Torah Portion: Tazria
“אדם כי יהיה בעור בשרו שאת או ספחת… והובא אל אהרן הכהן“ (ויקרא יג ב)
It is a positive commandment that any tzara’as-afflicted person must be contaminated; that is, it is a mitzvah upon us that any person afflicted with tzara’as must come to the kohen to ask about his affliction. The kohen will then pronounce it “contaminated” or “pure,” and the person shall follow the procedure provided by the Torah, as instructed by the kohen. The person is not to treat the tzara’as as an ordinary, occurring illness, but rather he is to realize that his great iniquity is what caused it. It is thus written: If a person will have on the skin of his flesh a s’eis, or a sapachas… he shall be brought to Aaron the Kohen, or to one of his sons (Vayikra 13:2).
This mitzvah includes all aspects of tzara’as of humans — what is contaminated and pure, what need quarantine and what does not, what needs shaving in addition to quarantine and what does not need shaving (i.e., the shaving of the nesek), and many other laws aside from these.
Among the roots of the mitzvah is the aim of internalizing that the Providence of Hashem watches every individual, and that His “eyes” sees all their deeds. We are therefore warned to pay attention to this dreadful disease and understand that it was sin that caused it. Our Sages have long taught that tzara’as comes as a result of the sin of lashon ha-ra (evil speech). The person afflicted with tzara’as must come to the kohen, for it is the kohen who stands ready to effect atonement for sinners; perhaps through this the person will have thoughts of repentance. In some cases the afflicted person requires quarantine for several days. This gives the person time to consider his deeds slowly and carefully and to thereby repent. In other cases the person might need two consecutive periods of quarantine, when perhaps he had thoughts of repentance but he did not actually repent fully.
The laws of tzara’as apply to both men and women, whenever there are knowledgeable kohanim who know how examine tzara’as.
