WHEN YOU ENTER THE LAND OF CANAAN THAT I GIVE YOU AS A POSSESSION,
AND I INFLICT AN AFFLICTION OF TSARAAT UPON A HOUSE IN THE LAND YOU
POSSESS, THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE SHALL COME AND TELL THE PRIEST, SAYING: "SOMETHING
LIKE AN AFFLICTION HAS APPEARED UPON MY HOUSE."

 (Vayikra 14:33-34)

AFFLICTIONS ON THE HOUSE – A RESULT OF POSSESIVENESS
AND USE OF FORCE

What I consider to be the most correct understanding of this is that the
main cause [of afflictions of the house] is selfishness, as our Rabbis of blessed
memory learned (Arachin 16) from the passage "and he shall come, he who
has the house" – he who used the house only for himself, not letting
others benefit from it, for because of this God gave him for possession a house
full of all good things, to test him whether he will let others benefit from
his house. "For the silver and the gold are mine – said the Lord" (Haggai
2:8), and when man gives to others, he is not giving of his own, but he gives
from the Lord's table, therefore it says "when you enter the land of
Canaan that I give you as a possession" for "for not with
their sword did they inherit the land, and their arm did not save" (Psalms
44:4), but rather "the right arm of God is raised on high" to
give them the inheritance of nations and there is no place for the selfish to
say "my strength and the power of my hand made me all this wealth",
for it is He who gives you the strength and the inheritance, and therefore, it
is right that you should give from what is His to the poor of His people, and
if you do not heed His word and you shall be one of those selfish persons who
attribute their possessions to themselves, then: "I will inflict an
affliction of tsaraat upon a house in the land you possess" meaning:
upon that place which you attribute to yourselves, as though you possess it with
the strength of your hands, therefore it continues to state "the
owner of the house shall come" – he who set aside the house for
himself, that is to say, with his strength and the power of his arm he built
his house, or "you possess" – referring to one who set
aside the house for himself, and lets no one else derive any benefit from it.

(Kli Yakar, Vayikra 14:34)

"THIS SHALL BE THE
RITUAL FOR A LEPER AT THE TIME THAT HE IS TO BE CLEANSED – HE IS TO BE BROUGHT
TO THE PRIEST"

THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER AND THE CLEANSING OF
THE PRIEST

Eliezer Shwartz

The
series of parshiot which begins with the command to erect a Mishkan (Parashat
Teruma) emphasizes not only the building of the Mishkan itself, but also the
preparation of the priests – their sanctification for their duty in the
Mishkan. Their primary responsibility is the offering of sacrifices, the first
subject of the book of Vayikra.

 It
appears that, aside from the Mishkan duties, their most important extra-Mishkan
responsibility is that of diagnosing the affliction of tzaraat, and the
cleansing of the metsora.

We are
unable to identify tzaraat. The Biblical description indicates that it
is clearly not the leprosy which we recognize today. Perhaps it was some
disease which has disappeared, but the extensive detailing with which the Torah
describes the tzaraat indicates a concrete – and perhaps prevalent –
illness of that period. The doctor who diagnosed and treated the affliction was
the priest (see "Shabbat Shalom", issue number 130). When "…the
priest sees that the leper has been healed of his tzaraat" the
ceremony of cleansing begins.

The
cleansing of the metsora is divided into two stages: in the first stage,
the priest cleanses him with "two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet
of the worm, and hyssop"; following this day of cleansing, the
(former) metsora sits outside his tent for seven days.

Ibn
Ezra comments on the use of cedar wood and hyssop on the day of cleansing of
the metsora:

"The cedar tree and the hyssop – the largest and the
smallest among the flora… the metsora and the afflicted house and the
impurity of the dead are similar, and they are like the Pesach in
Egypt." (Ibn Ezra, Vayikra 14:6)

In the
chapter relating to the red heifer (used in the ritual of purifying one who
came into contact with the dead) it is written:

"The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and
scarlet of the worm, and throw them into the fire consuming the cow." (Bemidbar
19:6)

Regarding
the Pesach it is written:

"Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that
is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel
and to the two doorposts." (Shemot 12:22)

Ibn
Ezra does not elaborate on the significance of this parallelism.

