Parshat Tazria - Fourth Aliyah
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
In this aliyah the Torah continues the laws of skin afflictions, this time - in a special case: when an affliction resembling tzara’at grows within a burn - מִכְוַת אֵשׁ.
Summary of the Verses:
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Verse 24: If a person is burned by fire, and the place heals, but there appears a white-reddish or white bohereth - he must be brought to the priest.
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Verse 25: If the priest sees: that the hair in the spot has turned white,
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and the appearance of the affliction is deeper than the skin, this is a sign that tzara’at has broken out from within the burn, and the person is impure.
Verse 26: If there is no white hair, and the affliction does not sink beneath the skin - the priest quarantines the person for seven days.
Verses 27-28:
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If the affliction spreads - impure.
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If it does not spread and is faint - it is not tzara’at, only צָרֶבֶת הַמִּכְוָה (a scar of the burn), and the person is pure.
A Point to Consider:
There is a deep message here - even an old wound, that looks healed, can grow a new affliction. Sometimes we are sure that something that has already passed will not hurt again. But if we do not pay attention - in the place of the wound a new problem grows.
The priest here is required to be precise, to diagnose, to examine with care - so too we must examine within ourselves:
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Have the wounds of the past truly healed?
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Or have they only been covered over?
May we merit complete healing - in body and soul, and an inner light that heals even what seems long forgotten.