Tazria/Metzorah 5786- The Kohen’s Gentle Vision of Our Flaws

Shalom Aleichem and welcome back to our Shiur this week Parshas Tazria-Metzora 5752. We find that Rashi brings down a Gezeirah Shavah that Chazal understand from the Pesukim that the only one who can go ahead and declare the person who's a potential Metzora as being Tamei or Tahor is only the Kohen. That the Kohen needs to go ahead and declare that person as being Tamei or Tahor and without the words of the Kohen, that person, although the Talmid Chacham, although somebody who's capable of knowing the Halachos of Tzaraas can go ahead and declare that person Tamei, that person does not get the status of Tumah until the Kohen goes ahead and declares the person being Tamei or Tahor. So much so that Chazal say that if the Kohen is an Am Ha'aretz and he doesn't know what to do, then he could needs to have a Talmid Chacham go ahead and look at the Nega and declare in the Nega that it's Tamei and then tell it over to the Kohen and the Kohen then goes ahead and declares that person as being Tamei or Tahor, but it needs to come from the mouth of the Kohen. Fractious Halachos of Tzaraas in the year Tav Resh Lamed Hei, I don't understand. It's understandable part of that process. The process of the Taharah taking place through the Kohen, says the Sfas Emes, that one can go ahead and understand why it needs to be the Kohen who goes ahead and Metahir the person. As Chazal say, one of the main reasons why a person becomes a Metzora is because the person was Motzi Shem Ra on somebody else. The person said Lashon Hara about somebody else. The person went ahead and created a Pirud, created a separation between him and other Yidden and Klal Yisrael. And therefore, in order to go ahead and have the Taharah, in order to be able to integrate back into society, in order for the person to be able to go know that he had his proper Kaparah, you need the Kohen. The Kohen is a grandson of Aaron Ha'kohen. Aaron Ha'kohen has the mission that tells us, "Ohev Shalom V'rodef Shalom." Aaron Ha'kohen's whole essence was to go ahead and to be Mekarev people one to another, to be Ohev Shalom, to be Rodef Shalom, chasing after peace. And therefore, you need the grandson of Aaron Ha'kohen who's capable of going ahead and looking at the Metzora and saying, "Yes, you've rectified you did wrong. You fixed up the Lashon Hara that you spoke. You fixed up the separation that you created amongst Klal Yisrael." And therefore, the Kohen can go ahead and declare Taharah and allow that person to be able to enter back into society. But Fractious Halachos of Tzaraas, the other half of the equation, I don't understand. The Kohen is known in the Zera Kodesh to be an ish chesed. The cohen's whole job is to see the positive in other people. He should be the one that needs to go ahead and declare somebody being tamei. Why would that be the cohen's job? Why is a cohen's job the one who needs to say about another yid that he's tamei, to say that he's tar, to say that the yid is involved in ohev shalom v'rodef shalom? Rodef shalom, I understand, but why does the cohen need to be the one that goes in and declares the person as being tamei? Zoch this sh'semes is an unbelievable thing that sh'semes brings down in multiple places throughout these parshas of Tazria and Metzora of Orach Chaim and the Kli Yakar. The Kli Yakar says that the word metzora is made up of two separate words, to be motzi ra, to eradicate, to pull out, to draw out the evil from within the person. Says the Kli Yakar, when a person goes in and gets tzaraas on their skin, or on their home, or on their clothing, that is a direct symptom of something deeper taking place inside. It's not just a problem, a skin condition that needs to be taken care of. Rather, it's a direct result of something that's rotten inside, that the person doesn't know how to go ahead and look at another yid, to speak about another yid, that the person created sinas chinam inside of themself, and therefore they get tzaraas, but the tzaraas is merely a symptom of a deeper problem taking place inside. Says the Kli Yakar that the avodah of a person getting tzaraas is not simply a punishment, that a person did something wrong and then they get afflicted with some sort of skin condition, with something taking place on their home or on their clothing. Says the Kli Yakar that the avodah of what takes place with the metzora is to be motzi ra, that the process of him going through that tumah, and ultimately that taharah, is to pull out, to draw out the evil from inside of that person and to eradicate it, and to go ahead and to get rid of it. And therefore it's motzi ra, it's a metzora. The person is a metzora, the person is tamei, the person has tzaraas on them, but the goal of it is to be motzi ra, to draw out the evil from inside of them, and ultimately they're able to come to the place where the cohen is able to say about them that they're tahor, that that symptoms that came as a direct result of some ra inside of them has been cured, the ra inside of them has been taken out, it's been motzi ra, and therefore they can go ahead and integrate back into the society in a healthier and happier way. Says the Sfas Emes in Tof Resh Lamed Hey, if we understand that that's what a metzora means, we understand that it's not a negative process, that the nega itself is metarei the person, that that process of drawing out the evil from inside of the person is not something which is negative, but it's similar to a doctor who goes ahead and cuts the person open in order to take out a cancerous tumor from inside of them. That's not a negative process, it may be painful, it may be it may be some act aspect of separation, may be some aspect of the physical and spiritual pain and emotional