METZORA – LEPROSY by Raphael ben Levi
Parshat Metzora speaks of the laws of purification for someone with a skin disease known as tza-arot a generic term which could include leprosy or something even worse. It stems from the Aramaic root word meaning ‘isolation’ and included skin diseases such as, eczema, psoriasis, or even mildew and mild on clothes or walls. But the malignant forms of tza-arot, such as leprosy rotted the flesh, disfigured the body and caused incredible pain. It was a dreaded disease compared to modern day cancer that was no respecter of persons and the only disease which rendered a person unclean. It condemned people to a wretched existence and eventual death isolating them from the community to roam in the barren wilderness.
The idea of a saviour who bore our iniquities as described in Isaiah 53, who may have been stricken with a form of this horrible skin disease seems unthinkable. Yeshua healed all who were oppressed by the devil so why would He not have been able to heal Himself?
According to our sages, the Messiah would suffer the afflictions of tza-arot by taking upon Himself and personally suffering the pain of His people demonstrated by how He bore our sins on the Cross: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the stake, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness—by his wounds you were healed.” (1Pet.2:24)
In the Talmud, the Messiah is referred to as the “Leper of the house of study” and a sure sign that the Messiah had come. When John the Baptist’s disciples came to Yeshua to ask Him if He was the promised Messiah, Yeshua answered them, “Go and show John again those things that you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up…” (Matt.11:4-5)
Again, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98b) provides interesting commentary on Isa 53:4:“What is his (the Messiah’s) name? …The Rabbis said: His name is the ‘leper scholar, as it is written,“Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].” [Isai. 53:4]
If Yeshua had been scarred from tza-arot, it would have been non-contagious otherwise He would have been isolated from the community in accordance with (Lev. 13:45-46). A contagious disease isolates us from others but sin is far worse because it isolates us from God.
Contagious diseases are a cause for great concern, but Scripture states that we have been infected by something far worse than any physical disease which most people ignore or even flaunt.
Only the blood of Yeshua, our Passover Lamb, can cleanse us from our sin and defilement. Just as Yeshua made the lepers pure and whole, He can also cleanse and present us holy and without blemish to the Father.
Gossip is a type of “moral leprosy,” and the rabbis consider tza-arot as an affliction from God caused by destructive communication. Our words hold no neutrality. The 2nd Temple was destroyed according to our sages through ‘baseless hatred’ (‘sinat chinam’) rooted in slander. Miriam’s leprosy is a good case in example. After she spoke evil of her brother Moses and his Cushite wife, she was immediately afflicted with tza-arot and was only healed due to Moses’ intercession “El na refa na la.” Num.12:1–2
