Illustration Credit: Noa Kelner

Our haftarah tells two stories about miracles performed by Elisha the prophet.

A man offers food to Elisha, but Elisha says to give the food to the people. Elisha’s attendant says, “There’s no way this amount of food will feed everyone!” Elisha assures him that God will make a miracle. And sure enough, there’s more than enough food for all.

Na’aman, the commander of the army of Aram, has the skin disease צָרַעַת (tzara’at). He comes to Elisha for healing. When Elisha tells him to bathe seven times in the Jordan River, Na’aman gets angry. He expected Elisha to come up with more impressive magical words or actions!

But Na’aman’s servants encourage him to try Elisha’s suggestion anyway. Na’aman does, and he is cured. Na’aman returns to Elisha to express his praise and new loyalty to the God of Israel.

Our parashah has a lot to say about what tzara’at is and isn’t, but it doesn’t tell us directly about how it felt for a person to have tzara’at. To figure that out, we have to look carefully at the words and details in our parashah and interpret them. The haftarah can also help us understand. It shows that, at least for Na’aman, having tzara’at and then being healed from it was a spiritual experience that transformed him.