pain that the person's going through, but ultimately it's only to draw out the evil inside of them to let them live a happy happier and healthier spiritual and physical life. Says the Sfas Emes, the goal of tzaraas is to draw that out. And therefore the person that's most appropriate to be able to do that is the kohen. If one of us would go with our problems to somebody who's not living in that world of a kohen, who's not an ish chesed, and they would point out our flaws, says says the Sfas Emes, we wouldn't be interested in hearing them, we wouldn't be interested in listening to them, and there would be no joy in that process of hearing about the fact that we're tamei. But when you're able to go to a kohen, and a kohen is an ish chesed, and he's able to understand that he's a direct manifestation of the Ribono shel Olam's chesed in this world, and when he tells you that he's tamei, he's not telling it to you in a negative way, and he's not telling it to you because he wants to push you away, and he's not telling it to you because he wants you to separate you from the rest of Klal Yisrael, but rather he's a doctor who's going ahead and helping heal you. And the process of you being tamei, the process of you going outside of the gimmel machanos, that process is ultimately the greatest healing thing that you can do, and it's all going to be the process which allows you to become a bigger and better person. When you're able to go to the person who's a kohen and hear it come out of his mouth, says the Sfas Emes, it causes a simcha inside of a person. Person feels joy. A person feels happy, a person recognizes that the that that the separation I'm going through is only for my own good, it's l'to'eles l'tzorech aliya. A person is able to recognize that the tzaraas, the tumah that I'm experiencing and I'm I'm going through right now is only to bring me to a greater place of tahara, only in order to draw out and to pull out the rot inside of a person. It was a basurah the client was capable of having tsara'as because as Chazal tells us it only took place in Eretz Yisrael. It was a maila. The fact that we're able to go ahead and have something wrong and go speak to a person who's going to tell us that yes there is something wrong but there's a way to fix it. There's a process to fix it and that process looks like the negative tsara'as and the drawing out of the evil inside of a person to bring it to skin level to to the surface and ultimately be able to clean it up. That is the biggest simcha that Klal Yisrael could have. And the Malach says this it's it says this it's the Kohen who declares us tamei but it's also the Kohen who declares us tamei because that process of knowing that the negative things that we go through that the dinim that we go through that the hardships and the challenges that we go through are ultimately for our good that takes place through the Kohen. Therefore the Kohen who is the ish chassid declares a person tamei in order to let him know that the tum'ah that you're going through is not just a punishment and it's not just Hashem saying I'm not interested in you chalilah rather it's Hashem saying there's a process of fixing up that needs to take place in order to fix things up some things need to be brought to the surface and need to be cleaned up. Some separation needs to take place. Some introspection in your own life needs to take place but it's only in order to make you a better and bigger person. When we're able to recognize that that's what the Kohen does says this he's the most appropriate person to do that. The one who is the one who is rodef shalom the Kohen who is the ish chassid is capable of declaring tum'ah in a way that we're happy to hear about it. We're happy to hear that yes please help me fix up the flaws that I have. Please help me fix up the things that I have because I realize that you're not looking at me in a negative way. I realize that you're not looking at me and just judging me and putting me down rather you're looking at me and you want to help me fix up who I am. That's the avodah of the Kohen and obviously it's not just the Kohen but it's the avodah of every parent and every mishpacha and every rav and every mentor and every generation. Every one of us who are seeking help to seek out a mentor to seek out a rav to seek out a rebbe to seek out a parent. Somebody who's capable of looking at us and saying yes I want to be able to help you get rid of those things instead of whitewashing them and ignoring the evil that's there I want to be able to go ahead and be able to draw it out. Be able to allow you to recognize that it's just something that's sitting inside of you that's ultimately poisonous inside of you but there's a way there's a process to draw it out and then a way of to be able to go ahead and say yes there's tumor here but let's take it out let's bring it to the surface and then let's clean it up and ultimately that same person is then capable of the clearing us as being tar. This is our the whole year but in summer when our void is to work in ourselves to feel the joy of being able to say yes we're going to work in ourselves slowly but surely to find those guides and those mentors and those and are capable of going out and helping draw out the evil inside of us in a way of and then ultimately for allow those people to be able to say you've been healed you've been fixed things have gone ahead and come to a better place and to be able to feel the joy of healing as well. Hashem should help us to be those people to find those people and to have both the and ultimately to have the to have that is able to come through the and to get the ultimate that comes with us healing ourselves in a way and us becoming bigger and better people. Have a great day.