purification

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1. Atoning for Impurity?

   Rabbi Ezra Bick | 15 minutes

   Parshat Metzora focuses on tzaraat, an extremely severe type of tum'a, with a detailed purification process. By seeing what the Metzora (the affected person) undergoes to remove, we can understand what he is removing and what the significance is of “kappara” (atonement) in a case which is apparently beyond one's control.

2. Tum'a - Metaphysical Pollution or Halachic Construct

   Rabbi Daniel Wolf

   תאריך פרסום: תשע"ד | |

   Is the state of “Tum’a” merely a post-Sinaitic halakhic construct, or is it something else, something that existed earlier? We focus on the passage of Yaakov’s instructions to purify the camp after his sons’ revenge on Shechem (in the book of Bereisheet), as well as the “three days” before the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and the commandment about the Parah Aduma (Red Heifer), to better understand the concepts of Tum’a and Tahara. Statements of Haza”l, various midrashic literature, commentary, Targum, the Kuzari, and other Jewish sources aid us in our analysis of the Biblical passages and in our quest to define and understand Tum’a and Tahara.

3. Yehezkel’s Description of the Nation’s Purification

   Dr. Tova Ganzel

   The various descriptions of redemption in Sefer Yehezkel suggest that the occurrence of the redemption is not dependent on the nation’s deeds, rather the process is carried out in its entirety by God. The prophet states the reason for this: the ingathering of the nation into its land takes place solely because of God’s desire that His Name be sanctified in the eyes of the nations. The Destruction and the exile do not cause any fundamental change in the nation’s attitude towards God, and therefore the desired processes – purification and atonement - will take place without any preconditions.

4. Yehezkel’s Prophecy regarding Gog and Magog

   Part 2 - The Purification of the Land

   Dr. Tova Ganzel

   The corpses of the armies of Gog defile the land and must be buried in order to purify the land. However, the valley in which they are buried alludes to the valley of Ben Hinom, the valley in which children were sacrificed to Molekh. Thus, on a deeper level the prophet is hinting that the passing of children through fire - which had been common in the land - is what truly caused the land’s defilement. In addition to purifying the land from the casualties of war, this ceremony also purifies the land from the sins of the past.

   Although burying the dead bodies can stop those bodies from causing impurity, the burials cannot stop the graves from becoming a pilgrimage site. In these verses, the dead themselves become flesh for consumption. Those who consume them – the birds and the beast of the field – could have been sacrificed as offerings to the dead, while here the situation is reversed: they themselves eat the flesh and drink the blood of God’s enemies, thus ensuring that the graves do not become places of worship.

   Whereas in Yirmiyahu’s prophecy of destruction, the flesh of the sinners from the nation of Israel is eaten by the birds and the beasts of the field, in Yehezkel’s prophecy of revival it is God’s enemies who succumb to this fate.

5. Haftarat Para and Parshat Ki Tisa

   Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein | 23 minutes

   Parashat Para deals with the issue of tum’at met. The Haftara goes an additional step to compare sin to tuma (impurity) and uses the metaphor of tuma and tahara to relate to the sins and purification process  of Bnei Yisrael. Interestingly, the beginning of the haftara relates not to tumat met, but to nidda.  We compare the two types of impurity found in Vayikra and Bemidbar. We end with a message of hope that relates to the regular Parasha (Ki Tisa)-about the rehabilitation of the relationship between God and Israel after the Sin of the Golden Calf.

6. Between Moshe and Elazar

   Rabbanit Dr. Michal Tikochinsky