by
Rabbi Michael Laitner

Parshat Metzora

In a Jewish leap year, this week’s Sidra is read in the same week as last week’s (Tazria). It continues the theme of Tzara’at, the mysterious spiritual malady that we discussed last week. The leprosy-like symptoms were a reflection of internal spiritual deficiencies, but miraculously also affected clothes and buildings (in the Land of Israel).

Due to Shabbat HaChodesh, we did not read the Haftara of Tazria last week. Both that Haftara, and this week’s Haftara, contain stories that depict people who were afflicted with Tzara’at. We will concentrate on the Haftara of Tazria.

In the Haftara of Tazria, we read about Na’aman, a victorious general of the King of Aram, who had battled with the Jewish people, and was subsequently afflicted with Tzara’at. At the suggestion of a Jewish woman, kidnapped by Na’aman to become his wife, he visits the prophet Elisha to seek advice, in line with the Torah’s prescription that Tzara’at, as a spiritual disease, requires corrective advice from a Cohen (priest), not a doctor. Elisha advises Na’aman to dip seven times in the River Jordan, in order to be cured. Na’aman flies into a rage at this recommendation, expecting more from a prophet of G-d. His counsellors placate him, suggesting that he would have performed a difficult task if the prophet had advised him to do so, so why should he not perform an easy one!

In analysing this story, the late Rev Dr Abraham Cohen, who served the Singers Hill Community in Birmingham for many years, offers a telling contemporary insight. How often as Jews, do we assert our identity and commitment to Judaism when there is a big event, or G-d forbid, a significant threat to the Jewish community, while neglecting some of the daily aspects of being Jewish? As Dr Cohen writes, ‘We boggle at the thought of making a little sacrifice, but we should not hesitate at the thought of making the supreme sacrifice.’