Our portion discusses the healing of tzara'at and purification from it. Onkelos translates tzara'at as “closure” (סְגִירוּ). This translation indicates that the spiritual root of tzara'at is related to negative closure. However, it is known from the sages that the blemish of the metzora—the individual afflicted with tzara’at—is precisely the opposite. The sages identify his or her blemish with openness and excessive exposure which expresses itself through negative speech about others as well as their defamation.
Thus, from the sages it seems that the metzora is a person who is entirely open, through and through, a condition completely the opposite of being closed. How then can tzara'at be understood as related to or caused by “closure?” We might argue that the translation of “closure” indicates that the closing up of the afflicted individual’s speech is the cure for tzara’at, however, according to Onkelos, this is the name given to the disease itself, not to its cure.
To resolve this apparent contradiction, let us begin by explaining that closure caused by negative speech can be attributed to different levels in the person’s psychology. At the simple level, the closure of the metzora is understood as the dulling of the heart (הַלֵּב טִמְטוּם) and the mind. Evil speech causes blockage and dullness in a person’s heart and mind. Moreover, a person who speaks idle and negative words adopts a negative mindset—a psychological process that feeds itself and shutters him from change. The mechanism behind this involves, among other things, the connection between speech and the mind. Just as the blood circulates through the body so there is a spiritual cycle that circulates between speech and thought. When a person utters idle words, they return as empty and idle thoughts to his head, which feeds a spirit of folly (the spirit of sin), which then reappears outwardly in the form of more idle and cynical speech, and so forth, in a vicious cycle.
We can use the understanding of this psychological mechanism to better comprehend how negative openness—demonstrated by the individual’s unrestrained ill speech—creates a negative framework that seals the person’s psyche and captures him within himself. This causal sequence can be seen not only as punishment or damage incurred by ill speech, but as a simple defense mechanism: when a person unbridles his spirit and does not restrain it, this negative openness will cause the psyche to close within itself so that its essence will not be lost and carried away in the rush of negative openness.
A similar idea is explained in Chasidic thought regarding the blemish of the covenant (sexual impropriety), which causes the person’s self-integrity to withdraw into itself. When the psyche and soul’s most essential power—the power of procreation that can reveal the soul’s very essence through one’s offspring—is blemished and injured, thereby risking its waste and degradation, then the psyche withdraws the essence inwards and forces it to disappear and close itself off inside the soul. The result is that the individual loses their self-integrity and can no longer feel the freedom to act to fulfill their mission in life.
Indeed, “the covenant of the tongue,” a connotation for a rectified power of speech, parallels “the covenant of the procreative organ,” and the effect of idle and negative words spoken (or one might say, spilled) by the tongue, parallel the effect of idle or empty energy spilled through the procreative organ.
To repair the damage incurred by blemishing the covenant, it is not sufficient to halt the negative “leak” from the soul and to collect all the sparks that have escaped. The main effort must focus on liberating and bringing to light anew the soul’s essential self-integrity that has receded and locked itself deep within the person. Without this release of the soul’s essential faculty of creative expression from its confinement, self-integrity is not restored.
An even deeper significance to the state of closure in the person afflicted by tzara’at is described in the Zohar, in reflection on the verse, “I was stricken by silence; I held my peace, had no comfort, and my pain was held in check” (נֶעְכָּר וּכְאֵבִי בְּהִשָּׁתוֹקֵתִי הֶחֱשֵיתִי דּוּמִי נֶאֱלַמְתִּי). Based on this verse, the Zohar states that tzara'at is not punishment for evil speech alone, but also for refraining from saying good things. If one is punished for not saying, that means that the punishment is for the closure itself—the inability to speak positively and express one’s essence through speech. Thus, Onkelos’ translation of tzara’at as “closure” can be understood as the inability to say those things which need to be said. This idea is alluded to in the verse, “the desert has closed itself upon them” (הַמִּדְבָּר עֲלֵיהֶם סָגַר), where the word “desert” (מִדְבָּר) is cognate with the word “speaker” (מְדַבֵּר). That is, from the internal closure, a person comes to negative and harmful speech.
When we look more closely at this word, “closed” (סָגַר), we see that it suggests that the metzora has spoken ill of someone, thus having “compromised” (לְהַסְגִּיר) their privacy. To compromise someone can also mean to betray them and hand them over to their enemies, by slandering them. More inwardly, as we mentioned, speaking ill of others locks the speaker into a negative framework (מִסְגֶּרֶת) in the psyche—a place that entrenches their negative traits and makes it difficult for them to change or make any kind of progress. All these words are cognate with the Aramaic translation of tzara’at, סְגִירוּ.
