Metzora“Leper”

The 28th Torah Portion Reading5th reading in the Book of Leviticus

Leviticus 14:1 – 15:332 Kings 7:3-20

Luke 9:51 – 10:42

Metzora

biblestudyresourcecenter.com

Biblestudyresourcecenter.com

MetzoraThe Shadows of the Messiah

Titles of Messiah

• Hope of Israel - Acts 28:20• Mikvah of Israel- Acts 28:20• The Leper - b.Sanhedrin 98• Leper of the House of Rabbi - b.Sanhedrin 98

Healing Lepers

Leviticus 14:2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest:

Healing Lepers

Matthew 10:7-8 And as you go, preach, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is-at hand." Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.

Lepers, Sin, and Mortality

Leviticus 14:2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest:

Leprosy and Exile

The sages drew a connection between the Torah's laws of leprosy and the exile of the Jewish people. In the Bible, God smote people with leprosy as a punishment for their sins.

Show Yourself to the Priest

Leviticus 14:3 And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;

The Two Birds

Leviticus 14:4 Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

The Surviving Bird

Leviticus 14:6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:

Bathed with Water

Leviticus 14:8 And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.

Baptism and Mikvah

Leviticus 14:9 But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.

Immersion and Resurrection

Leviticus 14:9 But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.

Immersion and Resurrection

Romans 6:3-7 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Messiah Yeshua have been baptized into His death? ... Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

Touching the Leper

When Mark tells us about Yeshua healing a leper, he says, "Yeshua stretched out His hand and touched him" (Mark 1:41). By touching the leper, Yeshua rendered Himself ritually unclean.

The Anointed Leper

Leviticus 14:29 And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before the LORD.

The Leper Messiah

Leviticus 13:2 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests:

Chasidic Explanation

Leper MessiahIt indicates that the redeemer suffers the agoniesand afflictions of Israel's exile. He impatientlywaits for the final redemption when He can purify the nation, but until then, He personally suffers the pain of Israel's leprous-like affliction, the agony of the ongoing exile. For as long as the exile persists, the Messiah is called The Leper.

Rejected by the Sages

And the rabbis say: "His name is The Leper of the House of Rabbi, as it is said [in Isaiah 53:4], 'Surely our sicknesses he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken,smitten of God, and afflicted.'"

(b. Sanhedrin 98b)

Many Meanings

In the above discussions, we have seen that leprosy illustrates physical mortality and the spiritual malady of sin. At the same time, it illustrates the strokes and punishments that befall the nation of Israel for covenantal infidelity. The leper represents Israel under international subjugation and driven into exile. The leprous house represents the corruption of the holy Temple and its ultimate destruction.

The SignatureIsaiah 53:5 One may speak of leprosy as the literal, biblical disease tzara'at, as an archetype for human disease and mortality, as a metaphor for the spiritual corruption of sin, as a symbol for God's punishments, or as an allusion to the sorrows and sufferings of Israel's exile. In all cases, Yeshua offers the solution: "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.“