Making Sense of the Sedra: Metzorah

Parshat Metzorah, which is also Shabbat Hagadol (the Shabbat preceding Pesach), is a rather technical one, dealing primarily with laws of ritual purity and impurity. Although many of the laws do not apply nowadays, there are ideas and aspects that teach us vital messages.

One rather unusual application of the laws of spiritual impurity regards an affliction that would strangely affect houses. If a house stricken with tzaraat (disease) was declared salvageable and did not need to be dismantled, the kohen performed a procedure to prepare it for use again. As part of this rite, he sprinkles blood on the house.

One view in the Midrash specifies that the blood goes specifically on the lintel of the doorway. Rabbi Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk (d. 1926) explains that this fits with the Talmud’s (Yoma 11b) understanding of why tzaraat may afflict a house, namely due to the selfish use of one’s property.

The blood on the door’s lintel becomes a reminder to the old-new resident to open the doorway of the house to others. To Rav Meir Simcha, tzaraat imposes separation from the rest of society as punishment for estrangement from others. As his proof-text, he notes that households disintegrate as soon as a man puts an oath on his wife forbidding her from lending utensils to others.

As we approach Pesach, the idea of blood on a lintel is highly evocative. While the blood of the Pesach offering was only placed on the lintel on the very first Pesach in Egypt, its lesson is eternal. The doorpost and lintel are the boundaries of the family home and are meant to create a safe space for those inside. However, at the same time, the Paschal lamb was meant to be shared with those who could not bring their own. The Pesach seder, then as now, is meant to be a warm and welcoming experience not only for our own families, but for those beyond our own immediate circle.

This idea is so fundamental to the Pesach experience that the Maggid section of the Haggadah starts with the invitation of ha lachma anya, ‘all who are needy let them come and eat…’ The freedom that we celebrate on Pesach is not just liberation from our oppressors, rather it is a freedom to behave in a way that is becoming of people who know can empathise with those who are less fortunate and are able to share what we have with them.

This Pesach, perhaps more than in any other time in living memory, we are celebrating freedom against the backdrop of war and oppression. It is vital that in the days leading up to Yom Tov we do our level best to open our homes and hearts and share what we have with those who are in need of support, so that our declarations of freedom on seder night are not empty words. If seder night is all about communicating messages and creating a legacy for the next generations, then statements that are backed up with actions are the most powerful ones of all.