The
second stage of the the metsora's cleansing takes place following his
seven days of his dwelling outside his tent. At the end of these days, i.e., on
the eighth day, an additional ceremony is carried out – this time before the
entrance to the Tent of Appointment. As part of the cleansing ritual, an asham
(guilt offering) lamb is slaughtered: "Then the priest is to take
some of the blood of the asham and the priest is to place it on the ridge of
the right ear of the one being purified, and on the thumb of his right hand,
and on the thumb-toe of his right foot" (14:14). This special ceremony
takes place only on one other occasion, at the anointment of Aharon and his
sons to priesthood in the Mishkan. The beginning of the days of miluim (appointment
to the Mishkan service) was marked by the offering of sacrifices, and Moshe is
commanded "You are to slay the ram, you are to take some of its blood
and you are to put it on the ridge of Aharon's ear and on the ridge of the
right ear of Aharon's sons, and on the thumb of their right hands and on the
thumb-toe of their right feet…" (Shemot
29:20)

It
seems that these two ceremonies are intentionally linked by the Torah; the miluim
ceremony is repeated in the Book of Vayikra, in Parashat Tsav, where the
detailed execution of the command is described: "…and he slew it.
Moshe took some of the blood on the ridge of their right ear, on the thumb of
their right hand, and on the thumb-toe of their right foot…"
(Vayikra 8:23).

This
ceremony took place of the first day of miluim, and was concluded on the
eighth day with Aharon's offering his sacrifices "for on this day, the
Lord will appear to you." The sons of Aharon bring close that alien
fire which leads to their death.  

Comparison
of the two ceremonies – appointment of the priests and cleansing of metsoraim
– reveals more points of similarity:

 · The time frames: The priest preparing
for his Mishkan duty and the metsora preparing for return to his home
both require eight days.

 · The sacrifices required by both and
the purification of the body as the change in status approaches are – as
pointed out above – similar.

The
similarity between the priest's sanctification for Mishkan service and the
cleansing of the metsora and his preparation for return to life in the
encampment does not appear to be coincidental; I have not, however, found in
the commentaries any reference it. (Any contributions by readers on this
similarity will be greatly appreciated).

Execution
of the laws of the metsora is dependent upon the priest. In the words of
the Sefer Hachinuch: "And this cleansing [of the metsora] is in
force wherever and whenever there is to be found a priest well-versed in
afflictions".  

Regarding
the mitzva of the shaving of the metsora on the seventh day, the
author of the Sefer Hachinuch quotes the words of the Rambam "Three are
commanded to shave, the nazirite, and metsora, and the Levites; the
Levites require shaving like the metsora, and thus is was in the
desert… and it is in force wherever and whenever there are great sages
competent to rule in matters of tsaraat." (Sefer Hachinuch 173,
174). 

Thus we
see that is no metsora and there is no tsaraat unless there is a
qualified Cohen to deal with the matter. It may also be said that a Cohen is
not qualified for his position if he is not cognizant of – and concerned with –
the tsaraat affliction. Tsaraat in the Bible is an example, not
only of physical afflictions; it is an ailment which is punishment for sin.
Chazal read metzora as an acronym for "motsie shem ra" –
one who gives a bad name, who defames; tsaraat is the punishment
inflicted for defamation. 

Chazal
noted a number of examples in the Torah: the punishment of Miriam and the
punishment of Moshe; Miriam, who spoke "about the Kushite woman," and
Moshe, who said about the Children of Israel "They will not believe me,
nor will they listen to my voice" are punished with tsaraat for
'bad mouthing'. In these two examples there is more that defamation – there is
also scorn of others and pride; Miram and Aharon said: "Is it
only, solely through Moshe that God speaks? Is it not also through us that He
speaks?" We see pride and the desire for authority.

Another
example of a tsaraat punishment is to be found in the Book of Kings.
Naaman, courageous commander of the Aramean army was afflicted with tsaraat,
and came to Elisha to be cured. Elisha cleanses him in the waters of the
Jordan; he refuses to accept monetary remuneration or any other benefit from
Naaman. Gehazi, Elisha's servant, however, runs after Naaman, and with wile
manages to receive from him money and clothing. When Elisha hears of this, he
tells Gehazi: "Naaman's tsaraat will stick to you and to your seed
forever, and he left him, metsora as snow' (II Kings 5:27). In this case, tsaraat
is a reaction to economic corruption, exploitation of the man's status in
order to obtain favors.

It can
be said, then, that tsaraat is the priest's red light, a reminder of sin
of which he must be constantly aware. Therefore the metsora concludes
his cleansing before the Tent of Appointment, as is written, "Then the
cleansing priest shall stand the person to be cleansed… before the Lord at
the entrance to the Tent of Appointment" (14:11)

Perhaps
this may provide another clue to the nature of that 'alien fire' which led to
the death of Nadav and Avihu.

