Pesach 5779 | April 2019
Rabbi Marianne Novak
Class of 2019
This year as in many others, the weekly Torah readings leading up to Pesach contain the details of the spiritual skin affliction of tzara’at, often mistranslated as leprosy, specifically in the parshiyot Tazria and Metzora. What is the connection between tzara’at and Pesach and yitziyat mitzrayim, the exodus from Egypt?
In parshat Metzora in Sefer Vayikra, the Torah explains the purification process for one who has contracted tzara’at:
This narrative has many literary allusions to the Pesach Mitzrayim story. There is the blood of the birds coloring the clean water-- allusions to Makat Dam, the first plague of blood coloring the water of the Nile. There is also hyssop being dipped into the blood and then spread over a piece of cedar wood-- allusions to the painting of the doorposts, the mashkof, with blood by the Jews in Egypt to keep the malakh ha-mavet, the angel of death, at bay. Similarly, after a period of seven days, the Metzora is allowed to re-enter the camp and rejoin the community.This echoes the seven days of the Pesach holiday when we re-enact our National narrative-the seven days in which we celebrate the birth of our people.
The Ramban quoting the Ibn Ezra noticed these parallels as well.
On the pasuk (Vayikra 14:4):
the Ramban, quoting Ibn Ezra, states:
והנה המצורע ותורת הבית המנוגע וטומאת המת קרובים והנה הם כדמות פסח מצרים
Thus the law of the metzora, and the law/teaching of the house stricken with tzara’at and the law of the Tuma’ah of a dead corpse are closely related and they are like Pesach mitzrayim.
What Ramban (via Ibn Ezra) is saying is that in the same way that the Jews in Egypt used the Hyssop plant as the brush to paint the blood on the doorposts (which theoretically could have been cedar—a strong wood used for structures) to keep death from their homes, so too the metzora does the same thing to keep death at bay.
That of course begs the question- what death is the metzora being purified or redeemed from? There is somewhat of a consensus among the Sages that the metzora suffers a kind of spiritual death in that he becomes ta’meh (spiritually impure) and needs to leave the community. But, as Rabbi David Fohrman of Aleph Beta notes, after a period of seven days, the metzora experiences a rebirth and can rejoin the community. The Passover holiday lasts seven days as well, and with it we commemorate the time when we emerged as a community, as a nation.
The Haggadah also has the idea of spiritual death, separation, and rejoining the community as one of its themes. When we worshipped idols, it was as if we were spiritually dead. At the moment of Pesach Mitzrayim we have a national rebirth— along with extensive birth imagery, including blood, and moving from a dark place into the open. (It is no accident that Parashat Tazria, starts with a discussion of tuma and tahara regarding birth and immediately after that talks about tuma and tahara regarding the metzora.
At our Pesach Seders we traditionally celebrate our physical and historical redemption from Egypt.
But when we say—
בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם
In every generation, one is obligated to see oneself as if he left Mitzrayim
perhaps we should think about the times when we have experienced a spiritual death—the times we have done those things that have caused a part of our souls to die- whether it is speaking Lashon Ha’Rah or anything that takes us away from our best self, or simply anything that impedes our relationship to God.
Pesach gives us a time therefore to not only remember our physical redemption from Egypt but also gives us the opportunity each year to experience a spiritual rebirth-- a rebirth that connects us with our people but strengthens our bounds with God as well. With every Pesach, God gives us the tools, as alluded to in the tzara’at narrative, to redeem ourselves spiritually and join our community to pray for the ultimate redemption.
