The two Parshot Tazria and Metzora deal with the biblical plague of Zara’at (Leprosy) and the procedures for the Cohen to study the symptoms, diagnose and treat the disease. The fact that the Torah devotes such detail to the different types of Zara’at, to not just a person but also to garments and buildings, the only illness discussed in the Torah, indicates to our sages that there is more to it than just a disease and there is message both for those afflicted and to society in general. The word “Metzora” hints at the expression “Motzie Shem Ra” to give someone a bad name suggests this is not an infectious disease but a punishment for slander, as was the case with Miriam when talking badly of Moshe. The Kli Yakar widens this to three social diseases – slander, being high and mighty and lust for money and connects these to the presentation of the treatment of the disease, which includes isolation and disconnecting the individual from society.
At the beginning of Parshat Metzora, Hashem presents the procedure for purifying a person from bodily leprosy, a lengthy process, which is even termed “Torat Hametzora” indicating its importance. The individual is returned from isolation and under the supervision of the Cohen who follows a three-stage recovery plan. This begins with the offering of two birds, then waiting seven days and washing clothes and shaving, and then finally bringing a lamb and meal offering.
For the first offering the person is required to bring two live “clean” birds, cedar wood (etz erez) and hyssop (ezov), tied together with scarlet thread (Shni Tolaat). The first bird is slaughtered, the blood drained into an earthenware pot filled with spring water, mixed with the hyssop and cedar wood and sprinkled over the individual, and then the second bird is set free. There is clearly a symbolic message here, and Rashi suggests that as the illness is a punishment for slander, the birds twittering and singing is a reminder of the chatter of too much idle talk. He adds that the cedar is a reminder of someone being high and mighty should learn to come to the low level of the hyssop plant.
The Ramban, noting the use of the term “zipor” for a bird rather than the word “of” for a foul, suggests that the bird referred to here is a sparrow. He notes that sparrows fly in a flock, so setting free one of the sparrows is a sign that the person, as the sparrow, can return to society. Rav S R Hirsch thinks the opposite, that the sparrow is an unsocial bird. I am no expert of birds and not sure whether the sparrow referred to (Zipor Dror) is the same one as we know today, but a search on the internet reveals quite a number of opinions that the sparrow is kosher. Ibn Ezra notes that the use of hyssop plant (probably zaatar) mixed with the blood occurs also in the Exodus from Egypt where the hyssop was dipped in the sheep’s blood, – a symbol of freedom from exile.
The Chassidic approach presented by the Sfat Emet emphasizes the importance of humility from the height of the cedar tree to the hyssop plant growing low on the ground, but the Slonim Rebbe suggests the opposite. On return to society, there are times to be meek and mild but one must learn to be proud of our heritage and be given a new chance to learn to be a spokesman for speaking well of people and as a bird fly to anywhere necessary to do it. This is the reason that the cedar wood and hyssop are tied together with a scarlet thread that one needs to find the balance between quiet and outspoken behaviour.
It was Erev Pesach a few years ago, and my wife Aviva, was a nurse in the gastroscopy clinic in Laniado Hospital and was called in to help with an emergency procedure. A Chosid from Kiryat Sanz had a chicken bone stuck in his throat and the Doctor, with the help of the team, needed to get the bone out of his throat. It was tricky but with the clever gastroscopic equipment they managed to break it and remove it. The chosid explained. He had taken his false teeth out to kasher them for Pesach, but he then smelt the lovely smell of the chicken soup his wife was preparing for the seder. He had to have taste and there were still bones in the soup and a wishbone got stuck in his throat.
Shabbat Shalom and Pesach Kasher Vesameach