Parasha Metzora: Four Lepers Who Went From Outcasts to Heroes
Metzora (Infected One) מְּצֹרָע
Parashah Name – 28 Metzora, מְּצֹרָע
On the eighth day, the healed person brought a grain and a guilt offering (minchah and asham).
This represents cleansing of the total person from everything we hear, everything we do, and every path we take.
When such an affliction invaded a home, just like a malignant cancer, it had to be cut out and removed. Even the stones and timber would be removed from the house and carried off to a designated “unclean place.”
Likewise, sometimes we find ourselves in environments that are toxic. When that environment resists the cure, and nothing we do can cleanse the situation so that it becomes beneficial to human life, health and growth, we must move from this situation and start over, despite the heavy cost and losses involved.
Parasha Metzora also deals with cleansing from bodily secretions, the laws of niddah (a woman’s menstrual cycle), and sexual relations within marriage.
The law of niddah calls upon a woman to be separated from the community for a period of seven days during her menstrual cycle (Leviticus 15:19–31).
Sexual relations are forbidden at this time between a husband and his wife, and may only be resumed after the woman has properly immersed herself in the mikvah (ritual water immersion).
The mikvah in Israel and around the world is a private affair, usually maintained in an inconspicuous building.
Women immerse themselves without clothing, with only a female attendant present to witness her full immersion. Sometimes the facility provides cosmetics, creams and lotions for the woman to beautify herself before returning home to resume relations with her husband.
The mikvah, however, is not only for Family Purity. It is used for the conversion of Gentiles to Judaism. As well, some pious Jews immerse before Shabbat and some special Holy Days.
The mikvah is seen to symbolize spiritual rebirth and the Christian ceremony of baptism has its roots in this Jewish rite. Indeed, the “baptism” by John of Yeshua was actually a mikvah.
“The Lord had made the host of the Arameans to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host.” (2 Kings 7:6)
While metzorot were marginalized figures cut off from the camp, in Haftarah Metzora (prophetic portion), they are the heroes of the story.
At this time, the Syrians had placed a terrible siege against Samaria (Northern Kingdom of Israel), resulting in a catastrophic famine.
The food stores had been consumed, and all the inhabitants of the city faced certain death. So desperate was the situation that some of the Israelites planned extraordinary means to satisfy their hunger.
“Why sit we here until we die?… Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Arameans; if they save us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will but die.” (2 Kings 7:3–4)
King Jehoram of Israel blamed Elisha the prophet for the calamity and vowed to put him to death.
Courtesy: http://free.messianicbible.com