Shabbat Parashat Metzorah - 5782

Shabbat Parashat Metzorah - 5782

Rabbi Hal Miller This shall be the law of the metzora on the day of his purification. [Vayikra 14:2] The Torah gives us many places where God tells Moshe, "This is the law of". Our verse appears to be the only place God says, "This shall be the law of". What is the reason for the difference here? Onkelos translates it as "This is the law for a quarantined person on the day that he is cleansed." but that does not answer our question. Ramban gives us a possible answer, "He shall be brought even against his will." The Gemora in Menachot [5a] addresses the question directly. It refers to the process stated in Vayikra 14:4, listing the four items involved, "two live clean birds, cedar wood, crimson thread, and hyssop." The Gemora says, "Rav Pappa said, the laws of a metzora are different because 'shall be' is written regarding them. For the verse states, 'This shall be the law of the metzora'. 'Shall be' teaches that it must be as prescribed." Yet this is still confusing as one would think that all commandments must be performed as prescribed. Rav Hirsch writes that our verse is actually giving us information about verse 4:4 and the four items listed there. "The word tihiyeh gives the character of m'akeiv, restricting, indispensability to all the objects mentioned in the following ordinances as well as to the order in which they are to be brought. The four objects in [4] are necessary to each other." From this we can observe that some commandments are highly specific in how they are to be performed, order of steps, etc., but others are not. Our verse puts this command into the category of specific performance.