Torah · Weekly Parasha VideoParashat MetzoraRabbi Uri Nahum · June 19, 2017 · Metzora · מצורע · 15 Min Parasha RoundupSave⌄ShareParasha class with Rabbi Uri Nahum, from BSD Productions’ 15 Min Parasha Roundup.Transcript0:06Parashat Metzora. This week's parasha has 90 pesukim.0:10Usually people refer to this parasha by the nicer name, Parashat Tahor.0:17Also, Parashat Metzora is usually read together with Parashat Tazria unless it's a leap year,0:23then they're read on separate Shabbatot.0:24The parasha continues to talk about the tumot that happen to a human being, as we'll soon see,0:32be'ezrat Hashem. We divided the parasha into three topics.0:35The first part of the parasha deals with the purification process of the metzora.0:40Second part of the parasha talks about tzaraat in a person's house.0:44And finally, the last and third part of the parasha, the Torah talks about contamination, tumah, that comes out of a person's0:51body. There are 11 mitzvot in this week's parasha.0:55All of them are positive commandments, mitzvat aseh, and there are none that are mitzvot lo1:01ta'aseh. They number in Sefer HaChinuch from number 173 until 183.1:07Let's get to the first part of the parasha, which is almost a third of the parasha,1:1132 pesukim.1:14The Torah talks about the purification process of the metzora.1:16As we learned in Parashat Tazria, a person can become metzora with having a tzaraat on his body.1:23How does a person purify himself after already he's been sent to sit outside the Jewish camp?1:30Torah tells us that there are three stages in making this metzora back to being fully tahor,1:37and each stage lowers his1:42tumah. Let's begin with the first stage, and that is what is done to the metzora while he's still outside the Jewish camp.1:48Here there are two parts to this.1:50First part is what we do for the metzora, and then there's something that we do to the metzora himself.1:55This stage allows the metzora to come back into the city.1:58Before this stage, he cannot come back to the city.2:01What do we do? We need some ingredients2:04for it. The Torah tells us we need six ingredients.2:06Number one, we need ekli2:09cheres, a utensil made out of clay and has to be brand new.2:12This is2:14halacha l'Moshe miSinai. We need spring water, about three ounces,2:18a revi'it. We need two birds. What kind of birds?2:20These are the sparrows,2:23certainly the bird called, specifically the bird called the passer from the sparrow family.2:27And they have to be identical in size, color, and price,2:31purchased preferably also on the same day.2:32Also, we need cedar wood.2:36That's number four.2:37Number five, we need ezov, which the Rambam translates as2:41zatar. You can see, you know, the plant2:43called zatar. And finally, we need a strip of wool that's colored crimson, which is a deep red color.2:51Once we have these ingredients, we go to the metzora,2:53the kohen goes to the metzora.2:54He takes the brand new clay utensil,2:59fills it up with spring water, at least a revi'it, three ounces,3:03and then he takes the sparrow, one of the birds,3:06and slaughters it and allows the blood to flow into the water.3:11It has to be so much blood that you could see the blood into the water.3:14It shouldn't be diluted by the water.3:16After that, that bird is buried.3:19Then the kohen takes the other ingredients,3:21which is the cedar wood, the ezov, which is3:25zatar, and the wool, the red wool.3:28He ties it all together and he connects to it also the living bird,3:33and he takes all of that, the four ingredients over here,3:36he dips them inside of the basin that has the water and the blood together,3:41and then he sprinkles on the back of the hand of the metzora seven times.3:46Once that is done, the metzora now could come back to the city,3:53could come back into the Jewish camp3:55if he does the following to3:57himself. What is that?3:58If he first shaves himself, we shave every hair in his body.4:02Including the eyebrows, including the hair, including the beard,4:05including under his arms, everywhere except for4:08on the inside of his nose and the inside of his ears.4:12Also, after shaving himself, the clothing that he wears must be laundered,4:17and finally he must immerse himself in the mikveh.4:20Then he could come into the Jewish camp.4:22However, his tumah is not completely gone.4:24He's still forbidden to have any marital relations for the next seven days.4:30He's also still considered an4:33av hatumah, although it's also diminished a little bit.4:36It's not the same level as he was an4:39av hatumah