughtered, and the carcass of other animals specifically mentioned in the Chumash such as lizards and rodents.

Tahara טהרה or purity is the opposite of tuma טומא or defilement. It is conceptually related to the idea of physical cleanliness. The word clean נקי is primarily an expression of physical cleanliness but is often used to denote purity as well as it says “Who will ascend upon the Lord's mount and who will stand in His Holy place? He who has clean (נקי) hands and a wholesome (בר) heart”, (Psalm 24:3-4).

In all cases of human טומא bathing is at least part of the purification rituals. Often laundering of the clothes is required as well. A leper must shave off all of his hair like a person with a severe infestation of lice. Some objects must be broken but for most scouring is fine. A leprous house may need to have the surface of the walls peeled off. In other words physical cleanliness is considered an agent of spiritual cleanliness like the popular proverb says, “Cleanliness is next to G-dliness”.

Concerning seeing a person with matted hair the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (60:13) rules that one should make the blessing for strange sights in nature (משנה הבריות). The Rambam in Guide for the Perplexed (3:33) states, “Cleanliness in dress and body by washing and removing sweat is included in the various objects of the Law, but only if connected with purity of action and a heart free from low principles and bad habits”. The Gemara brings an opinion in the name of Rabbi Yochanan that a talmid chacham that has a stain on his clothes should die. Ravina says that he means a stain from semen (Shabbos 114a).

The Or HaChaim brings the Zohar’s analysis of the purification of the leper as a metaphor for the kingdom of heaven on earth. “The one undergoing purification will launder” (VaYikra 14:8), refers to Israel. The clothing refers to the filthy clothing worn by their soul as it says, “I will remove the filthy clothes”, (Zacharia 3:4). The shaving of the hair is an aspect of the sprouting (compare צמח Sprout, ibid 8) of putrid material. “Washing in water” refers to Torah in which he will purify his thoughts. The purified leper must also count seven clean days and on the final one, will be fitting to receive a ray of sanctity.

The Talmud brings the advice of Rabbi Ishmael to his son that if he bumps into this degenerate he should draw him into the beis midrash. If he’s like a stone, melt him, and if he is like iron, shatter him, (Kidushin 30b). In fact purification of the leper is similar to the ordination of the Cohen Gadol. Both are required to bring a sacrifice whose blood is to be placed on the lobe of the ear, the thumb, and the big toe. With the leper the priest performs this ritual a second time using oil instead of blood. The oil remaining in his hand is placed on the head of the leper. This hints that if the leper not only repents but has a head burning to learn Torah, he can be as high as the High Priest.