Mitzorah: the Birds

 Mitzorah: the Birds

The purification  ritual of the metzorah ( King James leper) is a sacrificial rite that fascinates. It begins with a bowl of spring water.  Into the water, the blood of a slaughtered bird is collected. A living bird, of the same species, is dipped into the blood-water mixture and let loose, to fly away.  

וְטָבַ֨ל אוֹתָ֜ם וְאֵ֣ת ׀ הַצִּפֹּ֣ר הַֽחַיָּ֗ה בְּדַם֙ הַצִּפֹּ֣ר הַשְּׁחֻטָ֔ה עַ֖ל הַמַּ֥יִם הַֽחַיִּֽים׃

and he shall take the live bird, along with the cedar wood, the crimson stuff, and the hyssop, and dip them together with the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water.

וְהִזָּ֗ה עַ֧ל הַמִּטַּהֵ֛ר מִן־הַצָּרַ֖עַת שֶׁ֣בַע פְּעָמִ֑ים וְטִ֣הֲר֔וֹ וְשִׁלַּ֛ח אֶת־הַצִּפֹּ֥ר הַֽחַיָּ֖ה עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַשָּׂדֶֽה׃ 

He shall then sprinkle it seven times on the one to be purified of the eruption and effect the purification; and he shall set the live bird free in the open country.

The symbolism is complex. There is some correspondence between the birds and the recovered person. One bird died.   The killing of the bird reminds  the healed metzorah: this was a possible outcome; be grateful you got the alternative. 

It is the bird that is set free, after dipping it in the blood water of its sister, that represents the celebrant. True, this bird can fly free, but it is marked by the blood of its kin. Its continued life and freedom are bought by dipping into the taboo substance (blood) obtained by the slaughter of another of its kind. 

The days before Passover are the time for baking matzoh. History records this as the season of the Blood Libel, the legend that Jews would drain the blood of a Christian  child to obtain this ingredient that was necessary for the manufacture of authentic kosher matzoh. The continuation of the Israelite cult required all  the blood of an innocent. If a child was missing from the town, the explanation was obvious: she had fallen victim to the cult (in the basement of the pizzaria.) The blood libel would generate a pogrom. The killers and their religion of  human child sacrifice must be punished. Blood for blood. 

For centuries, after the absurdity of this myth was realized, Jews were protected by the guilt the devolved from the  crimes committed by ancestors.  Like the bird dipped in the blood of its partner, later generations of Jews earned a degree of liberty. But the respite was minimal. The antisemites did not need the Jewish analogy to their own eucharist to justify their crimes.  The pillage and murder of Jews was more efficient without the encumbrance of mystical rites. The blood that the Jew drained was the money they accumulated. Justice  demanded a pound of flesh. 

How did the bird community take to this blood dipped sister? I am reminded of a novel(?), the Painted Bird  ( Jerzy Kosinski), that describes an orphaned boy, begging from house to house in Central Europe. He meets a bird catcher who paints one of the birds. Upon its release, the painted bird  is torn to bits by the other birds. 

The theme of releasing a sanctified animal evokes the Yom Kippur service. A lottery is performed on a matched pair of goats.  One goat is offered as an expiation sacrifice.  The other is sent to Azazel, a crag from which it is dropped.  The Azazel goat has some chance to live, but not a very good one.  Did the slaughtered goat draw the better lot? Did the bird dipped in blood win or lose?

Jews live marked by the blood of our ancestors and siblings. the haggada quotes Ezekiel ( 16;6), providing a post hoc prophecy of Israel becoming a great nation:

 וָאֶעֱבֹ֤ר עָלַ֙יִךְ֙ וָֽאֶרְאֵ֔ךְ מִתְבּוֹסֶ֖סֶת בְּדָמָ֑יִךְ וָאֹ֤מַר לָךְ֙ בְּדָמַ֣יִךְ חֲיִ֔י וָאֹ֥מַר לָ֖ךְ בְּדָמַ֥יִךְ חֲיִֽי׃ 

When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you: “Live by your blood.” , I said to you: “Live by your blood.”׃

The liberation from Egypt emerged from the Nile that was turned to blood by the drowned Hebrew infants. The lamb's blood on the doorposts was the sign to let the Israelite firstborn flee while the Egyptian firstborn died. The mark of the blood of my ancestors anoints me, contaminates me and purifies me.