Healing with Closure
The notion that tzara’at is related to closure in the psyche appears once again when we consider the healing process prescribed by the Torah. The healing of tzara'at is not a natural-human process, but a Divine healing that is facilitated by a Cohen. As described elsewhere, God heals by a process that the sages call “like with like” (מֶה בְּדוּמֶה דוּמֶה). Which is why the healing process that the metzora undergoes begins with “and the priest shall isolate him” (וְהִסְגִּיר הַכֹּהֵן), where the word for “isolate” and “closure,” stem from the same root.
The isolation of the metzora is an intermediate state between the beginning of the disease, in which he is still considered pure, and the complete impurity of the definitive metzora. Still, it is a method used by the Cohen to attempt to heal the one who is afflicted by “closure” with “closure,” curing “like with like.” Moreover, the act of isolation assumes that if it is a Cohen that isolates the metzora, then later, when the time comes, it is also a Cohen who will be able to release him from his isolation and from his state of spiritual closure.
Blood and Water
Let us examine tzara'at from another perspective, the physical aspect. Delving into the inner content of the physical aspect can better teach us about the significance of the closure being discussed. The sages teach that in the human body, a balance must be maintained between water and blood, and disrupting this balance causes disease. An excess of blood over water is what leads to tzara'at. At first glance, tzara'at appears to be the removal of blood from parts of the body, creating white lesions, hence the question arises, how is it caused by an excess of blood? It should be understood that an excess of blood in the system actually leads to obstruction and blockage in the regular blood flow to all parts of the body since the role of water in the body is to ease and accelerate the relatively viscous blood flow. Therefore, in ancient times, bloodletting was practiced for healing, to reduce the load of blood in the body and to ease blood flow.
From the perspective of the Torah’s inner dimension, blood and water symbolize might (gevurah) and loving-kindness (chessed). The gevurah of blood denotes restraint. Proper restraint facilitates vitality and freshness in life, preventing being swept along indiscriminately; it facilitates maintaining a defined and controlled direction, moving forward with the strength of the gevurah needed to overcome the evil inclination. Conversely, the chessed of water signifies expansion and natural flow, a more open movement forward accompanied by a sense of content with unfolding events void of sharp criticism regarding every detail.
Balancing water and blood is crucial for creating a healthy flow of life-force and life that has direction, yet is not overly obstructed by constriction and blockage of paths due to excessive criticism. An excess of blood represents an increase in judgment, restraint, and meticulousness, hindering the flow of life, with the blood turning into a blockage-tzara'at, stopping its own circulation from reaching every part of the human body.
In truth, a person needs to direct the criticism associated with blood selfward towards himself, to give his life both force and direction. When criticism is also directed towards others, this expresses an excess of blood that goes beyond its bounds to block the flow of life and the ability to integrate into reality.
Conversely, the expansive character of water should be directed towards others, like water flowing from a high place to a low place, from the person himself to everyone outside him. Directing the flow of our “water” aspect, our loving-kindness, outward should bring about both a sense of being able to flow with reality without constantly criticizing it and should give us the power needed to constantly extend ourselves even when faced with obstacles that impend our progress. In contrast, when we do not have enough “water” in our character, we find it difficult to express ourselves positively, preventing us from bringing out the positive energy in ourselves; we feel closed from within and cannot access the reality around us in a positive way.
The bond of love and connection between the souls of Israel is likened to blood in the circulatory system, connecting the different organs and making them one body. When a person speaks against another, with negative and harmful criticism, he stops the blood from flowing to that particular organ in the collective body of the people of Israel.
Run and Return
In Kabbalah, it is said that tzara'at stems from the withdrawal of the light of wisdom from a person. Chasidut explains that wisdom (chochmah) and understanding (binah) are the root of the “run and return” dynamic in the soul. Understanding causes us to elevate above reality, which is described as “running” (ratzo) towards God, and wisdom, which is loftier than understanding, causes us to “return” (shov) to reality. Elevating above reality without a complementary and balanced return causes spiritual death—defined as forfeiting one’s spiritual level—as alluded to in the verse “they die, but not with wisdom” (בְּחָכְמָה אֹוְל יָמוּתוּ), meaning that without wisdom there is (spiritual) death, but that with wisdom, i.e., with proper return to reality, there is no loss of one’s previous spiritual level.
What does wisdom grant that prevents this spiritual death? The inner dimension of wisdom is self-nullification, referring to one’s nullification to the will of God. Self-nullification translates into a commitment to making Him a dwelling in the lower realms, achieved by performing the practical commandments in our physical reality. Such nullification is the root of the “return” (shov) movement, which shifts one’s focus from his own personal elevation to the need for fulfilling God’s will.
