Vayikra/Leviticus
14:1–15:33
Parshah, “Metzora,”
is often translated as “leper” and it is found in Leviticus 14:2.
Last week’s Parshah described the signs of the metzora (commonly
mistranslated as “leper”)—a person afflicted by a spiritual malady which
places him or her in a state of ritual impurity. This week’s Torah
reading begins by detailing how the recovered metzora is purified by the
kohen (priest) with a special procedure involving two birds, spring
water in an earthen vessel, a piece of cedar wood, a scarlet thread and
a bundle of hyssop.
A home can also be afflicted with tzaraat by the appearance of dark red
or green patches on its walls. In a process lasting as long as nineteen
days, a kohen determines if the house can be purified, or whether it
must be demolished.
Ritual impurity is also engendered through a seminal or other discharge
in a man, and menstruation or other discharge of blood in a woman,
necessitating purification through immersion in a mikvah.
pecified
qualifications) and the wellspring. Thus the people of Israel are
enjoined to “differentiate between the impure and the pure.”
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