The Divine Energy of Healing

This week’s Torah portions are Tazria and Metzora. They speak about skin diseases, discharges, and ritual purification. Metzora means one who has a skin disease, and this portion begins by describing the process by which someone who has had such an infection is purified for re-entry into the community. The person who is healed was to be examined by the priest. Then the person was to bring two birds, red wool, a bunch of hyssop, which is from a small bush, and cedar wood. He was to shave his body, wash body and clothes and then re-enter the camp. After seven days of dwelling outside his tent he was to shave and wash again and then he was declared to be pure. On the next day there were more offerings: a sin, guilt, and elevation offering to be placed before God by the Priest. The sin and guilt sacrifices were for atonement and the elevation offering was to elevate the person so that he could draw closer to God’s Presence. The blood of the guilt offering was put on the right ear, thumb, and toe of the person atoning; and oil, which was part of the offering, was sprinkled before God seven times, and was also put on the ear, thumb, and toe of the penitent and then on his head as well.
In reading this ceremony, the similarity between the purification of the Metzora and the ceremony for the consecration of the priests is inescapable. The priests underwent a seven day term of isolation in which they dwelt outside their tents, in front of the tabernacle. It was followed by a ceremony of atonement offerings, a ritual of blood applied to the ear, thumb, and toe, and the oil of anointment being put on their heads. This similarity between the consecration of the priests and the purification of a penitent seems strange. Why should they be so similar and what might this be telling us? The similarity of the two rituals points to the conclusion that the priest and the penitent were learning from each other. Skin diseases are the biblical result of slander: Lashon Hara, or evil speech. The Zohar also says that: “just as a person is punished for uttering an evil word, so is there punishment for not uttering a good word when there was the opportunity, because that speaking spirit is harmed which was prepared to speak both above and below in holiness.” In terms of Divine Justice, this can be expressed as: those who separate, through speech, will themselves be separated, through absence. Speaking ill of someone, Rashi taught, is the result of haughtiness. The person who had a skin disease was quarantined outside the camp to heal, but also to think about what he might have done to deserve such a disease. The Kohen, too, by being responsible for the purification ritual, must have been constantly reminded not to engage in slander and gossip and not to allow his position to lead him to haughtiness. We know that haughtiness is really its opposite: a lack of the feeling of self worth rather than an excess of confidence. It is only those who are insecure who need to talk about others in an effort to raise themselves by seeming to lower other people. The Kohen needed to be reminded to seek true self worth in service to God and others and not in the glory of his seemingly high position. The penitent, after the affliction was gone, was raised up in a ceremony that elevated and anointed him after his disgrace. In giving him back his dignity and having the priest serve him, transferring some of his royalty to him, he was given the impression that he could ascend to the heights of holiness through his atonement and participation in the anointment ritual. The elaborate ceremony in which the priest put the holy blood and holy oil upon his ear, hand, toe and head was a way to give him the confidence to be able to obey the commandments, do what is right, walk in God’s ways and think before speaking. The penitent could then seek true worth within himself after being purified and anointed, finding the sense of self love transmitted by God’s love, and self worth that had been missing formerly.
The Lubavicher Rebbe said that every mitzvah performed brings with it Divine Energy into our material world that will blossom and bear fruit. In a sense the mitzvot exist to give us an entry into Divine energy; a prescribed ritual by which to enter into the awe of co-creation with God. The Zohar calls the Torah a great and mighty tree of life. “It is called Torah (lit. showing) because it shows and reveals that which was hidden and unknown; and all life from above is comprised in it and issues from it. One that “takes hold” of the Torah takes hold of all, above and below.” The definition of mitzvah as commandment gives us back the awe that modern life robs us of. When we participate in awe we are all priests: serving in the knowledge that our actions contribute to the well being of all existence. The common ritual reinforces the equality of priest and penitent. The priest remembers that the penitent’s purity is as great or now greater and surpasses his own after his process of cleansing is complete. As the Talmud says, “In the place where the penitent stands, not even the completely righteous can stand.” The penitent now understands that his inner royalty has been brought forth by his being anointed to God’s service, which could only have happened because he sinned and learned from his mistakes, falling down being the pre-condition for learning. The priest knows that it is a very thin line that prevents him from sinning in the same way. The Commentary, Midradsh Rabba, refers to a quotation from Deuteronomy: “I have wounded, and I heal, Rabbi. B’re-kiah said in the name of Rabbi Levi: [A physician of] flesh and blood wounds with a knife, and heals with a bandage, but the Holy One, blessed be The Eternal, heals with the very thing with which God wounds, as it is said in Jeremiah, For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee out of thy wounds.” This ritual involves the Kohen and the penitent in the exquisite dance of Paradox: that we humans are all alike: at the same time lowly and magnificent, humble and royal, constantly called by God to greater understanding and higher deeds by being given exactly what we need to learn and grow toward Goodness and Holiness.