Rebirth- The Story of the Metzora
In The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker, he explores a particular plot that he titles “Rebirth.” In his words
Sleeping Beauty is based on the type of plot we may call “Rebirth.” A hero or heroine falls under a dark spell which eventually traps them in some wintry state, akin to living death: physical or spiritual imprisonment, sleep, sickness or some other form of enchantment. For a long time they languish in this frozen condition. Then a miraculous act of redemption takes place, focused on a particular figure who helps to liberate the hero or heroine from imprisonment. From the depths of darkness they are brought up into glorious light.
-194
Booker continues by noting that while in a variety of fairy tales, ranging from ‘The Frog Prince’ to ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ “the central imprisoned figures have only become trapped in the state of living death through the agency of some dark figure outside them (196)”, not every fairy tale is like this. He brings up ‘The Snow Queen,’ and explains
In Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen we see a hero who initially passes under the spell of darkness through the action of an enchanter. But the consequence is that he becomes not just outwardly but inwardly infected by the power of darkness himself. It is this which draws him in turn into the power of another dark figure, the Snow Queen, and it is she who imprisons him in the state of living death.
-196
What eventually happens is that
[the hero] is being put in touch with some deeper part of his personality which he had not previously been aware of. Firstly, this opens his eyes, enabling him to see the world from a wholly new, non-selfish perspective; it allows him for the first time to see everything straight and whole. Secondly, it enables him for the first time to really feel selflessly. As he finally moves securely to this new centre of his personality, love wells up in him like an unstoppable force, giving him a sense of extraordinary liberation, of being linked ‘with the whole world’ - and he experiences this at last coming to his true inmost self.
-204
Living death. Deeper part of his personality. Linked ‘with the whole world.’ Does this sound familiar? It should.
This is the story of the metzora.
A metzora, one who is leprous, is compared to the dead (see Nedarim 64b).
He receives leprosy because of a terrible character flaw, as outlined in Arachin 16a.
א"ר שמואל בר נחמני א"ר יוחנן על שבעה דברים נגעים באין על לשון הרע ועל שפיכות דמים ועל שבועת שוא ועל גילוי עריות ועל גסות הרוח ועל הגזל ועל צרות העין § Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Leprous marks come and afflict a person for seven sinful matters: For malicious speech, for bloodshed, for an oath taken in vain, for forbidden sexual relations, for arrogance, for theft, and for stinginess.
In having committed this kind of sin, he has sinned against his own soul, and harmed himself. Maimonides writes about the human capacity to err in this way, saying
אַל יַעֲבֹר בְּמַחֲשַׁבְתְּךָ דָּבָר זֶה שֶׁאוֹמְרִים טִפְּשֵׁי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם וְרֹב גָּלְמֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא גּוֹזֵר עַל הָאָדָם מִתְּחִלַּת בְּרִיָּתוֹ לִהְיוֹת צַדִּיק אוֹ רָשָׁע. אֵין הַדָּבָר כֵּן אֶלָּא כָּל אָדָם רָאוּי לוֹ לִהְיוֹת צַדִּיק כְּמשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ אוֹ רָשָׁע כְּיָרָבְעָם אוֹ חָכָם אוֹ סָכָל אוֹ רַחֲמָן אוֹ אַכְזָרִי אוֹ כִּילַי אוֹ שׁוּעַ וְכֵן שְׁאָר כָּל הַדֵּעוֹת. וְאֵין לוֹ מִי שֶׁיִּכְפֵּהוּ וְלֹא גּוֹזֵר עָלָיו וְלֹא מִי שֶׁמּוֹשְׁכוֹ לְאֶחָד מִשְּׁנֵי הַדְּרָכִים אֶלָּא הוּא מֵעַצְמוֹ וּמִדַּעְתּוֹ נוֹטֶה לְאֵי זוֹ דֶּרֶךְ שֶׁיִּרְצֶה. הוּא שֶׁיִּרְמְיָהוּ אָמַר (איכה ג לח) "מִפִּי