Pride,
scorn of the other, and corruption are stumbling blocks on which public leaders
are prone to stumble. The Torah wanted to tell us that the kohanim, even
as they enter the Mishkan, must be careful. This message holds true for all
persons with authority; they must always see before them the tsaraat "lest
he and his seed be forever infected by it", and, in the words of the
Netziv in his commentary "Haamek Davar (Vayikra 4:22) "When a
leader sins' – it is known that the explanation is that his leadership
position makes him liable to sin… for the meaning of 'When a leader sins'
– it is his high position in particular which causes him to sin."

Dr.
Eliezer Schwartz is a physician.

ALEF-TAF AND
BET-SHIN

Thoughts About Independence 5762

The Hebrew calendar contains devices which
enables us to use the days of Pesach to predict the day of the week upon which
each of the year's festivals will fall. The code is Aleph-Taf, i.e., the first
and lest letters of the Hebrew alphabet – Alef and Taf – are paired; so the
second and the penultimate letter, Bet and Shin, etc. The first day (Aleph) of
Pesach will be the day on which Tisha (begins with the letter
Taf) B'Av will fall; Shavuot (begins with letter Shin) falls on
the second day of Pesach, and so on.

Prior to the establishment of the State, the
seventh day of Pesach remained "an orphan". Since Yom Haatzmauth –
Israel Independence Day – was declared on the fifth day of Iyar, the chain of
pairs has been complete, i.e., Yom Haatzmauth – Independence Day, always fall
on the seventh day of Pesach (the letter 'Ayin', beginning letter of Azmauth,
is the seventh before the last letter of the alphabet). Furthermore, on Yom
Haatzmauth it is customary to recite for Haftara "This same day at Nob
He shall stand", which is read on the eighth day of Pesach outside of
Israel.  

Can we discern a connection between the
Festival of Pesach and Yom Haatzmauth, beyond the Aleph-Taf Bet-Shin code and
the common Haftara? 

This question lies at the foundation of our relation – as
religious Zionists – to the State of Israel. We know the long-running
controversy within religious Zionism regarding the recitation of Hallel on Yom
Haatzmauth or Atzmauth night; beyond Halakhic aspects, the different customs
express the religious significance ascribed to this day.

 The position of the extreme
ultra-Orthodox, represented in Israel by the Eida Hareidit and throughout the
world by the Satmar hassidim, regards the State of Israel as a negative phenomenon,
mother of all sin. A less extreme ultra-Orthodox position sees no religious
value whatever in the State or in its establishment.

 In the religious Zionist community, we
have the term "the beginning of the flowering of our redemption."
This phrase is understood by large sectors of religious Zionists as "the
beginning of the Geula"; in these circles there is a feeling that
everything which has befallen us since the establishment of the State is part
of the Geula plan, and therefore Yom Haatzmauth and Yom Yerushalayim
are, in every sense of the word, "religious" holidays, on which
special prayers are said.

 Those who believe that we are currently
in a process of geula must, in order not damage their faith, explain
every phenomenon which ostensibly does not bring us closer to geula as a
test, as part of the "pangs of Messiah" – similar to the
theologically interesting theories of the Satmar Rebbi about the success of
Satan in the Six Day War.

There is possible, however, a spiritual
approach of religious Zionism which entertains no pretensions to interpretation
of historical events in theological terms; whoever is not "behind the
[Heavenly] curtain" cannot know with certainty what is the place of the
State of Israel in the process of the redemption of the Jewish nation and of
the entire world. People chose the religious and moral significance which they
attach to historical events; the events themselves, as Y. Leibowitz pointed
out, are "indifferent" in terms of values.

 A connection between the final days of
Peach to Yom Haatzmauth may take two forms:

 · The seventh day of Pesach is the day of
"The Crossing of the Reed Sea", therefore it is customary to read the
Song of the Sea; we recite the incomplete Hallel because (among other reasons)
"the works of My hands are drowning in the sea, and you sing
praises?" Perhaps this teaches that even though our independence was bound
up with necessary suffering of another people, we cannot be oblivious to
that suffering – just as we are sensitive to the plight of the Egyptians who
drowned in the sea.

