Metsora – מְּצֹרָע

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Parasha: Leviticus 14.1—15.33; Haftorah: 2 Kings 7.1-20; 13.23

Leviticus 13.42-56: This is the main parasha about impurity, and it tells us something important about the Messiah. The root נג”ע appears 56 times in this parasha, five times in these few verses. Oddly, this parashah gave one of the titles to the Messiah in Judaism. In Sanhedrin 98b the question is asked what will be the names of the Messiah. Here is one of the answers:

“The Rabbis said: His name is ‘the leper scholar,’ as it is written, ’surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of God, and afflicted’ (Isaiah 53.4).” (Sanh 98b)

To this we can add verse 8 from the same chapter quoted in the Sanhedrin passage: “By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?”

Messiah himself became sin for our sake and so was hung on the wood as a curse. “Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree.’” (Galatians 3.13, quoting Deuteronomy 21.23)

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5.20)

Just as lepers were to be expelled from the camp, so too Jesus, the leper Messiah, was rejected by his people. He still remains outside the camp, where we are called to go to him. “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp, and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.” (Hebrews 13.11-14) [BSI/rp]

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Leviticus 14.1-7 prescribes the offering of two birds for cleansing a leper.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest; and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall make an examination. Then, if the leprous disease is healed in the leper, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet stuff and hyssop; and the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. He shall take the living bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet stuff and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water; and he shall sprinkle it seven times upon him who is to be cleansed of leprosy; then he shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird go into the open field.’”

One bird was killed in an earthen vessel over running water, and the other was to be dipped in its blood and let loose alive into the open field. The first sets forth atonement by the death of an innocent sacrifice; the second bird sets forth resurrection from the dead and ascension into the heavens. [SW]