עֶלְיוֹן לֹא תֵצֵא הָרָעוֹת וְהַטּוֹב". כְּלוֹמַר אֵין הַבּוֹרֵא גּוֹזֵר עַל הָאָדָם לִהְיוֹת טוֹב וְלֹא לִהְיוֹת רַע. וְכֵיוָן שֶׁכֵּן הוּא נִמְצָא זֶה הַחוֹטֵא הוּא הִפְסִיד אֶת עַצְמוֹ. וּלְפִיכָךְ רָאוּי לוֹ לִבְכּוֹת וּלְקוֹנֵן עַל חֲטָאָיו וְעַל מַה שֶּׁעָשָׂה לְנַפְשׁוֹ וּגְמָלָהּ רָעָה. הוּא שֶׁכָּתוּב אַחֲרָיו (איכה ג לט) "מַה יִּתְאוֹנֵן אָדָם חָי" וְגוֹ'. וְחָזַר וְאָמַר הוֹאִיל וּרְשׁוּתֵנוּ בְּיָדֵינוּ וּמִדַּעְתֵּנוּ עָשִׂינוּ כָּל הָרָעוֹת רָאוּי לָנוּ לַחֲזֹר בִּתְשׁוּבָה וְלַעֲזֹב רִשְׁעֵנוּ שֶׁהָרְשׁוּת עַתָּה בְּיָדֵינוּ. הוּא שֶׁכָּתוּב אַחֲרָיו (איכה ג מ) "נַחְפְּשָׂה דְרָכֵינוּ וְנַחְקֹרָה וְנָשׁוּבָה" וְגוֹ':
A person should not entertain the thesis held by the fools among the gentiles and the majority of the undeveloped among Israel that, at the time of a man's creation, The Holy One, blessed be He, decrees whether he will be righteous or wicked.
This is untrue. Each person is fit to be righteous like Moses, our teacher, or wicked, like Jeroboam. [Similarly,] he may be wise or foolish, merciful or cruel, miserly or generous, or [acquire] any other character traits. There is no one who compels him, sentences him, or leads him towards either of these two paths. Rather, he, on his own initiative and decision, tends to the path he chooses.
This was [implied by the prophet,] Jeremiah who stated [Eichah 3:38: "From the mouth of the Most High, neither evil or good come forth." The Creator does not decree that a person should be good and refrain from being evil. Accordingly, it is the sinner, himself, who causes his own loss.
Therefore, it is proper for a person to cry and mourn for his sins and for what he has done to his soul, the evil consequences, he brought upon it. This is implied by the following verse [ibid.:39]: "Of what should a living man be aggrieved? [A man of his sins.]"
[The prophet] continues explaining, since free choice is in our hands and our own decision [is what prompts us to] commit all these wrongs, it is proper for us to repent and abandon our wickedness, for this choice is presently in our hand. This is implied by the following verse [ibid.:40]: "Let us search and examine our ways and return [to God]."
In his status of living death, the metzora is exiled and excommunicated. He is outside of the camp. He learns what it is like to live without others- unless it is other metzoraim, people who have sinned just like he did. Craving connection and community, he realizes he is unfit to socialize with others- not until he can reflect and fix his soul.
So that is what he does. And as Rabbi Daniel Fridman of the Jewish Center writes, he then undergoes a rebirth.
He is mourning the person he might have been, had it not been for his insensitivity towards others, which resulted middah kneged middah [measure for measure] in the Torah’s insistence that he be utterly removed from the community. As Rambam writes in his celebrated endorsement of unfettered human agency, given that we make decisions with spiritual consequences, a person who chooses evil should “weep and mourn the evil which he has done to himself.” Chizkuni explicitly endorses this concept, noting that the mourner’s tearing of his clothes is an act of mourning his wicked, asocial actions.
It is perhaps for this reason that the Metzora is actually engaged in self mourning for his own spiritual death, that the purification of the Metzora so clearly resembles a rebirth. Having shaved all the hair from his body, and immersed in a mikvah, the clear image is of a baby emerging from the womb. The Korban of the Metzorah, involving two identical birds, one of which is slaughtered, the other of which is dipped in blood of the first but then set free, further amplifies the image of a new lease on life, emerging from the blood and death of the previous state.
