Two Minute Torah Podcast

Metzora 5771 by Rabbi Dahlia Kronish

This week's parashah, Metzora discusses the behaviors that go along with ritual impurity. The conclusion to the parashah is introduced with the following verse:

You shall put the Israelites on guard against their impurity, lest they die through their impurity by defiling My Mishkan which is amongst them.

I would like to draw your attention to two textual points:

1. The first word in the verse, v’hizartem sounds like the Hebrew word v’hizhartem – explaining the translation offered in JPS: "you shall put the Israelites on guard".

Ibn Ezra suggests that the word v’hizartem comes from the root n.z.r. -- to separate oneself. In other words,

You shall separate the Children of Israel from their impurity...

This translation suggests that the responsibility to separate does not fall only on those who are impure, but rather on all of bnei yisrael.

The second half of the verse, defiling my Mishkan which is amongst them reminds us of the verse in Parashat Terumah:

And they shall make for Me a Temple, and I will dwell amongst them.

The verse does not say and they shall make for me a Temple and I will dwell in it (focusing on the Temple). Rather, the verse emphasizes that the purpose of the mikdash is for God to dwell amongst the people. It is for this reason that the word for the traveling mikdash came to be the mishkan – the dwelling place.

In our verse in Parashat Metzora – when God reminds Bnei Yisrael to separate themselves from the impure, God says the reason they must do so is that the impure defiles "My Mishkan that is amongst them."

There is a midrash in Sifrei that refers to yet in another place in Vayikra (16:16), where the verse mentions God's dwelling amongst the people in a time of impurity. The midrash in Sifrei quotes Rabbi Natan as stating that based on these two verses one can conclude that Bnei Yisrael are a treasured people, for God dwells amongst them even in a time of impurity and exile.

Thus – this verse offers two contradictory yet complementary reminders. The first is a reminder to Bnei Yisrael that they must separate themselves from impurity in order to safeguard God's presence amongst them. The second, is that even at times of impurity, God continues to dwell amongst God's treasured people.

Being a treasured people comes with great responsibility. While God is always present amongst us, it is our responsibility to work every day to merit our worthiness of God's Shekhinah.