Sores Leave - Sin Stays
Welcome to parasha Mitzora. It begins in Leviticus 14:1-15:33. Here you thought we were finished with those skin afflictions didn't you:? Sorry, not quite yet. The first thing I want to bring up is to notice the leper was put out of the camp. Then it says he shall be brought to the Kohen. But the Kohen meets him "outside the camp." What does this picture remind you of? Because of our sin, we were put outside YHVH'S camp. But He sent the Holy Spirit to go and get us:. Then when we came, He met us just where we were. He didn't stay inside the camp and refuse to go outside. If the Kohen had done this, how would the leper have ever gotten to him? Then notice if he was clean, the Kohen took two birds and killed one. The other bird was dipped in its blood and then set free. Yeshua came, we dipped in His shed blood and He set us free. You'll see in these passages the three items that run through the Bible all the way up to the cross; the hyssop, the scarlet and the cedar wood. Those items were dipped in the one bird's blood also. Remember these items come into play at the Passover also. They put the blood (red) over the doorpost (wood) with hyssop. Just like the Hebrews were set free, this leper was set free and Yeshua set us free. After the leper was determined to be clean, he was to wash his clothes and himself and then he could come into the camp, but he was still not allowed to mingle with others for seven days. After Yeshua cleaned his people up, wasn't there seven thousand years before they could enter the millennium, counting back to the time of their 'original contamination' in the Garden? Then the leper had to shave off all of his body hair (I do mean all), even his eyebrows, then wash his clothes and himself again before he was allowed to be around people.
There was still more to do, offerings had to be made. Now when we think of putting blood on the right tip of an ear, on the right thumb and the big toe, we think of Moses inaugurating the Priests. But wait, here we see the Priest is putting it on the leper who was declared clean. Not only that, he puts some oil on each one of these body places I just mentioned. The rest of the oil left in the Kohen's hand is poured over the person's head. Then we read about leprosy being on the walls of a house. There are two famous explanations of this occurrence. The first one is based on what it says in Leviticus 14:32; When you come into the land of Kanaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I PUT THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY IN A HOUSE of the land of your possession…. So it would seem by this reading that for some reason YHVH had already put the plague of leprosy on certain houses before they entered the land and it took over the house. Some sages say the previous people that lived in the land quickly hid their valuables in the walls of their houses, believing they would quickly be able to return and retrieve them. So YHVH exposed the treasure by putting leprosy on the places where the treasure was hid. That way, when the Priest ordered those bricks removed, the treasure would belong to the Hebrews.
Rambam however, clings to the idea the leprosy was there because the person owning the house had sinned. It was his belief that YHVH put the plague first on the house of the person who sinned, then on his garments and last on the person himself if he had not repented. You can decide which option you think happened. We do know the Kohen checked the house for signs of the plague. Then he would come back in seven days to check it again. This was the same way a person was treated who was suspected to have leprosy. If the house still looked bad to him, he would order the afflicted stones be taken away and the entire house scraped down. If you think you don't like a wall washing, how would you like to do a wall scraping:? Then the stones that were affected would be replaced. If the Priest checked it again and if it still had leprosy in places broken out on it, then there goes the entire house, call in the wrecking company. Then it was all hauled outside the city to an unclean place. But it could always go in the other direction also. The Kohen could come back and find the house clean after it was re-plastered. Then the Priest would perform a cleansing on it with the birds, the hyssop, the scarlet and the wood, just like he did on the man. Now we have to touch on an area I'm not really happy about discussing, discharges. The only discharge I'm comfortable with speaking about is from the armed forces:. The first one it speaks of is a running discharge. The commentaries say this is not just an ordinary emission of semen. If he touches or sits upon anything, it is unclean. If someone touches him or anything he's touched, he has to bathe himself, wash his clothes and is unclean until evening. The unclean person himself will wait seven days and then wash himself and his clothes in running water. Then on the eight day he has to take two pigeons or two turtle doves to the Priest in order to make atonement for himself. The next one is said to be a regular emission of semen. Why would this make a man unclean? Because there was "life contained in that seed" that never came to be, only death came to it. With this emission, the man was to wash himself and be unclean until evening. That includes any clothes that came in contact with the semen also. When the woman is in her flow, we're talking unclean also. She has to wait for 'seven days' to get clean again. For the women out there, you'd better stay away from sexual relations during your flow time. It's called the law of Nidah. It is said that a woman who doesn't keep this rule is a lot more at risk to contract cervical cancer. There are always reasons why YHVH tells us not to do certain things. It's always for our own good, but most of the time we see Him as just