THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi met Elijah standing by the tomb of
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. He asked...Elijah, "When will the Messiah
come?" "Go and ask him," Elijah replied. "Where is he
seated?" Rabbi Yehoshua asked. "At the entrance to the city of
Rome," Elijah answered. "How will I recognize him?" Rabbi
Yehoshua asked. Elijah replied, "He is sitting among the poor lepers, all
of them bandaging their wounds..." (b.Sanhedrin 98a)
THIS WEEK'S TORAH PORTION:
Metzora (מצורע
| Leper)
Torah: Leviticus 14:1-15:33
Haftarah: 2 Kings 7:3-20
Gospel: Luke 9:51-10:42
Passover is coming: April 15
The Leper Messiah
This week's Torah portion is titled Metzora, a word that means leper. It contains the laws and rituals for the levitical purification of a person who has recovered from the dreaded disease of leprosy. Biblical leprosy is not the same disease called leprosy today, but it does share some affinities. What is more, according to God's Torah, contracting biblical leprosy rendered a person levitically unclean. His uncleanness prevented the leper from participating in the Temple rituals; he could not eat of the sacrifices, and he was required to live outside of the community.
Of all the traditional titles and names traditional Judaism
applied to Messiah, one of the strangest is the Talmudic title, "the Leper
Messiah." The title is derived from Isaiah 53:4 where it says,
"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we
considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted." In reading
the prophecy of Isaiah 53, at least some Sages understood the suffering servant
character described therein to be the Messiah. They interpreted the phrase
"he took up our infirmities" to refer to leprosy.
And the rabbis say: "[The name of Messiah] is The Leper
of the House of Study, as it is said, 'Surely he took up our infirmities and
carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and
afflicted.'" (Sanhedrin 98b)
Perhaps this is one reason why the Master's ministry often
focused on the healing of lepers. In Matthew 10:8, He tells His disciples that
healing the sick and cleansing lepers are signs of the Gospel of the Kingdom of
Heaven. Whenever Yeshua healed lepers, He instructed them to go and present the
sacrifices prescribed in the Torah for their ritual purification.
On the one hand, biblical leprosy was a real disease, a
fearsome affliction equivalent to a sort of walking death. On the other hand,
biblical leprosy can be understood as an archetype for all human disease and
mortality. It can be understood spiritually as the corruption of our human
flesh. In all of the above cases, Yeshua offers the solution. He is the
suffering servant of the Isaiah passage. Through His ministry, He fulfilled
this passage exactly as the Talmud interprets it. He took up the uncleanness of
the human condition in order to heal. Thus it is written in Isaiah, "But
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed." (Isaiah 53:5)
-First Fruits of Zion
