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The name of this week’s parasha is M’tzora, which means ‘lepers” and covers Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33. In chapter 14 Adonai gives Moses instructions on the procedure for cleansing from leprosy. A person healed from leprosy was to go before the priest with two live clean birds, along with cedar wood, scarlet, yarn and hyssop. One of the birds was sacrificed in a clay pot over running water, while the other was dipped with the cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop in the dead bird’s blood. The person was sprinkled seven times by the priest, who pronounced the person clean and released the living bird.
The cleansed person then washed themselves and their clothes in water, and shaved off all their hair. They were allowed back in the camp, but had to remain outside their tent for seven more days. On the seventh day, they once again shaved off all their hair, washed themselves and their clothes in water, and then they were clean.
On the eighth day, the healed person brought a pair of year-old unblemished male lambs, a year-old unblemished female lamb, a grain offering of six quarts of flour mixed with oil, and one-third of a quart of oil. The priest took these items to the Mishkan (Tabernacle), offered one of the male lambs with the oil for a guilt offering, and waved them both as a wave offering.
The priest then sacrificed the lamb inside the sanctuary and placed some of its blood on the right ear lobe, the right thumb, and the big toe of the right foot of the healed person, symbolically covering the whole person. This ritual demonstrated the role that Adonai must have in a person’s life. Submission to God is required in everything a person thinks and does. After all, it’s with the ear that a man listens, and what he listens to affects how he thinks. The thumb is what a man uses to grasp things, and this symbolizes his actions. A man’s feet are what move him, and this reflects where he goes and what his priorities are. This is a picture of man’s need to yield every aspect of his life to the Creator’s will.
The priest then placed the oil on top of the blood, and poured the remaining oil on the person’s head. The priest sacrificed the animal and burnt it together with a grain offering on the altar to make atonement for the healed person, who is now clean. If the person couldn’t afford these animals, they could bring one male lamb for a guilt offering to be waved, two-thirds of a pint of oil, a fifth of a quart of flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and two doves or pigeons. The same procedure was then followed for sacrificing the lamb, but one of the pigeons or doves was sacrificed as a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, along with a grain offering.
Adonai then gave Moses and Aaron instructions on removing leprosy from houses. When the priest was notified of these conditions, he ordered everything removed from inside the house prior to inspecting it. If there were greenish or reddish spots that were more than surface deep, he ordered the house closed for seven days. If the priest saw that the leprosy had spread, he ordered the leprous stones removed and the leprosy scraped away.
Anyone who entered the house was unclean until evening. If the leprosy disappeared after the house was repaired, the priest pronounced the house to be clean, and took two small birds with cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop to perform the same leprosy-cleansing procedure on the house as was performed on the person. If the leprosy came back, the priest would order the house demolished, and the remains of the house removed to an unclean place outside the city.
In chapter 15, Adonai gives instructions for the Jewish people to be cleansed after bodily discharges. Anyone or anything touched by an unclean person became unclean. The person with the discharge must wait seven days after cleaning themselves before washing again in order to be clean. On the eighth day, the person brought two doves or pigeons to the priest, who sacrificed one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and made atonement for the person with the discharge.
In looking back at this passage, while these instructions may seem tedious, they help us see the importance God places on cleanliness and holiness. These standards were put into place by a holy God for a holy people to keep themselves clean, and to provide restoration for those healed from these conditions. Yeshua Himself emphasized the importance of following these God-given standards to the man He healed from leprosy in Matthew chapter 8.
Another way that parasha M’tzora is relevant to us today is that sin is like spiritual leprosy. All of humanity, each and every one of us, come into the world as spiritual lepers, so to speak – spiritually unhealthy, and spiritually unclean.
And just like those with leprosy, who are isolated outside the camp, Yeshua suffered outside the camp when He died for our sins, so that we can be healed of our spiritual leprosy! His death is like the sacrifices used to cleanse lepers and cleanse those who were unclean, so let’s avail ourselves of the atonement and cleansing God has proved through the Messiah. After that happens, let’s do our best to not be “re-infected” – not go back to the sinful habits that originally made us spiritually unhealthy, but resolve with God’s help to remain holy. And let’s tell the other spiritual lepers that Yeshua the Messiah can heal, cleanse and restore them, and give them a new, healthy life. Amen?