Parashat Metzora — One afflicted (the leper)

מְצֹרָע

Torah portion 28 of 54 · Book of Leviticus · pronounced meh-tzo-RAH

Metzora (מְצֹרָע) means "one afflicted (the leper)" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.

Next read: April 17, 2027 · then April 29, 2028 (combined as Tazria-Metzora)

The Readings

What Happens in Metzora

This shall be the torah of the metzora in the day of his cleansing — and that phrase is the portion's quiet gospel: the Torah legislates for the outcast's return before describing anything else. He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp — the priest goes to the one who cannot come in. The ritual that follows is unlike any other in Scripture: two living clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop. One bird is killed over living water in an earthen vessel; the living bird, with the cedar, scarlet, and hyssop, is dipped in the blood of the slain bird and then released over the open field — death and freedom bound together in a single picture, one life poured out and another let loose alive. The priest sprinkles the one to be cleansed seven times and pronounces him clean.

The restoration unfolds in stages: wash clothes, shave all hair, bathe, and enter the camp — but remain outside his tent seven days; on the seventh, shave again, even eyebrows; and on the eighth day, offerings. Then something extraordinary: blood of the guilt offering is put on the right ear, right thumb, and right big toe of the one being cleansed, and oil on top of the blood — the same points anointed at the ordination of the priests. The restored leper is consecrated like a kohen, as if to say the way back goes all the way back, and further. The scaled offering follows for the poor — if he cannot afford, one lamb and two birds — so that no one stays outside for lack of means. This is the chapter Yeshua invoked when He touched lepers and said, show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moshe commanded, for a testimony to them: the priests who examined those healed men were handling a ritual that had likely never been used, now suddenly needed.

The affliction can also strike a house in the land of Canaan — when you come into the land, and I put the plague of tzaraat in a house. The owner reports, the house is emptied, examined, and shut up seven days; infected stones are pulled out and cast outside the city, walls scraped, new stones and plaster set in. If the plague returns, the house is torn down entirely — corruption in the structure itself cannot be painted over. The portion closes with the discharges that render men and women unclean, each with its washings and offerings, and then states the purpose of the whole purity system: thus you shall separate the children of Yisrael from their uncleanness, that they do not die by defiling My mishkan that is in their midst. Purity is not squeamishness; it is what makes it survivable to live next door to the living God.

Main Themes

The day of cleansing — restoration is expected The slain bird and the freed bird Consecration of the restored like a priest Even houses examined for corruption Guarding the dwelling of God in the midst

Key Events

· The two-birds ritual outside the camp

· Washing, shaving, and the seven days

· The eighth-day offerings; blood and oil on ear, thumb, and toe

· The poor man's scaled offering

· Tzaraat in houses

· The laws of discharges

Key People

The priest The cleansed metzora

Key Verses

← Parashat Tazria  ·  Parashat Achrei Mot →

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