before. Next, counting seven days when he's in the city,4:43the kohen comes back to him on the seventh day,4:45and again he does the same thing to him beforehand,4:48except, you know, without the bird.4:49What we do to him, which means4:50we shave him, we wash his clothing,4:55and he dips himself in the mikveh once more.4:58And now already he has been lowered to the level of a tevul yom.5:03He's allowed to eat maaser, although he cannot eat terumah until the next morning.5:07Finally, on the eighth day, his purification process is completed.5:13How? He has to bring a special korban.5:15This korban consists of two male sheep, one female sheep,5:20about 11 pounds of fine flour mixed with oil,5:24and another about 12 ounces of olive oil.5:27This is the standard korban.5:28If a person is poor and he cannot afford such a korban,5:31so then he brings the poor version of this korban,5:33which is one male sheep,5:35one issaron, which is around 3.7 pounds of fine flour mixed with oil,5:40one log of olive oil, which is around 12 ounces,5:43and it's given to the kohen in5:45Beit HaMikdash, and he offers it in a special way with sprinkling, as the Torah speaks about.5:50That's the first part of purifying the5:53metzora to get back to his normal life.5:55We're now up to the second part of the5:58parashah, which is tzaraat in the house.6:00Let's begin with the reasons why a person would get tzaraat in the house.6:03The reasons of why a person would get tzaraat in the house we find two.6:06Number one is, as we said in6:09Parashat Tazria, the seven reasons what the Gemara says in6:12Arachin why a person gets6:13tzaraat. Mainly we know of lashon hara.6:16Likewise, the Torah says that in this week's parasha,6:20Hashem will sometimes give tzaraat purposely to somebody's house.6:24Why? So that they should discover,6:25when they have to remove that part of the affected area of the wall,6:29they'll discover the treasure that the Canaanim hid behind the wall.6:34Now, some of the houses do not get tzaraat, no matter what.6:39Even if they would get the quote-unquote signs of6:42tzaraat, they could never get6:44tzaraat. For example, any house that's owned by a6:46non-Jew, even though it's in Eretz Yisrael, it doesn't get6:49tzaraat. Likewise, if you share a wall with another person6:54and that other person is not Jewish,6:56your house, even though three walls of your house belong to7:00you, they will not get7:01tzaraat. A house in Yerushalayim will never get7:03tzaraat, or a house outside of Eretz Yisrael will never get tzaraat either.7:08If the house is constructed in a way where it's round,7:10or has more than four walls,7:13the room has more than four walls, also will not get7:17tzaraat. A house that has no windows open to it, where it's dark,7:19the only way you could see inside is through an external light,7:23not the light of the sun, also these houses do not get7:27tzaraat. Those are some of the houses that don't get7:29tzaraat. What are the signs that a person has to see7:32in order to determine if his house has tzaraat or not?7:34There are two colors that a person is looking for.7:37Unlike the tzaraat on the skin, which is white,7:39the tzaraat in the house is either green or red.7:44But the green or red is not exactly green or red;7:46it's greenish or reddish.7:48That's the words of the Torah.7:50Also, it has to appear like the tzaraat looks deeper than the wall.7:55It looks like it's deeper,7:56kind of like engraved on the inside, the color.7:59That's also...8:01The sign of tzaraat. Also, the size of it—there's got to be a certain amount of size—has to be about two grees next to each other.8:09A grees, they say, is around the size of a penny, which is defined the size of six hairs by twelve hairs on a human body.8:18That's the size of two grees next to each other.8:22Now, the process of declaring the house to be considered metzora is as follows.8:27First of all, before the kohen is called, nobody is allowed to declare that the house has tzaraat except for the kohen.8:33Before the kohen comes, everything is removed out of the house,8:37because in case it is— the house is considered that has tzaraat, everything in the house would become8:42tamei, so we want to remove everything from the house.8:45Once the kohen comes to the house, he looks at it, and he'll determine if it has tzaraat or if it doesn't have8:52tzaraat. If he sees that this is really not tzaraat, so let's say he declares the house tahor, and that's it.8:57However, if it does have an affected area where it's not sure, he's not sure if it's tzaraat or not, what