Tzara'at too is considered a form of spiritual death, and it too stems from a movement of run without return.
A distorted “run” movement that lacks “return” leads to closure towards reality. A person who only thinks about personal elevation does not consider others. Instead, he directs condescending criticism upon them and desires to distance himself from them. By focusing on “running” towards the supernal alone, one’s attitude towards reality is filled with harsh judgments and irritation. This is a product of “run” being associated with the sefirah of understanding, about which it says, “from it, harsh judgments are aroused.”
Tying back to our discussion of water and blood, when there is only a “run” towards the supernal, the flow of descending water—i.e., loving-kindness, akin to a movement of “return” from the supernal to the mundane and commitment to fulfilling God’s will here below—is interrupted again, rendering the individual unable to open to reality and to infuse it with positive content from within himself.
Another effect caused by the withdrawal of the light of wisdom and the resulting negative judgment and criticism is an increase in the amount of idle, evil, and negative words (like waste being poured out from the root of judgments). Wisdom is the root from which a person’s ability to express letters—be they the letters that make up our speech or those that make up our thoughts. These letters, or nuggets of mind, are the culmination of the inner work of “run” that a person has engaged in. But, in the absence of the intention of a “return” from one’s inner work, the holy letters that have been produced withdraw and, in their place, appear other nuggets that are like the lesions of tzara'at. These letters of tzara’at express an indifferent or critical attitude in the form of idle banter or evil words.
Once negative thought and speech become abundant, it is not enough to merely renew the flow of the light of wisdom. One must first nullify the lesions and negative letters that have already appeared. In other words, a person’s closure towards reality and his avoidance of illuminating it with good words, created an alternative, negative, and superficial openness that prevents the deeper, inner source of positive openness to express itself. To achieve the desired openness, one must first stop and close the leaking negativity, which takes the physical form of lesions on the skin. Only then can the run and return of the soul be renewed, but this time under the supervision of a Cohen (priest), who ensures that the run originates from a sense of inner lowliness encouraging the individual to return with humility back to reality and to express positive speech.
The Free Bird
Our conclusion is then that the rectification of the metzora cannot be attained through a ta’anit dibur (refraining from speech for a limited time, a “fast” of speech, so to speak), which would isolate him even further, but rather should encourage the correct use of speech. Speech should serve holiness by improving and bringing hearts closer with good words instead of separating them through evil speech. An abundance of holy letters that help the metzora correct idle talk, stems from the restoration of the light of wisdom—i.e., nullification to God’s will—to the soul. This the metzora can accomplish by reassessing his need for “return” that will inspire his mind and mouth to boost the amount of natural positivity they express.
The numerical allusion that lurks in the background here is that the value of “ta’anit dibur” (תַּעֲנִית דִּבּוּר) is 2 times the value of the verse, “a wise heart will inspire his mouth” (לֵב חָכָם יַשְכִּיל פִּיהוּ). The verse’s instruction is that refraining from speech can heal one’s spiritual state only when its purpose is to restore and even double the illumination of wisdom in the heart—“a wise heart” (לֵב חָכָם)—in order to make the mouth wise to increase good speech.
Indeed, this is a cyclical process that can be carried out through self-discipline, even before the light of wisdom and self-nullification is renewed in a person. Just as speaking idle words closed the person in a cycle guided by a spirit of folly (רוּחַ שְׁטוּת) that blocked the power of renewal of his sacred energy, so too, an abundance of holy letters emitted through speech will reopen the blocked channels of wisdom and allows him to innovate holy and novel Torah thoughts and express them.
Here too we find a beautiful numerical allusion in the background. The rectification of the “spirit of folly” (רוּחַ שְׁטוּת) is through the abundant recitation of the written letters of the 929 (תתקכט) chapters of the Bible. 929 is also the value of “You [God] open your hand” (פּוֹתֵחַ אֶת יָדֶיךָ), hinting at the special power to open the soul that the words of the Bible possess.
The metzora’s rectification thus comes about by halting the spirit of folly from all idle and empty chatter and replacing it with proactive, deliberate, and disciplined uttering of holy words.
Indeed, in Chasidut it is explained that the ultimate rectification of the metzora lies in true openness, liberation from all constraint and inhibition, and a return to the natural ability to chatter positively. About chatter in general, the sages said: “All chatter is negative, but Torah chatter is good.” This rectification is symbolized by the sparrow (a wild bird) that the metzora frees to the field. With its chirping chatters, the sparrow symbolizes the metzora’s healed freedom to speak naturally and openly without restriction to specific books or subjects, all with the confidence that all his words are inspired by the sacred spirit within.
