כׇּל־יְמֵי אֲשֶׁר הַנֶּגַע בּוֹ יִטְמָא טָמֵא הוּא בָּדָד יֵשֵׁב מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה מוֹשָׁבוֹ׃

He shall be impure as long as the plague is on him. Being impure, he shall dwell apart; his dwelling shall be outside the camp. (13:46)

The person stricken with the Tzara’at plague is obligated to stay away from others. Is it because he’s contagious? It can’t be that, as many commentaries point out, based on the laws that apply here.

A Kohen (priest) must declare the spot that has appeared upon a person as Tzara’at. It is only from that point on that this person becomes impure and not from the time he first developed the spot.

Only a Kohen can establish that someone has been stricken with Tzara’at. Not even the greatest Torah scholar who knows everything there is to know about identifying Tzara’as can replace a Kohen.

If a person who possesses all the signs of Tzara’at was to avoid being seen by a Kohen he would not become impure. There are even times when a Kohen is told not to examine someone who has developed the signs such as a bridegroom who if declared that he has Tzara’at would be unable to celebrate the wedding week with his bride.

One of the signs of tzara’at is a hair in the spot that has changed color. Although prohibited to do so, if the person would pull out the hair before the Kohen can examine him he would remain pure even though he actually had all the signs of Tzara’at.

If Taza’at was a contagious disease none of this would make sense.

Therefore, we must say that Tzara’at is a heavenly message of great displeasure with one’s behavior. One of the sins that bring tzara’at upon a person is lashon horah (evil speech), the prohibition against speaking disparagingly of others. He is banished from the presence of others to avoid repeating his sin and because he needs time to be with himself and think about where his life is taking him so that he will do Teshuva (Repentance).

It seems strange though that the Torah gives a person the ability to avoid all this if he pulls out the hair as stated above. Why would it do this?

Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky wrote that once we establish that Tzara’at is a message, we can say that the Torah decided to leave it up to the person to make the kind of choice that will need to be made in many other areas of life. In this context the choice is that you can run away from Tzara’at by pulling out the hair from the spot, not allowing the Kohen to see all the signs or you can face up to the message being sent to you and deal with it. The message here is- It’s all up to you.

Throughout life we are faced with difficult situations and difficult decisions to make where we can run away from dealing with them or face them head on and do what needs to be done. It’s all up to us.

The Talmud in tractate Avodah Zarah (17a) relates the story of a man named Elazar ben Durdaya who was steeped in sin and had an awakening to repent. Realizing how low he had sunk he looked for help.

“He went and sat between two mountains and hills and said: Mountains and hills, pray for mercy on my behalf (so that my repentance will be accepted)[…]. He said: Heaven and earth, pray for mercy on my behalf. […] He said: Sun and moon, pray for mercy on my behalf. […] He said: Stars and constellations, pray for mercy on my behalf. […]” They all refused. “Elazar ben Durdayya said: ‘Clearly the matter depends on nothing other than myself.’ He placed his head between his knees and cried loudly until his soul left his body. A Divine Voice emerged and said: Rabbi Elazar ben Durdayya is destined for life in the World-to-Come.”

This man portrayed this vital message. Hashem’s messages abound. The rest of it is up to us!

Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak