Shabbos Parashas Tazria-Metzorah - 5777
Shabbos Parashas Tazria-Metzorah - 5777
Rabbi Hal Miller
When you arrive in the land of Canaan that I give you as a possession, and I
will place a tzaraas affliction upon a house in the land of your possession.
[Vayikra 14:34]
The concept of tzaraas is incredibly difficult, both as to what it is and what it means.
This week we limit ourselves to the question of what is different about a house that it
should be separated out and treated differently from vessels or the body of a person.
But we do need at least a basic definition and description of the Torah verses on the
topic. For this we turn to Nachshoni: "Tzaraas, according to the commentators, is an
outward manifestation of a spiritual and moral disease. At first, it appears in the home.
Afterwards, it spreads to one's garments. If the person has still not taken heed of the
warnings by Hashem, it appears in his body as well."
Our question comes from the difference in wording in the introduction of tzaraas for
each of these three levels, house, vessels/garments, and person. For a vessel or garment,
the Torah says, when there shall be in it. For a person, it says, when they shall have in
them. For a house it says, "I will place". The first two examples speak of a potential, but
the third speaks of a prophecy, or a guarantee. Why?
Ramban says that "I will place" is to tell us that "the hand of Hashem has done this," not
nature, and not conditional. Nachshoni writes that tzaraas in vessels or a person "comes
only as a punishment for lashon hara that does injury to someone," and that it comes in
houses "as a result of a person's stinginess." He explains the second part of that: "Chazal
give three reasons for nega'im in houses: punishment to a person who refuses to lend his
belongings claiming he does not have; exposing items that the person stole and hid; and
revealing treasures which the Canaanites concealed in their homes." Numerous others
explain that were an individual meritorious, he would be able to find the treasures without
the destruction of his house, but that even a Jew who spoke lashon hara merited those
treasures.
R'Shimon Bar Yochai says it is not a punishment, or at least was not when Israel first
entered the land, free of sin. Our verse pins down that this only occurs in the land of Israel.
When the people first entered, they were the holiest generation of all, those who had met
Hashem face to face on Sinai. Thus the issue of houses does not fit with the other two,
rather was only for the treasure-finding opinion. Vessels or body affliction depended upon
sins by people, but house tzaraas was a given.
Sfas Emes says that it is an opportunity to bring kedusha to something tamei, clearing
the tzaraas through teshuva. In other words, even today, if we do something wrong or have
something not particularly holy, we can bring holiness to it by our proper actions. Our verse
tells us that Hashem will place a mark on it in some form to remind us to bring this item to
holiness.