What Does It Mean to Be Clean?

     This week’s Sedrah begins with a reiteration of the laws and rights of cleansing and ritual purity for the one with tzara’at that has been cleansed. Then we are told how the priests were to determine both its onset and also when it was cleansed in both cloth or brick (of a home) and the offerings required for its cleansing for people and also for the cloth or brick.

    The Rabbinic tradition says that this plague could be caused by a person speaking evil of another person. It is as though it were something of a curse or an evil tongue.  This is widely accepted and is close to being scriptural, in that to speak evil of another person is very close to cursing them.  I find this not only fascinating but also a challenge to all of us.

   Tzara’at was truly a plague and anyone that suffered from it was not allowed to come near to another human being, and was commanded to cover their face and shout “unclean, unclean” when anyone would come anywhere near them. 

    James 3:5-10 “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, in that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. “

    For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed, and has been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless G-d, even the Father; and with it we curse men, which are made after the similitude of G-d.  Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing, my brethren, these things ought not so to be.”

    These Scriptures speak to all of us as we are all the same. We all have fears and weaknesses that cause us to act inappropriately at times and to say things that we really know we shouldn’t. 

     I John 3:15 “Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” We all need to be careful to guard our hearts because from our hearts come the issues of life.  Proverbs 4:23.