Tazria
Leviticus 12:1-13:59

     This week our Torah portion describes situations in which people are “clean” or “unclean”. In Hebrew, the words are “tamay” (unclean) or “tahor” (clean). These designations have nothing to do with sin, but rather the ability to enter the Tabernacle/Temple.  All of the situations mentioned in these chapters are physical in nature. They include childbirth, skin disease and emissions of bodily fluids. We may wonder why these states are considered unclean. Jacob Milgrom, one of the foremost scholars on the book of Leviticus contends that all of these situations symbolize “death.”   “The loss of …blood and semen,… meant the diminution of life and, if unchecked, destruction and death. And it was a process unalterably opposed by Israel ’s God, the source of life….Moreover, in the Israelite mind, blood was the archsymbol of life. Its oozing from the body was…a sign of death….Thus it was that Israel - alone among the peoples - restricted impurity solely to those physical conditions involving the loss of …blood and semen, the forces of life, and to scale disease, which visually manifested the approach of death.”[i]

     The Sages teach us that skin disease is not really a “disease” but rather the physical manifestation of a spiritual problem. Specifically, it is caused by the sin of speaking evil against another or slander. In Hebrew it is called “lashon hara” (lit. “bad tongue”).  The following is a quote from the Stone Chumash p.610: “Similarly the Sages teach that the affliction is a punishment for the sins of bloodshed, false oaths, sexual immorality, pride, robbery and selfishness. The pattern that emerges is that of a divine retribution for the offender’s failure to feel the needs and share the hurt of others. God rebukes this anti-social behavior by isolating him from society, so that he can experience the pain he has imposed on others - and heal himself through repentance.”  

      The “classic” illustration of skin disease being the result of speaking evil against another is when Miriam and Aaron questioned the leadership of Moses. We read in Numbers 12:8-14  With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?"  ⁹ So the anger of the LORD burned against them and He departed.  ¹⁰ But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.  ¹¹ Then Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned.  ¹² "Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother's womb!"  ¹³ Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "O God, heal her, I pray!"  ¹⁴ But the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again." Other similar illustrations are found in Numbers 14:33-38; 2Kings 5:20-27 and 2Chronicles 21:12-16. 

     Notice that the priest is the person who decides who is unclean and clean. When the Messiah came, he cleansed us from sin. This enables us to enter the holy place -  the presence of God.  Today God does provide healing. However, the day is coming when all believers in the  Messiah will have a new body which will no longer have any diseases. In the Messiah, physical abnormalities no longer affect our relationship with God.  Death no longer affects us spiritually. We still live in a dying world and our body of flesh is still affected by this world. In His sovereign plan, God does heal but many godly people glorify God in their faithfulness despite physical ailments.

     The Messiah’s priesthood surpasses the Aaronic priesthood in that the priests in the bible could only determine a person’s state of cleanness. The Messiah makes us clean despite physical illness. We read in in hebrews 10:19-22  Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Yeshua,  ²⁰ by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,  ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  ²² let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

      While our position in the Lord is “clean”, we still sin and in a practical sense become unclean. However, we read in 1John 1:9 that when we confess our sins to God, he is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us.  In Messiah Yeshua nothing can separate us from God!

Shabbat Shalom!