Ilustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
Midrashim are ideas or stories that explain the Torah. They often come from listening very carefully to what the Torah says and how it says it. Here, we will look for what clues this midrash sees in the Torah's words, and try to understand its messages.
A מְצֹרָע (metzora) is a person who has צָרַעַת (tzara’at). But the Torah also calls someone with tzara’at a צָרוּעַ (tzarua). So why does the name “metzora” get used at the opening of our parashah? This midrash suggests a play on words:
"זֹאת תִּהְיֶה תּוֹרַת הַמְּצֹרָע" – הַמּוֹצִיא שֵׁם רָע,
שֶׁמָּצָא רָע.
“This shall be the law of the metzora”—the one who says bad things, experiences bad things.
There are a lot of ideas about sins that cause tzara’at: murder, lying, and other bad behaviors. One of the most famous is that tzara’at is a punishment for gossiping. Our midrash teaches this idea, by making puns with three phrases that sound alike:
מְצֹרָע (metzora) = someone who has tzara'at
מוֹצִיא רָע (motzi ra, this is short for motzi shem ra, a kind of gossip) = someone who says bad things
מָצָא רָע (matza ra) = finds (experiences) bad things
- Can you say it three times fast: metzora, motzi ra, matza ra?!
- Does it make sense to think of tzara’at as a punishment for a sin? Or is it better to think of it as something that just happens to a person, without any moral reasons? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each way of thinking about tzara’at?
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