Parashat Tazria-Metzora
17th April 2026
Week of 12-18 April 2026
Torah portion : Lev. 14 :1-15 :33. Haftarah : II Kgs. 7 :3-20
Our Parasha (Tazria-Metzora תזריע-מצרע Lev. 12:1-15:33) this week continues to present the framework for maintaining life in community, the community of the people of Israel. The rules are precise and detailed. The text describes all manifestations of anomalies on the skin, reaching the most pronounced, which is leprosy. Following this, the text also focuses on the flow of blood, both in men and women. Clearly, the issue is not treated as sin, but rather as impurity and purity. It is a situation that is not suitable for living in the community, for protecting it, or for being in an unsuitable state to stand before God. Therefore, when there is an abnormal manifestation of something, three steps must be followed: verification, isolation, and purification.
Incidentally, the method of isolation, when necessary, is functional even today and is the best way to protect the entire community. The text does not indicate treatment, as that is not the objective, and it is assumed that there was popular or family wisdom that had answers for eventual curable diseases, and once cured, the person was welcomed back. However, what is striking is that the entire process is referred to the Priest; it is he who recognizes, decides what to do, and it is he who reintegrates the person into the community and also into God.
We can learn that what truly matters is being pure, being able to live in the community and live with God who is present in the community, and therefore the intermediary is the priest, for it is he who serves the community before God and in God’s name. It is as if the Torah wants to teach that these abnormal manifestations, once confirmed, require a period of isolation (quarantine for healing), as if it were a time of review of something that is not in accordance with the community’s norm, and after a certain period, a full return is expected. As if it were a time of Teshuvah (repentance). Therefore, the priest has a fundamental role, being the spiritual leader of the community.
I will now present an excerpt from the Midrash Rabbah commentary on this Parashah, which opens the text in several dimensions:
“Another exposition on ‘This shall be Law of the Leper’: This is alluded to in what is written, Who is the man that desireth life (Psalm 34: 13). This may be compared to the case of the Peddler who used to go round the towns in the vicinity of Sepphoris, crying out: ‘Who wishes to buy the elixir of life?’ and drawing great crowds round him. R. Jannai was sitting and expounding in his room and heard him calling out: ‘Who desires the elixir of life?’ He said to him: Come here, and sell me it. The peddler said: Neither you nor people like you require that which I have to sell. The Rabbi pressed him, and the peddler went up to him and brought out the Book of Psalms and showed him the passage, ‘Who is the man that desireth life’. (This indicates that the peddler sold copies of the Book of Psalms). What is written immediately thereafter? – ‘Keep thy tongue from evil, depart from evil and do good’. Rabbi Jannai said: Salomon, too proclaims, ‘Who keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles’ (Prov. 21: 23). Rabbi Hannai said: All my life have I been reading this passage, but did not know how it was to be explained, until this hawker came and made it clear, viz. ‘Who is the man that desireth life …? Keep the tongue from evil, etc’. It is for the same reason the Moses addressed a warning to Israel, saying to them, This shall be the Law of the Mezora (leper), i.e. the law relating to one that gives currency to an evil report (mozi [shem] ra’).
As we see the richness of the Midrash in interpreting the word that gives the name to the Parashah Metzora מצרע, making the division מצ + רע transforming מצ into the verb להוציא that means making bad things come out (of the mouth).
The Sages taught that from this Parashat one can also learn that those who desire life must guard their tongues from speaking ill of their fellow human beings.
This week’s Parasha Commentary was prepared by
Elio Passeto, NDS, Jerusalem-Israel Bat Kol Director
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