page_title: Metzora (parsha)
section_title: Leviticus chapter 14
hierarchical_section_title: Metzora (parsha) / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Leviticus chapter 14
caption_attribution_description: English: Sending Out the Scapegoat, by William James Webb (1830—1904)
context_page_description: Metzora, Metzorah, M'tzora, Mezora, Metsora, M'tsora, Metsoro, Meṣora, or Maṣoro is the 28th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fifth in the Book of Leviticus. The parashah deals with ritual impurity. It addresses cleansing from skin disease, houses with an eruptive plague, male genital discharges, and menstruation. The parashah constitutes Leviticus 14:1–15:33. The parashah is made up of 4,697 Hebrew letters, 1,274 Hebrew words, 90 verses, and 159 lines in a Torah Scroll.
  Jews generally read it in April or, rarely, in early May. The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying between 50 in common years and 54 or 55 in leap years. In leap years, parashah Metzora is read separately. In common years, parashah Metzora is combined with the previous parashah, Tazria, to help achieve the needed number of weekly readings.
context_section_description: Tractate Negaim in the Mishnah and Tosefta interpreted the laws of skin disease in Leviticus 14.
  Leviticus 18:4 calls on the Israelites to obey God's "statutes" (חֻקִּים, chukim) and "ordinances" (מִשְׁפָּטִים, mishpatim). The Rabbis in a Baraita taught that the "ordinances" (מִשְׁפָּטִים, mishpatim) were commandments that logic would have dictated that we follow even had Scripture not commanded them, like the laws concerning idolatry, adultery, bloodshed, robbery, and blasphemy. And "statutes" (חֻקִּים, chukim) were commandments that the Adversary challenges us to violate as beyond reason, like those relating to purification of the person with skin disease (צָּרַעַת, tzara'at, in Leviticus 14), wool-linen mixtures (שַׁעַטְנֵז, shaatnez, in Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11), release from levirate marriage (חליצה, chalitzah, in Deuteronomy 25:5–10), and the he goat for Azazel (in Leviticus 16). So that people do not think these "ordinances" (מִשְׁפָּטִים, mishpatim) to be empty acts, in Leviticus 18:4, God says, "I am the Lord," indicating that the Lord made these statutes, and we have no right to question them.
  The Midrash noted that many things appear lowly, but God commanded many precepts to be performed with them. The hyssop, for instance, appears to be of no worth to people, yet its power is great in the eyes of God, who put it on a level with cedar in the purification of the leper in Leviticus 14:4–6 and the burning of the Red Cow in Numbers 19:6, 18, and employed it in the Exodus from Egypt in Exodus 12:22.
  Rabbi Johanan said in the name of Rabbi Joseph ben Zimra that anyone who bears evil tales (לשון הרע, lashon hara) will be visited by the plague of skin disease (צָּרַעַת, tzara’at), as it is said in Psalm 101:5: "Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I destroy (azmit)." The Gemara read azmit to allude to צָּרַעַת, tzara’at, and cited how Leviticus 25:23 says "in perpetuity" (la-zemitut). And Resh Lakish interpreted the words of Leviticus 14:2, "This shall be the law of the person with skin disease (metzora)," to mean, "This shall be the law for him who brings up an evil name (motzi shem ra)." And the Gemara reported that in the Land of Israel they taught that slander kills three persons: the slanderer, the one who accepts it, and the one about whom the slander is told.
  Similarly, Rabbi Haninah taught that skin disease came only from slander. The Rabbis found a proof for this from the case of Miriam, arguing that because she uttered slander against Moses, plagues attacked her. And the Rabbis read Deuteronomy 24:8–9 to support this when it says in connection with skin disease, "remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam."
  Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Johanan that skin disease results from seven things: slander, the shedding of blood, vain oath, incest, arrogance, robbery, and envy. The Gemara cited scriptural bases for each of the associations: For slander, Psalm 101:5; for bloodshed, 2 Samuel 3:29; for a vain oath, 2 Kings 5:23–27; for incest, Genesis 12:17; for arrogance, 2 Chronicles 26:16–19; for robbery, Leviticus 14:36 (as a Tanna taught that those who collect money that does not belong to them will see a priest come and scatter their money around the street); and for envy, Leviticus 14:35.
  Similarly, a Midrash taught that skin disease resulted from 10 sins: (1) idol-worship, (2) unchastity, (3) bloodshed, (4) the profanation of the Divine Name, (5) blasphemy of the Divine Name, (6) robbing the public, (7) usurping a dignity to which one has no right, (8) overweening pride, (9) evil speech, and (10) an evil eye. The Midrash cited as proofs: (1) for idol-worship, the experience of the Israelites who said of the Golden Calf, "This is your god, O Israel," in Exodus 32:4 and then were smitten with leprosy, as reported in Exodus 32:25, where "Moses saw that the people had broken out (parua, פָרֻעַ)," indicating that leprosy had "broken out" (parah) among them; (2) for unchastity, from the experience of the daughters of Zion of whom Isaiah 3:16 says, "the daughters of Zion
caption: Sending Out the goat for Azazel on Yom Kippur (illustration by William James Webb)
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