Parshat Metzora 5782

by Rabbi Margie Cella

This week’s parashah continues to outline the laws regarding leprosy and bodily discharges. The categories of people that are declared unclean are: anyone afflicted with צרעת (leprosy); a man who has any kind of discharge or seminal emission; a woman who has a discharge of non-menstrual blood or her regular menstrual flow. All of these spend seven days outside the camp before inspection by a priest to determine if they have become clean. Purification occurs through sacrifices, sprinkling of blood, pouring of oil, and immersion in a mikvah. If the individual is still unclean, (s)he must spend another seven days in isolation before being rechecked by the priest. Garments and dwellings are also susceptible to infection and must be similarly checked by a priest.

This week is Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat before Pesach. This day, traditionally, the rabbi of the congregation gave a lengthy sermon, explaining all the laws of the holiday. Its name is connected to the penultimate verse of the haftarah, which says that God will send the prophet Elijah לפני בוא יום ה’ הגדול, before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the Lord.

This haftarah is the last chapter in the Tanakh, written sometime after the reconstruction of the Temple, between 500-480 BCE. God promises that the people’s sacrifices will once again be accepted, but not before the sinners among them will be called upon to repent and return to Hashem. The righteous among the people express indignance at their perceived Divine snub; God promises that they will receive a future reward, even as the wicked are destroyed for their sins. Finally, the nation is exhorted to be mindful of the teachings of Moses, and to wait for the day when Elijah will reappear, bringing reconciliation between parents and children, and between the people and God.

Verse five lists the sins of which the people have been judged guilty: sorcery, adultery, cheating workers of their wages, and mistreating the widow, orphan, and stranger; the single commandment mentioned more times than any other in the Torah–36 times!—is to remember the stranger and treat them with kindness and dignity because we know what it was like to be strangers in Egypt.

In verse six, God states that God has not changed, and that we as a nation have not ceased to exist. God calls us to turn back to Godself—and promises to turn back to us. God promises to send Elijah to bring about a great reconciliation; on Passover night we open the door for him, eagerly anticipating his arrival, bringing with him a time of peace.

May it come soon and in our day!