“The Kohain shall look, and behold, if the tzaraas covered all his flesh... he is pure. And on the day live flesh is visible, he shall be impure.” (Vayikra 13:13-14)
The various types of skin eruptions and sores can be confusing, and the Kohain had to be and expert in them (or have expert advice.) To the average reader, we may have questions. The case of this posuk, for example, lends itself to querying.
If a person has a white spot on his flesh, it is impure. Yet, if his entire body is white, from head to toe, then he is pure! Surely it should have said that such a person is even more so impure. But that’s not the halacha.
However, once the healing starts, and fresh skin is visible, NOW we make the man impure. How does this make sense? In truth, it reveals Hashem’s wisdom, as expressed to us through the Torah.
When a person sinned, the tzaraas was intended to wake him up and indicate that he had done wrong. However, this fellow was so engrossed in his sins that his entire body turned white. At that stage, there was no point in making him impure. He wasn’t in a place where it could effect change in him. He was too far gone. Hashem would not punish him by making him unclean simply out of spite.
However, when the fresh flesh begins to reassert itself, says the Netziv, this proves that the man has begun to do Teshuva and repent his ways. At this point, he is made impure. It is not a punishment, but an opportunity to correct his ways. Now the Kohain tells him what he needs to do to continue his return to Hashem and become pure once again. He has a problem for which there is a solution, so now it makes sense to consider him impure.
Not only is one completely immersed in sin in a state where he can’t be helped, but one who feels that he is too far gone or beyond hope is also unable to be helped. When we despair of being able to return, we become spiritually paralyzed. We feel there’s no way for us to move forward and that Hashem has likely given up on us. Symbolized by the entire body being covered with white tzaraas, the hopelessness of one so afflicted stymies their opportunity to change.
However, if we can find even the smallest opening to show people the good in themselves, like the one healthy spot of flesh, then we have a chance to guide and direct them closer to being the person they have the potential to be. In relationships, as well, the way to get our children, students, spouses, or friends to change their ways is not by berating them and pointing out their flaws, but by highlighting the good in them, and gently encouraging them to let that goodness spread and take over their entire being.
A young woman from Canada abandoned her Jewish roots and traditions, married a non-Jew, and moved to Switzerland. Eventually her marriage soured and the couple split. This happened at the beginning of Elul. Immediately after Yom Kippur, the woman died. The Rabbis in Switzerland refused to bury her in the Jewish cemetery as she had lived for many years as a non-Jew in all respects. Distraught, her father called Rebbetzin Elyashiv, and asked that she ask her husband for advice.
R’ Elyashiv asked what she did on that final Yom Kippur. The father made inquiries in the community and found out that she had attended a shul for half an hour.
R’ Elyashiv then ruled that she could be buried in a Jewish cemetery. The fact that she was in shul on Yom Kippur proved that her neshama was connected to the Jewish nation, and identified with the yearning for teshuva which Yom Kippur represents.
©2025 – J. Gewirtz
