Parshas Tazria-Metzora: Why Is This Affliction Different? |
The double parsha of Tazria-Metzora has a very strange combination of topics that actually go very well together. Let’s start with how the Rambam quotes the Mishnah from Kerisos 8b:
אַרְבָעָה הֵן הַנִּקְרָאִין מְחֻסְּרֵי כַּפָּרָה. הַזָּבָה. וְהַיּוֹלֶדֶת. וְהַזָּב. וְהַמְצֹרָע. וְלָמָּה נִקְרָאוּ מְחֻסְּרֵי כַּפָּרָה שֶׁכָּל אֶחָד מֵהֶן אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁטָּהַר מִטֻּמְאָתוֹ וְטָבַל וְהֶעֱרִיב שִׁמְשׁוֹ עֲדַיִן הוּא חָסֵר וְלֹא גָּמְרָה טָהֳרָתוֹ כְּדֵי לֶאֱכל בְּקָדָשִׁים עַד שֶׁיָּבִיא קָרְבָּנוֹ. וְקֹדֶם שֶׁיָּבִיא כַּפָּרָתוֹ אָסוּר הוּא לֶאֱכל בְּקָדָשִׁים כְּמוֹ שֶׁבֵּאַרְנוּ בִּפְסוּלֵי הַמֻּקְדָּשִׁין:
There are four individuals who are referred to as “requiring atonement”: a zavah, a woman after childbirth, a zav, and a person afflicted by tzara’at.Why are they referred to as “requiring atonement”? Because even after each one of them has become pure from the condition that caused his impurity, he has immersed in a mikveh, and the day of the immersion has passed, the person’s status is still lacking. His attainment of purity is not complete to the extent that he may partake of sacrificial foods until he brings the sacrifice required of him. Before he brings this sacrifice, he is forbidden to partake of sacrificial food as explained in Hilchot Pesulei HaMukdashim. (Mishna Torah, Laws of Offerings for those with Incomplete Atonement 1:1)
Basically, this parsha was meant to go together because all of these laws have the same rules attached to them: purity is only achieved through additional atonement. Immediately following the inauguration of the Mishkan and discussing the forbidden and clean animals, we move into yet another discussion where the process of immersion to cleanse is insufficient. This might better help explain the first statement of Rashi in our parsha:
אשה כי תזריע. אָ”רַ שִׂמְלַאי: כְּשֵׁם שֶׁיְּצִירָתוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם אַחַר כָּל בְּהֵמָה חַיָּה וָעוֹף בְּמַעֲשֵׂה........