he'll do is he'll close the house for a week.9:07Now he'll come at the end of the week.9:09At the end of the week means on the seventh day.9:12On the seventh day, the kohen returns now, and this begins week number two, and now there are three options:9:19either that the tzaraat completely disappeared or9:23faded—that means there was a green there, but it got a little bit dimmer.9:27So in that case, the affected area is removed, and the house is declared tahor.9:33A person can come back to live in it.9:35However, the other two options, the house will have to be closed for another week.9:38What's the other two options?9:40If he sees that the affected area spread—now the green is a little bit bigger or the red is a little bit bigger.9:46Then, in that case, the affected area is removed and the house is again closed for a second week.9:52If the affected area didn't change at all, it's still there,9:58also the house is closed for a week, but we don't touch the affected area.10:02In those last two cases, where the affected area either didn't change or it spread,10:08and we are closing the house for a week, the Kohen returns now at the end of that second week,10:13which is the thirteenth day so far, and he looks at it again.10:18So, in the case where it did spread and he did remove it,10:23so the Kohen will look to see if the tzaraat came back.10:27In this case, there are only two options.10:30If the tzaraat came back, then the house is completely demolished.10:34If the tzaraat didn't come back because he did remove it the week beforehand,10:39then in this case the house must be purified with birds, as we'll talk about later,10:44and then it will become tahor.10:45In the case where the tzaraat did not fade and it didn't go away,10:52where it just remained the way it was and didn't spread,10:55where we said he closed it for a week, the Kohen comes and he looks again,10:59and there are two options.11:01Either the affected area faded or disappeared completely.11:06In that case, he removes that area where the tzaraat used to be,11:11and he purifies the house with birds.11:14If the affected area didn't change, it just remained the way it was,11:19it didn't spread, it didn't go away,11:22then in that case he will remove the affected area,11:26and then he will plaster the whole house again11:30and close it for a third and final week.11:32Then he comes back again at the end of that third week,11:34which is really the nineteenth day from the whole process when it started.11:38Now we have the final two choices.11:40If the tzaraat came back, the house is demolished.11:42If the tzaraat did not come back,11:46then we purify the house with a special way.11:50What is that purification process for the house?11:53It's the same exact thing that we do to the metzora when he was outside the machaneh with the birds.11:58There are only two differences here.11:59Where we said that you sprinkle on the back of the hand of the12:04metzora, here you'll sprinkle on the— Doorpost of the top of the doorpost of the house.12:10That means you dip the living bird inside of the blood and the water that's in the kli12:17cheres, and you'll sprinkle seven times on the doorpost of the house.12:21Also, by a regular metzora, in order for him to be completely tahor,12:26he has to bring a korban.12:28Here you don't have to bring a korban;12:29you just have to do the tahara of the house with the birds.12:34And now we move on to the third part of the12:37parashah. And now we get to the final part of the12:39parashah, which is the tumah that comes out of a person's body,12:43contamination that results from something coming out of the person's body.12:47You should know,12:49this part is very, very detailed, very complicated as well.12:53Some of the most complicated laws of the Torah are found over here in the second part of this week's12:59parashah. There is obviously no way we could fully explain what's going on in the13:04parashah. There are a lot of details that we'll have to say,13:06and some may be unclear because there are a lot of details are missing.13:12But we believe that the information relayed here will at least get us through the reading of the13:18parashah. There are four people that the Torah talks about in this week's13:21parashah that could become tameh when they have a discharge, something coming out of their body,13:25and they are the following, in the following order.13:29This is how they're written in the Torah:13:30a person who's known as a zav,13:33a person who's known as a baal keri,13:34a person who's known as a13:38nidah, and