Rabbi Yaakov Jaffe takes this rebirth imagery even further by carefully analyzing each of the korbanot, sacrifices, that the metzora must bring.
The Mishna in Nega’im (14:4) relates an interesting comparison. Three types of people were mandated to have their hair cut - an initiate Levi, an ex-Nazir (abstinent from wine and impure items), and an ex-Metzora. Closer inspection reveals many more similarities between these groups. The Chizkuni raises a parallel between an initiate Levi and an ex-Metzora (Numbers 8:9). Also, a Nazir who becomes impure brings the same sheep asham that a Metzora does (6:12). An initiate priest also has blood and oil placed on his right ear, thumb, and toe thumb, similar to the ex-Metzora.It seems as though the same process that we apply to initiates into Temple service are applied to a person leaving the status of Metzora.
(The argument can also be made that the sacrifices of both an ex-Nazir and a Nazir who had become impure also represent an initiation of sorts, although this is beyond the scope of this topic.).
In light of this, we may be able to create a full construction of what a Metzora's sacrifices accomplish. First, twobirds are brought to remove his impurity. Next, a chatat and an olah are brought to remove the “block” to Temple entry. Then, an asham and an oil sacrifice are offered to initiate the Metzora into a new level of service. The Chizkuni (5:11 based on Sota 15a) adopts a similar approach – he defines the asham as “le'achshurei gavra”, to make the man fit. (Yet, unlike the other initiation sacrifices which are shlamim, sacrifices of good feelings, the Metzora's initiation sacrifice is an asham. He received tzara’at because of a sin, so the initiation is still slightly clouded by it. Compare Ibn Ezra to 14:10 and Ramban to 14:12.) The removal of Na'aman's tzara’at (2 Kings 5:14) is described by the words “And his skin returned like the skin of a young lad, and he was cleansed.” The Navi uses words reminiscent of a rebirth of sorts. The Ramban, indeed, writes (5:15) that the whole Reason why a Metzora brings an asham is because beforehand he was considered like a dead person. We find that a Metzora needs a new initiation into the service of G-d beyond the normal removal of a “roadblock.” He or she had descended to a low level, one that approaches death. Because of that low level, the return from it is so drastic, and the import of the sacrifices accompanying it so great.
The Ibn Ezra appears to hold that all of the livestock of the Levites was exchanged for livestock of others prior to their initiation (Bamidbar 3:41). When one changes from a low level to higher one, even one's outer possessions need to be exchanged, for it is improper for one who has become closer to G-d to use the same items he had when he was further from Him. A Metzora, too, may end up exchanging his garments (end of chapter 13) or even his house (end of chapter 14) over the course of the long purification process, for the individual who came in is simply not the individual who comes out. We learn in Arachin 16a that tzara’at comes as a consequence for seven of the worst sins and character traits. It is a painful process which teaches humility and perspective to the sinner (see 13:45-47). Yet it is not a punishment so much as it is an educational process to catapult an individual into proper service of G-d. When the lesson is learned, the person emerges the better from the experience.
In many secular rebirth narratives, there is a person that drives the rebirth. Our hero or protagonist falls in love with a pure maiden, is inspired by an innocent younger sibling, or otherwise learns to feel in a way they simply did not or could not before. What I think is important to note is that in the Torah’s version of a rebirth story, the metzora achieves this change simply by communing with himself. This is not the story of a Beast transformed by a beautiful Belle who comes along- so lovely, witty and intelligent that he learns to love her. No, this is the story of a man who by the power of his own will and his own self-reflection can learn the difference between good and evil and can choose to be reborn.
In that way it is a hopeful story. Because one cannot always assume that the lovely young ingenue will happen along, saving you from your torment, misery and the evils you have perpetrated. But one can always delve within oneself, turning over their actions, challenging their own soul, and in so doing, one can change.
