Haftarah Tazria – Metzora
This week has double haftorah portions. In Tazria, General Naaman of King Aram’s army becomes
afflicted with tzara’at. A captive Israelite maid advises him to seek out the prophet Elisha in Samaria.
King Aram sends word to the King of Israel that Aram is on his way to be treated—this is not a friendly
message, but almost a threat; as in “treat my general…or else.” Elisha instructs Naaman to immerse
himself in the River Jordan, and though the general is deeply distrusting of this whole situation, he
finally does so, and is indeed cured. Naaman, in his gratitude, promptly promises not to serve any deity
besides Elisha’s G-d.
Of interest here, Naaman doesn’t convert per se–though he commits to allegiance to monotheism,
he isn’t trying to become Jewish out of gratitude. But this is perfectly acceptable, because we’re
led to believe he is agreeing to ascribe to the Seven Noahide Laws—which is pretty much the basic
prerequisite for being a decent, civilized human being, as far as we’re concerned. This is significant,
because as Jews, we don’t subscribe to the notion that everyone simply must be Jewish to have a place
in the yet described “world to come.” We can regard people as righteous, and part of that world to
come, without being part of the Tribe—a stark contrast to most other monotheistic religions which
pretty much insist that you achieve full-blown conversion… or else.
In Metzora, we open at a scene during one of the many sieges of Samaria by the armies of King Ben-
Hadad for Aram during a seven-year drought and subsequent catastrophic famine that had reduced
many to cannibalism and all sorts of incivilities. In the heat of this mess, King Jehoram of Israel is
threatening to kill Elisha for the kingdom’s predicament, when he promises that by the day’s end food
will be abundant. Meanwhile, quarantined outside the city, four men stricken with tzara’at hedge their
bets in going over to the Aramean encampment to beg for food, but when they get there, they discover
the Arameans have inexplicably split (we are told they were made to hear a great ruckus of chariots
and horses, and believing to be outnumbered by the Hittite or Egyptian army has been hired by the
beleaguered Israelites, and flee.) They return with the news, which the King fears is a trap; though to
Elisha’s foretelling, the people flood the deserted encampment finally getting access to food and clean
clothing.
Tzara’a appears in both portions, and in various uses in the Torah, refers to a blighted condition that
afflicts both people and object, such as clothing or houses. Linguistically, the root may mean “smiting”
which explains how what seems like a disease, particularly of the skin, could also affect inanimate
objects. “Lepra” is the translation of the Hebrew word used in the Septuagint– the Torah translation
used by Greek-speaking Jews—is the origin of leprosy which appears in later English versions. So where
it seems that people “back in the day” were all kinds of crawling with leprosy—it’s largely because this
term covered many possible skin-related diseases, from common dermatitis, to fungal infections to
bacterial infections, like actual leprosy.
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