finally as a13:40zavah. We'll describe and explain all of these four types of people.13:44The first two, which are zav and baal keri, are only relevant to men.13:50The second two, nidah and zavah, is only by women.13:54For each of these categories... We'll explain four things.14:00Number one is we'll describe what they are.14:02Number two is how they become14:05tameh. Number three are some of the laws of their tumah and its effects.14:09And finally, how they purify themselves.14:12We'll switch the order from the Torah just to make it simpler.14:16We'll start with the simplest to the most complicated.14:18We'll begin with the baal keri.14:20That's a person who has a seminal discharge.14:23Describing him and what makes him tameh is the same.14:25When a person has a discharge from the male organ,14:29even if it's a tiny drop, he becomes a baal keri.14:33Some of the laws of a baal keri is that he is considered a rishon14:37letumah. He's only tameh for one day,14:40and the zera itself that comes out of the person14:43makes anything that it comes in contact with14:46tameh, whether it be a person or a utensil.14:51The way a baal keri purifies himself is by14:54dipping in the mikveh and waiting until the next evening.14:59That's how he becomes tahor.15:00The second type of person described in this week's15:03parasha is known as a15:06zav. A zav also has a discharge coming out of his body.15:09However, it's a little different from the discharge of the baal keri.15:13This discharge of a zav is known as zov,15:16and it's different from zera in three ways.15:19What are the three ways?15:20In texture, color, and the way it's discharged.15:24In texture, the zera is thick, where the zov is runny.15:28In color, the zera is a brighter shade of15:30white, while the zov is a little bit of a pale white.15:32And finally, in the discharge,15:34the zera discharges from an erect organ,15:36where the zov comes out from a non-erected organ.15:39What makes them15:41tameh? Now here, there's a difference.15:43A person who has a discharge of a zov15:46could become a zav, but there are three levels.15:49If he only sees one discharge,15:52then he is15:54tameh, but he's tameh like a baal keri.15:57If he has two discharges in the same day.16:02On two consecutive days, then he's tameh for seven days. If he has three discharges, either in one day or two or three consecutive days, then not only is he tameh for seven days, which means he has to make sure he doesn't see any discharge for these seven clean days, he must also bring with him a16:18korban. The tumah of a zav is very, very severe. The Torah tells us that he's considered an av ha-tumah, and he could transmit tumah in four ways. One is through contact; if he touches, whatever he touches becomes16:33tameh. Number two is if he's being carried even though he's not being touched. That means, let's say he's standing on a chair and somebody picks up the chair, so he picked him up as well. So therefore, you become tameh because you picked him up.16:45Also, if he moves another person without touching him, that's known as hesset. And finally, if he puts his weight on anything that's made to carry his weight, this is known as16:57midras. The tumah of midras is so severe that if a person, let's say a chair which is made for the weight of a person and it's made that a person should sit on it, if the zav sits on the chair, he makes that chair an av ha-tumah. It doesn't go down one level tumah; it makes it an av ha-tumah as well.17:14How does the zav purify himself? Well, he has to count seven days in which he will not see any discharge. That's called the seven clean days. He must immerse in mayim chayim, which means in spring water, not in a mikveh which is still water; it has to be running water. And finally, he has to bring also, that means the bigger zav, the zav who saw a discharge of three times, he has to bring a korban of two bird offerings.17:39And finally, the last two types of tumah that are mentioned in this week's parashah are nidah and zavah. These two... Are identical, but they're also different. Let's begin with the nidah. As a precaution, we would like to make an announcement and tell you, as we said in Parashat Shemini,17:58these halachot over here are only the laws according to the Torah. They are not halacha lemaaseh, because halacha lemaaseh, we need to include also, to incorporate all the gezerot miderabanan. We're only discussing the laws on the Torah level, not to follow it practically.18:16Let's first describe the nidah that's described in the Torah. A nidah is basically