being a party pooper:. It's a fact that Jewish women have the lowest rate of cervical cancer of any race of women. Why, because they keep the laws of Nidah. Any man can wait to be with his wife for seven days, come on! It's not the end of the world:! If not, then he can become unclean for seven days along with her and take the chance he just might cause her to get cervical cancer. After seven days (on the 8th day) she must take two birds to the Priest for an offering also. Do you know why YHVH gave these rules to the people? It tells you in Leviticus 15:31. It was so the people would not die in their uncleanness approaching YHVH'S Tabernacle. You might say; but we don't have a Temple today. Yes, we do, the Temple today is YOU! It's good for us that we no longer break out in sores when we continue to sin like they did back then. The outbreak of sores may not be with us, but the sin sure is! Shalom
There was still more to do, offerings had to be made. Now when we think of putting blood on the right tip of an ear, on the right thumb and the big toe, we think of Moses inaugurating the Priests. But wait, here we see the Priest is putting it on the leper who was declared clean. Not only that, he puts some oil on each one of these body places I just mentioned. The rest of the oil left in the Kohen's hand is poured over the person's head. Then we read about leprosy being on the walls of a house. There are two famous explanations of this occurrence. The first one is based on what it says in Leviticus 14:32; When you come into the land of Kanaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I PUT THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY IN A HOUSE of the land of your possession…. So it would seem by this reading that for some reason YHVH had already put the plague of leprosy on certain houses before they entered the land and it took over the house. Some sages say the previous people that lived in the land quickly hid their valuables in the walls of their houses, believing they would quickly be able to return and retrieve them. So YHVH exposed the treasure by putting leprosy on the places where the treasure was hid. That way, when the Priest ordered those bricks removed, the treasure would belong to the Hebrews.
Rambam however, clings to the idea the leprosy was there because the person owning the house had sinned. It was his belief that YHVH put the plague first on the house of the person who sinned, then on his garments and last on the person himself if he had not repented. You can decide which option you think happened. We do know the Kohen checked the house for signs of the plague. Then he would come back in seven days to check it again. This was the same way a person was treated who was suspected to have leprosy. If the house still looked bad to him, he would order the afflicted stones be taken away and the entire house scraped down. If you think you don't like a wall washing, how would you like to do a wall scraping:? Then the stones that were affected would be replaced. If the Priest checked it again and if it still had leprosy in places broken out on it, then there goes the entire house, call in the wrecking company. Then it was all hauled outside the city to an unclean place. But it could always go in the other direction also. The Kohen could come back and find the house clean after it was re-plastered. Then the Priest would perform a cleansing on it with the birds, the hyssop, the scarlet and the wood, just like he did on the man. Now we have to touch on an area I'm not really happy about discussing, discharges. The only discharge I'm comfortable with speaking about is from the armed forces:. The first one it speaks of is a running discharge. The commentaries say this is not just an ordinary emission of semen. If he touches or sits upon anything, it is unclean. If someone touches him or anything he's touched, he has to bathe himself, wash his clothes and is unclean until evening. The unclean person himself will wait seven days and then wash himself and his clothes in running water. Then on the eight day he has to take two pigeons or two turtle doves to the Priest in order to make atonement for himself. The next one is said to be a regular emission of semen. Why would this make a man unclean? Because there was "life contained in that seed" that never came to be, only death came to it. With this emission, the man was to wash himself and be unclean until evening. That includes any clothes that came in contact with the semen also. When the woman is in her flow, we're talking unclean also. She has to wait for 'seven days' to get clean again. For the women out there, you'd better stay away from sexual relations during your flow time. It's called the law of Nidah. It is said that a woman who doesn't keep this rule is a lot more at risk to contract cervical cancer. There are always reasons why YHVH tells us not to do certain things. It's always for our own good, but most of the time we see Him as just being a party pooper:. It's a fact that Jewish women have the lowest rate of cervical cancer of any race of women. Why, because they keep the laws of Nidah. Any man can wait to be with his wife for seven days, come on! It's not the end of the world:! If not, then he can become unclean for seven days along with her and take the chance he just might cause her to get cervical cancer. After seven days (on the 8th day) she must take two birds to the Priest for an offering also. Do you know why YHVH gave these rules to the people? It tells you in Leviticus 15:31. It was so the people would not die in their uncleanness approaching YHVH'S Tabernacle. You might say; but we don't have a Temple today. Yes, we do, the Temple today is YOU! It's good for us that we no longer break out in sores when we continue to sin like they did back then. The outbreak of sores may not be with us, but the sin sure is! Shalom