Parshat Metzora
Vayikra 14:2-3
This shall be the ritual for a metzorah at the time that he is to be cleansed. When it is reported to the priest, the priest shall go outside the camp. If the priest sees that the metzorah has been healed of his tzaraat …
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
It is possible perhaps to nevertheless attempt to give a very general explanation for the entire framework of tuma and tahara.
Throughout the Torah, from Genesis onward, the world is divided into two poles: life and death, and correspondingly, good and evil … These matters are presented to us as the two extremes of existence, and every other element of existence falls on the spectrum between these two poles.
Death is presented in our literature not as a normal, natural phenomenon, but as a result of sin. …
Likewise, the relation between tuma and tahara can be explained on the basis of this division. By way of analogy, it can be said that the creation of tuma resembles the production of a magnetic field. A magnetic field is produced when a drastic change occurs in an electric field. One of the ways this can happen is when an electric current that is moving through metal suddenly stops, in which case magnetization occurs. The new phenomenon is produced at the point of change, whether it is change from one extreme to the other or a more limited change. Similarly tuma is produced when the complete current of life within an entity is stopped, whether in its entirety or in only one respect. Take, for example, the tuma of a corpse. This tuma occurs not because the corpse is not alive, nor because it used to be alive, but because it used to be alive and then this condition suddenly stopped.
What also emerges from the notion of the connection to life and death is a principle that applies throughout the laws of tuma. The stronger the current of life, the more intense the tuma will be if and when that life is stopped and cut off. …
On a related note, not everything that dies conveys tuma. Creatures that we considered to lack a life force even when alive do not become tamei upon their death. … Tuma is produced by a fracture, by the tension of the sudden contrast between complete vitality and death. …
The basic concept is that tuma accompanies death or crisis, whether big or small …
A simple example of this is the tuma of the menstruant woman. This tuma is connected to the natural destruction of life that is part of the woman’s menstrual cycle. This is destruction not of actual life but of the lost potential for fertilization. … It is still a normal occurrence and not considered an illness, yet it is connected with this same element of destruction — a partial form of death — and this, too, results in tuma.
A similar example is the tuma that results from a seminal emission. Even in the context of marital relations, and even if the relations result in procreation, an inevitable result of seminal emission is loss, a type of death. …
According to our literature, the white spot of a tzaraat mark indicates that something has died in that part of the body. …
The intrinsic connection between the concepts of tuma and tahara and the life force of the entity apparently also applies to the distinction between things that are susceptible to tuma and those that are not. … the more perfect the vessel and the higher its quality, the more susceptible it is to tuma. This progression extends from high-quality metal vessels to low-quality earthenware vessels. … Sensitivity to tuma requires some level of perfection.
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Regarding tuma following childbirth … Since the key of childbirth is in God’s hand, then apparently His spirit is present during birth, after which it immediately departs — and this is the source of the tension that generates tuma. The tuma is generated not because the birth is something tamei — on the contrary, it is a time when new life comes into the world — but because the birth involves a gulf between a high and a subsequent low, evoking the gulf between life and death. … “Look what happened! I did something together with God; I made a human being!” … One moment the world is full of wonder, and the next moment it is already gone. The great disparity is what creates tuma.
The intensity of this abrupt change is reflected, in a sense, in the phenomenon of post-partum depression.
Have you had experiences of sudden, unexpected life crises — good or bad. What happened emotionally?
Rabbi Yehudah Leib
“This is the teaching concerning the leper” (Lev 14:2)
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There are some who attain wholeness by drawing near and others who do so by distance. … The Midrash says that the ways of the blessed Holy One are not like those of man. Man cuts with a knife but heals the wound with a bandage, while God heals with the very same thing by which he wounds. The wound itself is healing! … God’s divinity is not be be found only in closeness, but even the distancing God does ultimately brings us near …