a discharge of blood that a woman sees in the beginning of her menstrual cycle. Some of the laws and its effects of the nidah. The nidah is considered an av hatumah. Like the zav, the nidah also gives over tumah in four different ways:18:39through touching, which is known as maga; being carried, known as masa; by moving a person or an object, even though it's indirect contact, known as heseit; and like the zav, she is also metameh midras, which means whatever is made to carry her weight and she puts her weight on it also becomes like her an19:00av hatumah. There's an extra stringency by a woman who is nidah, that anybody who has relations with a nidah, also the man becomes tameh nidah for seven days. Besides the fact he's also, both of them are chayav karet. But as far as the tumah is concerned, he becomes exactly like the tumah of nidah, 90 percent exactly.19:24Finally, the woman could purify herself from the tumah of nidah. By waiting seven days from the beginning of the discharge of blood and immersing herself in the mikveh. But she cannot immerse herself in the mikveh until she knows for sure that she doesn't have any more discharges of blood.19:44And finally, we move on to the zava. Zava, like the nidah, is also in the case where a woman had a discharge. However, she must have a discharge of blood only in her days of zava. What are the days of zava? Basically, from the Torah, a woman who sees blood, she's tameh for those first seven days.20:06If she stops bleeding by the conclusion of these seven days and dips in the mikveh, she's not nidah anymore. But for the next eleven days, she's on the lookout for any discharge of blood. If she should see blood in those eleven-day period, then she will become a20:24zava. But the level of zava, meaning to say what kind of zava she is, will be dependent on how often, or meaning to say how many days in a row that she sees a discharge of blood. If she would see a discharge of blood three days in a row, then she becomes a zava gedolah, or zava gemurah, a complete zava, which means she now has to count and wait for seven clean days where she will not see any discharge of20:54blood, and only then she could go and immerse herself in the mikveh and become tahor. If she sees less than three consecutive days, which means she sees either two days in a row or one day in a row, then she has to wait one full clean day and immerse herself in the mikveh and become tahor.21:14No matter if she sees one day of discharge of blood in the days of zovah, or three consecutive days, making her a zavah gedolah, in either case she has the laws of zavah, which means she is considered av hatumah, and she gives over tumah like the way a regular zav and a nidah give over tumah, which is through touching, maga, through masa, being carried,21:41through heset, if she moves something, and through midras, which means something that's made to hold her weight, like a chair or a bed. The way she purifies herself is like we said: she has to wait the clean days. If it's zavah ketanah, she waits one clean day, and zavah gedolah, seven clean days, and then she could immerse herself in the22:04mikveh. But there's one more step, and that is she must bring a korban like the zav, which consists of two bird offerings. These are the laws of tumah that are mentioned in the end of this week's parashah, and now we come to the lesson of the22:20parashah. The lesson is taken from the purification process of the metzorah. The two birds that are offered in the beginning of the parashah to purify the metzorah, or as the Torah tells us about purifying the house of the metzorah, represent two types of22:38speech. Every speech that's made, it could be either positive, speaking good about people, saying divrei Torah, or, as in this case of the metzorah, it could be negative, where a person slanders other people, hurts other people with words. The two birds are there to teach the metzorah how to22:58speak. One type of speech, which is slandering, which is negative. That's represented by the bird who chirps, and that's slaughtered. We slaughter that bird. We got to stop that kind of speech. The other type of bird, which is set out free, represents positive speech. Those who have what to say and it's good, you shouldn't contain it to yourself. You should spread it. You should let it go and roam free and spread the good word, as it says.23:26These are the two types of speeches, and this is what the Torah expects us to do. If it's good speech, spread it. But if it's a negative speech, we must restrain it.23:59Shabbat shalom.