Weekly Word: Metzora 5771 – In the Land of Your Possession

By Chana Tolchin BC ‘14

An important element of the law of tzara’at, leprosy, on a house is revealed in its peculiar introduction. The verse says, “כִּי תָבֹאוּ אֶל-אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן, אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי נֹתֵן לָכֶם לַאֲחֻזָּה; וְנָתַתִּי נֶגַע צָרַעַת בְּבֵית אֶרֶץ אֲחֻזַּתְכֶם.”“When you come to the land of Canaan that I am give you as a possession; and I will inflict leprosy in the houses of the land you possess.[1]” (Leviticus 14:34). As opposed to the laws of tzara’at on the body or on a garment, which the People of Israel observed immediately in the desert, tzara’at of the home applies only in the Land of Israel (Chezkuni, 13^th century, France). This is not, as we might have thought, due to the fact that tents in the desert were temporary and the houses in the Land of Israel were actual homes; rather, the law of tzara’at on a house seems to be fundamentally linked to the land of the Land of Israel. The Malbim (19th century, Ukraine) questions the seeming redundancy in the opening verse when God tells us that “the land of Canaan” is the land “that I give you as a possession” – didn’t we know that already? The Malbim’s answer is that the additional phrase exists to specify that this isn’t referring to the land of Sichon and Og, settled by the 2½ tribes on the other side of the Jordan River, but instead exclusively to the land within the borders of the Land of Israel. The fact that the case of tzara’at on a house can only occur within the boundaries of the Land of Israel figures prominently in the nature of the laws concerning it.

As we know, when the People of Israel entered the Land of Israel they conquered the land from the seven nations that inhabited it. The houses of the Land of Canaan were built and lived in by these nations before the People of Israel defeated their armies and took over their homes. Rashi (11^th century, France) explains that tzara’at of the house is actually an advantageous occurrence because when the house is demolished the owners will discover all the jewels that the Amorites who lived there previously hid in the walls. Rashi’s interpretation is fascinating firstly because it suggests a positive reward as a result of tzara’at, but also because it reminds us that these homes did not originally belong to the People of Israel.

Rashi’s explanation that tzara’at strikes a house in order to reveal the hidden treasures inside seems to have nothing to do with the wrongdoings of the current Israelite resident. Even in the simple reading of the verses, there is a noticeable distance between the house and its resident. The verse refers to the homeowner as the “אֲשֶׁר-לוֹ הַבַּיִת” “The one whose house it is,” almost as if it were arbitrary who happens to live in which house. When the house contracts tzara’at, the family is ordered to remove all of their possessions, currently pure, so that nothing will be left inside and designated “tamei””impure” once the kohen, the priest, gets there. This looks suspiciously like a way of fooling the system – the family has to hurry to move everything out before the kohen arrives, or else he will pronounce it all tamei! The verses ensure that only the house obtain impurity, and not anything or anyone that was inside it. The residents and possessions are purposefully removed from the site of the tzara’at, and they remain absent from the rest of the description.

Chezkuni posits that the reason the verse explicitly states that God will inflict tzara’at onto a house (“וְנָתַתִּי נֶגַע”“and I will inflict”) is because the Canaanites practiced idol worship in these very homes, and since we have no way of knowing exactly where that took place, God sends tzara’at so that we may destroy those places of sin. For Chezkuni, the sin of the former residents is the cause of the tzara’at and the reason for the destruction of the home, as opposed to Rashi, for whom the deeds of the Amorites result in the silver lining element that comes after the destruction of the home. However, both interpretations pick up on the same key element: that tzara’at of the home is inherently linked to the sinful actions performed in these homes by the nations who lived there before the People of Israel inhabited them.

Various examples across the Bible shed light on the meaningful connection between a homeowner and his home, which prompts many commentators to interpret tzara’at of the home as being a physical manifestation of the slanderous speech or corrupted behaviors of those who live in it. However, in light of the opinions of Rashi and Chezkuni, the statuses of ownership and residency become less clear. When the People of Israel enter the Land of Israel they take over homes formerly built, owned and lived in by idol worshipping nations, and the ownership status of those sinful people remains on some level until the house is destroyed. Although it wouldn’t make sense for God to send tzara’at as punishment for the sins of non-Jews, the tzara’at seems to be coming at least partially from a source of corruption that existed before the People of Israel even got there. Next week’s parsha, Acharei Mot, articulates a similar notion: “וְלֹא-תָקִיא הָאָרֶץ אֶתְכֶם, בְּטַמַּאֲכֶם אֹתָהּ, כַּאֲשֶׁר קָאָה אֶת-הַגּוֹי, אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵיכֶם.”“And if not, the land will disgorge you because of your defilement of it, just as it disgorged the nations that were before you.” (Leviticus 18:28). This is a direct warning to the People of Israel against contracting tumah, impurity, and being expelled from their land, in a similar manner to what happened to the nations before them. It sounds like a macrocosmic level of our case of tzara’at on a house, where the inhabitants are expelled because of tumah, in connection to the “הַגּוֹי, אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵיכֶם”“the nation that came before you”.

When the People of Israel arrive in the Land of Israel, the land is literally built on the stones of corruption. Living in the Land of Israel immediately following the conquest of the land is to live a precarious existence. The People of Israel are responsible for altering the spiritual state of the land, but with this responsibility also comes a vulnerability to the very forces that they are commanded to eradicate. Tzara’at on houses functions as a warning to the People of Israel not to act in the ways of the nations before them. According to Sanhedrin 71a, “There has never been, nor will there ever be, a house smitten with tzara’at.” Although this scenario never actually occurred, the challenge of combating surrounding forces is one that always exists for our nation. The laws of tumah and taharah, purity and impurity, in our parsha are crucial to monitoring our own levels of purity, not just internally but also as a means of resisting the forces that surround us.

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[1] Translations provided by Dov Fields

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