On the day of his purification, the metzora – an individual suffering from biblical leprosy – is commanded to take “two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet of the worm, and hyssop” (Vayikra 14:4). Following this: “The priest shall order one of the birds slaughtered over fresh water in an earthen vessel” (Vayikra 14:5). He is then commanded to dip the live bird together with all of the other materials that were collected into the fresh water and blood of the slaughtered bird. The water is sprinkled seven times on the metzora so that he should be purified, and the living bird is sent away, free.
This purification ceremony is made up of a large number of detailed actions. The two birds – one of which is slaughtered while the other is sent away – are reminiscent of the two goats that were part of the Yom Kippur sacrificial service in the Temple. The details – gathering the different materials, dipping them in the water and the blood, etc. – pique our curiosity. The Alshich views this set of laws as an opportunity:
There is no doubt that every detail in the laws of our holy Torah have hidden meanings.
Because the Torah and its laws are Godly inventions, and we can hardly understand the thoughts and intentions that stand behind every law and commandment.
Perhaps one in a thousand of the small details can be understood, for who can know Gods secrets?
Nevertheless, our Father in Heaven has given us permission to apply our intelligence in an attempt to understand those hidden hints that are found in the simple interpretation of the verses with our weak and feeble intelligence.
Perhaps God will grant us understanding, and at least one of the suggestions that we raise will succeed in matching God’s intent in the hints that He left us, in addition to the Godly secrets that remain on high.
And our humble suggestion will contain much larger significance as it serves to meet His holy desires.
With these words, the Alshich presents a basic argument, that what is written in the Torah should not be understood on a superficial level. Throughout the Torah there are hints and secret meanings that offer significance well beyond the simple meaning of the words. The Ramban wrote similarly in the introduction to his Commentary to the Torah. The Ramban argues that there is even significant meaning to letters, separate from their place within words in the Bible.
The Alshich, however, describes other kids of hints. His argument is that the details that make up mitzvot signify matters that have deep values and meaning. While we can usually explain the reason and basis for commandments on a general level, it is much more difficult to give logical explanations for their details. It is easy to explain why God commanded us to rest on Shabbat, but it is hard to explain why 39 specific activities are considered those from which we are obligated to rest. Furthermore, it becomes even more difficult to explain why the activity is only forbidden (on a biblical level) if it is performed properly, but not if it is done in an unusual manner, or only if there is specific intent, and so forth. Regarding the mitzvah of tzitzit, for example, we can ask why we need the specific knots, strings, tekhelet color, etc. This is true of many additional mitzvot.
But it is specifically in the case of the metzora where biblical commentaries felt free to show their creativity in trying to explain the birds, the water, the blood, the cedar wood, scarlet of the worm, and hyssop, and to take flight on the wings of their imagination.
The Alshich writes as follows:
I will rejoice in God who offers wonderous kindness to me.
So I searched my heart to find some small hint of meaning in His commandment to the metzora who comes to be purified.
To take two living birds, the cedar wood, scarlet of the worm, and hyssop,
To slaughter one onto an earthen vessel of fresh water, and to dip them with the wings of the living bird and its tail in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered, and to set it free on the field.
And to sprinkle it on the individual being purified seven times, and then to place the blood from the guilt-offering on his ear, on his thumb and his toe, followed by the oil, in a specific order.
The Alshich was neither the first nor the last of the commentaries who felt the need to offer some explanation for the details of this commandment, and many suggestions have been made to explain them by means of metaphor or mysticism. One assumption made by many of the commentaries is that biblical leprosy comes as a result of lashon ha-ra – of spreading evil tidings. The source for this approach is the story of Miriam’s leprosy, which came as a result of her conversation about Moshe, and the teaching presented by R. Shimon ben Elazar: “It is because of the spread of evil tidings that the plague of leprosy is brought to the world” (Arakhin 16b).
The Rambam relates to biblical leprosy as a speech-related sin, and in his Commentary to the Mishnah (Avot 1:17), he enumerates five levels of speech:
1. Speech in which we are commanded to involve ourselves, like Torah and mitzvot;
2. Forbidden speech, like testifying falsely and gossip;
3. Discouraged speech, that has no purpose and is simply a waste of time, like talking about events in the king’s entourage;
4. Encouraged speech, like philosophical discussions that praise of the virtues of reason and good character and deride negative values;
5. Neutral speech, like conversations regarding one’s livelihood.
Based on this Rambam, the Alshich suggests that the offering brought by the metzora is made up of five elements, each of which relates to a different type of speech:
1-4,5. Two live clean birds: These relate to Torah and life – to elements of daily life, like one’s livelihood. The fact that we are required to take clean birds hints to the fact that as long as the speech connected with these things is pure, it is permitted.
3. Cedar wood: Cedar trees that do not produce fruit, hint to discouraged speech, which is a waste of time. Its great height hints to speech that emanates from a place of haughtiness.
2. Scarlet of the worm: The worm gnaws at living flesh, and, together with the cedar wood, it hints to derogatory and forbidden speech.
Finally, the low-growing hyssop is an expression of man's degradation that brings together the different elements of the offering to encourage him to request atonement for his actions.
Rav Yosef Bechor-Shor offers a slightly different approach. According to him, the different elements of the offering hint both to the sin and to the methods used to correct the sin. All of them together make up a full story:
The cedar is the tallest of the trees and the hyssop is low, indicating that from the heights he fell to the depths.
What caused this?
Sin. Which is like the scarlet of the worm, as is written: “Be your sins like scarlet” (Yeshayahu 1:18).
And now the Holy One blessed be He has forgiven him, and he can return to his place and to his original heights.
He slaughters the bird and mixes its blood with fresh water, that the dead one – that is the metzora, who is considered to be dead – can now interact again with the living, to return to the encampment and to normal life with others.
And the other bird is sent away on the field, to say that the metzora who sat isolated, like a single bird on a rooftop, who was imprisoned and could not interact with other people, is now permitted to join up with his friends.
Like the bird that was held captive by people,
But is now set free on the field to go and fly with its fellow birds.
The cedar and the hyssop serve to describe the spiritual process that man undergoes – moving from pretension and arrogance to lowliness and humility. The scarlet of the worm represents God’s forgiveness, and the birds represent the social process that the man experiences, moving from isolation to freedom and release, as he is now removed from his sin and his disgrace. These are three separate, yet complementary processes – between man-and-himself, between man-and-God and between man-and-his-fellow-man.
As an extension of these explanation, we can suggest that the different elements that make up this offering are all simple things that are readily available. There is no lack of birds, and the hyssop, cedar wood and wool colored in scarlet dye are all easily obtained. They all come to hint to the simple things that a person can collect and build into a story of lashon ha-ra. Such a story has the potential to act as an arrow into the hearts of those about whom the story was told. It usually is made up of one part “cedar wood” – it contains a kernel of truth that is solid and unassailable – together with some hyssop, that fills in the cracks and crevasses of the story. These need to be tied together with a scarlet string, to draw some attention to it. Then it must be sent out, like a free bird that has some blood on it, in order to create some colorful interest. These are the actions of lashon ha-ra. Atonement requires returning to the scene of the crime, as it were, and requiring the metzora to reexperience his evil actions so that he should fully understand the full horror of his despicable act.
By reconstructing a technically precise recreation of the sin, meticulously laid out in all its stages, the sinner is able to receive atonement in the spiritual sense as well, and to distance himself from it, freeing himself from its hold on him.