Tzara'at: A Plague of Arrogance

As for the person with an eruption of leprosy: his clothes shall be torn, his head shall be left bare, and his upper lip shall be covered over. He shall call out, “Impure! Impure!” and he shall be impure as long as the disease is present. Being impure, he shall dwell apart, in a dwelling outside the camp.

For ten reasons does leprosy enter the world: for idol-worship, sexual immorality, bloodshed, the profanation of the Name, blasphemy of the Name, robbing the community, usurping dignity to which one has no right, excessive pride, evil speech, and stinginess.

When you enter the land of Canaan that I give you as a possession, and I inflict a plague of leprosy upon a house in the land you possess...

(1) Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and proclaimed him king to succeed his father Amaziah. ... (4) He did what was pleasing to Adonai just as his father Amaziah had done. (5) He applied himself to the worship of God during the time of Zechariah... and God made him prosper. (6) He went forth to fight the Philistines, and breached the wall of Gat and the wall of Yavneh and the wall of Ashdod; he built towns in [the region of] Ashdod and among the Philistines. (7) God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur-baal, and the Meunites. (8) The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread to the steppes of Egypt, for he grew exceedingly strong. (9) Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem on the Corner Gate and the Valley Gate and on the Angle, and fortified them. (10) He built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle, and farmers in the foothills and on the plain, and vine dressers in the mountains and on the fertile lands, for he loved the soil. ... (14) Uzziah provided them—the whole army—with shields and spears, and helmets and mail, and bows and slingstones. (15) He made clever devices in Jerusalem, set on the towers and the corners, for shooting arrows and large stones. His fame spread far, for he was helped wonderfully, and he became strong. (16) When he was strong, he grew so arrogant he acted corruptly: he trespassed against his God by entering the Temple of Adonai to offer incense on the incense altar. (17) The priest Azariah, with eighty other brave priests of Adonai, followed him in (18) and, confronting King Uzziah, said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to Adonai, but for the Aaronide priests, who have been consecrated, to offer incense. Get out of the Sanctuary, for you have trespassed; there will be no glory in it for you from Adonai our God.” (19) Uzziah, holding the censer and ready to burn incense, got angry; but as he got angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in front of the priests in the House of Adonai beside the incense altar. (20) When the chief priest Azariah and all the other priests looked at him, his forehead was leprous, so they rushed him out; he too made haste, for Adonai had struck him with a plague. (21) King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in isolated quarters as a leper, for he was cut off from the House of Adonai — while Yotam his son was in charge of the king’s house and governed the people of the land. ... (23) Uzziah slept with his fathers in the burial field of the kings, because, they said, he was a leper; his son Yotam succeeded him as king.

(3) When the priest sees that the leper has been healed of his affliction, (4) the priest shall order two live pure birds, cedar wood, crimson stuff, and hyssop to be brought for the one to be purified.

Rav Ḥisda says in the name of Mar Ukva: The Holy One of Blessing says..."Whoever is haughty of eye and proud of heart, I will not suffer him" (Ps. 101:5). Do not read the phrase as: “I will not suffer him [oto],” but as: With him [ito] I cannot bear to dwell.

(1) In the year that King Uzziah died, I beheld Adonai seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of God's robe filled the Temple. (2) Seraphs stood in attendance; each of them had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his legs, and with two he would fly. (3) And one would call to the other, “Holy, holy, holy! / The Eternal God of Hosts! / God's presence fills all the earth!” (4) The doorposts would shake at the sound of the one who called, and the House kept filling with smoke. (5) I cried, “Woe is me; I am lost! /For I am a man of unclean lips / And I live among a people / Of unclean lips; / Yet my own eyes have beheld the Sovereign God of Hosts.”
(6) Then one of the seraphs flew over to me with a live coal, which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. (7) He touched it to my lips and declared, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt shall depart and your sin be purged away.” (8) Then I heard the voice of Adonai saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me.”