 · It may be that in a certain respect, Yom
Haatzmauth is the eighth day of Pesach. There is reference to the future geula
via the Haftara in Isaiah (Chaps. 10-11). The vision of geula in these
chapters speaks of "a shoot shall grow out of the stump of Jesse" who
will head a kingdom of justice with wisdom and counsel, in a world of peace, a
world in which the land shall be filled with devotion to the Lord.

These two motifs of Yom Haatsmauth, bound
up strongly to the redemption from Egypt, can provide contemporary Israeli
society with relevant religious meaning to Yom Haatzmauth, with no need for
activist messianic interpretation, and, in the remarks of my teacher, Prof. Dov
Rappel, of Kibbutz Yavneh, on "the beginning of the flowering of our
redemption" (in his book "Pitchei Shearim", p. 213):

"…With independence
we moved into our own domain, we gained freedom of choice. We are not
dependent upon the decisions of others, and the process of geula can process
until its culmination, if so we desire.

Geula is not one of
the 613 mitzvoth; the Halakhic significance of geula is political
independence – the possibility of observance of those mitzvoth which require
sovereignty and territory in Eretz Yisrael. "The beginning of geula" is the possibility of observing the mitzvoth by virtue of the
sovereignty granted us. The geula
itself is the actual observance of the mitzvoth."

May we merit to observe and maintain our
independence in a just society, in peace and tranquillity.

Pinchas
Leiser – Editor

Editorial
Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal
and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation:
Kadish Goldberg

This
weekly publication was made possible by:

The
Moriah Fund, the Tisch Foundation and private donors

To
our readers:

We will be happy to have you actively participate in "Shabbat
Shalom" by:

• Letters to the editor
• Publication of Divrei Torah (in
  coordination with the editorial board)

For details, contact Miriam Fine (053-920206 or 02-6730196)

If you enjoy Shabbat Shalom, please consider contributing towards
its publication and distribution.

• Hebrew edition distributed in Israel $1000
• English edition distributed via email $ 100

Issues may be dedicated in honor of an event, person, simcha, etc. Requests
must be made 3-4 weeks in advance to appear in the Hebrew, 10 days in advance
to appear in the English email.

US, Canadia or British tax-exempt contributions to OzveShalom may be
made through the New Israel Fund or through P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc.

Contributions should be marked as donor-advised to OzveShalom/Netivot
Shalom, the Shabbat Shalom project.

New Israel Fund, POB 53410, Jerusalem 91534 (Please include Israeli
address and telephone number)

New Israel Fund, POB 91588, Washington, DC 20090-1588, USA

New Israel Fund of Canada, 801 Eglinton Ave. West, Suite #401, Toronto,
Ontario M5N 1E3 Canada (Canadian tax exemption)

New Israel Fund of Great Britain, 26 Enford Street, London W1H 2DD,
United Kingdom (British tax exemption)

P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., 317 Madison Ave., Suite 607, New
York, New York 10017 USA

About us:

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom is a movement dedicated to the advancement of
a civil society in Israel. It is committed to promoting the ideals of
tolerance, pluralism, and justice, concepts which have always been central to
Jewish tradition and law.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom shares a deep attachment to the land of
Israel and it no less views peace as a central religious value. It believes
that Jews have both the religious and the national obligation to support the
pursuit of peace. It maintains that Jewish law clearly requires us to create a
fair and just society, and that co-existence between Jews and Arabs is not an
option but an imperative.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom`s programs include both educational and
protest activities. Seminars, lectures, workshops, conferences and weekend
programs are held for students, educators and families, as well as joint
seminars for Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. Protest activities focus on
issues of human rights, co-existence between Jews and Arabs, and responses to
issues of particular religious relevance.

9,000 copies of a 4 page peace oriented commentary on the weekly Torah
reading are written and published by Oz VeShalom/Netivot Shalom and they are
distributed to over 350 synagogues in Israel and are sent overseas via email.
Our web site is www.netivot-shalom.org.il.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom`s educational forums draw people of different
backgrounds, secular and religious, who are keen to deepen their Jewish
knowledge and to hear an alternative religious standpoint on the subjects of
peace and social issues.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom fills an ideological vacuum in
Israel's society. Committed both to Jewish tradition and observance, and to the
furthering of peace and coexistence, the movement is in a unique position to
engage in dialogue with the secular left and the religious right, with Israeli
Arabs and with Palestinians.

Our activities are funded by
donations and one part time employee.

OzveShalom/Netivot Shalom                Tel./Fax
972-2-5664218

Pob 4433                                             Email:
ozshalom@netvision.net.il

Jerusalem 94310, Israel                        www.
netivot-shalom.org.il