Creative Conundrums: Metzorah

Metzorah?

The goal of the metzora ritual is to allow someone who has had tzaraas to be cleansed and re-enter society.

But why this ritual, specifically? How can we make sense of it?

Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: as for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the żara῾at seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. … and after that he shall come into the camp, but he shall remain outside his tent seven days.

What might this remind us of? Could it, for example, connect back to Cain and Hevel? After all Hevel was killed, with the blood pouring into the earth. And Cain was marked for a period of 7 as well before he was reintegrated into society. Are there other parallels?

Might the birds thus be symbolic connections, reminding the person who had tzaraas of the ultimate dangers of treating others poorly – interpersonal words and deeds that all connect, in the end, to murder?

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Oil: A Reset?

And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand: and the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord: and the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the guilt offering: and the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the Lord.

Might the oil that is used in the ceremony also connect back to another set of brothers that treated each other poorly? After all, after Jacob left Esau in Canaan, Jacob pours out oil as well?!

Perhaps the pouring of oil is a way to reset, to find a way forward in the eyes of G-d even after we have done something wrong?

If so, what does the oil work, specifically? Might it work as Jacob used it, to re-establish the pathway to a connection with G-d: the metzora gets oil applied to him (representing: ear – listening, hand – acting, foot-going) just as the priests are anointed with oil, and just as Jacob anointed the stones. All not all cases of new beginnings, with new connections to heaven?

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Cedar, Hyssop and Red Thread?

These elements are found together in only two rituals: To bring someone back from tzaraas, and in the ritual of the parah adumah, the red heifer.

What can they possibly mean?

The grass and cedar could represent scope: the smallest and largest plants, as well as plants with the shortest versus the longest life span. Might these not represent the entire possible range of size and time, encompassing the whole of the perceived living world?

But if so, to what end? And what does it have to do with having tzaraas or being in contact with the dead?

Might the answer be found in the third element: the crimson thread? שְׁנִ֥י הַתּוֹלַ֖עַת?

The crimson yarn contains within its first root word the same root as the word in Hebrew for “time.” (Gen. 8:11, 24:11) And the second root word comes from the word for “second” – as in, “a second chance.” The crimson yarn is “Another/a second time.” Together with the plants, might it represent time travel back to before Cain attacked Hevel? The person who receives the ritual is given a second chance, a do-over. Wouldn’t that work with the idea of earning redemption from tzaraas?

There might also be a connection to Cain and Hevel here as well, right? The crimson reminds us of the blood that is spilled in murder, the blood of Abel that “cried to G-d from the earth,” and indeed the blood of any dead body?

Might another answer be that the plant kingdom is a reminder that the earth is supposed to used by people for the purpose of life (from the smallest to the tallest grasses), and NOT as the place from where Abel’s blood calls out? The earth is a source of life energies, and while the cycle of life includes death, the Torah tells us that in order to leave the state of tzaraas or the spiritual unreadiness that comes after contact with a dead body, we are supposed to accentuate positive, growing life, emerging from the earth as on the third day of creation? The day vegetation is created is, after all, the day when life is created on this earth, and life is the antidote to physical death as well as the small deaths that occur when people use negative speech.

Or is there another explanation for these three elements?

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Green / Red?

if the plague be in the walls of the house in greenish or reddish depressions…

The mikdash had nothing green on it at all. Indeed, we were told specifically to not have any tree in the mikdash as well. Presumably it means we should be careful not to worship nature?

Might this verse go farther, suggesting that the color green is connected to people in the house acting “naturally” – which is to say, with a “might makes right” attitude, along with a complete absence of kindness and empathy?

Might the edom of the “reddishness” mean something similar? After all, is the word not used to refer to blood, to Adam (who followed his eyes), and to Esau?

Might the green and red combine to tell us that our actions should avoid mimicking or resembling the green plant kingdom, as well as the red-blooded animal kingdom? That the tzaraas that struck us came from seeking to emulate nature, instead of rising above it?

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Emissions?

Might the same logic apply to emissions – that they remind us of our physical, animal elements, and thus render us unable to elevate spiritually until we achieve a separation (in time, space, or with water) from our bodies?