Metzorah: Shabbath Hagadol

 

This week is Shabbath Hagadol, the Big Shabbath. It is the Shabbath before Passover.  In the Old Country, the sage Rabbi gave his (semi) annual lecture on this day.  The process of purging all leaven, removing everything that changes on its own, is intense or nearly complete. The New Beginning of Passover, wrapped in the celebration of deliverance from the deadly (and other plagues), is at hand. We are the bird, described in the parsha, dipped in the blood of our brother, mixed with the living water, that has been set free to substantiate our recovery from the isolating malady. The Rabbi recognizes that once free, we can choose any direction of flight. The Rabbi tries to guide us, that we do not deviate from the Divine flight path. Good luck! There is a Divine hurricane in the way.

The haftarah chanted on Shabbath Hagadol ends with

הִנֵּ֤ה אָנֹכִי֙ שֹׁלֵ֣חַ לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֖ת אֵלִיָּ֣ה הַנָּבִ֑יא לִפְנֵ֗י בּ֚וֹא י֣וֹם יְ

הַגָּד֖וֹל וְהַנּוֹרָֽא׃

Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome (gadol), fearful day of Gd

This is the gadol of the day. It is the day of salvation, announced by Elijah the prophet.  It is a time of reconciliation and justice described in the passages in Malachai that precede it.  The reading ends just before that. It ends with Elijah and the work that this super-prophet will have done.

The haftarah begins by declaring :

Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to GD as in the days of yore and in the years of old.

But [first] I will step forward to contend against you…

Malachai recognizes the apparent injustices of the world as we see it. Evil can be rewarded with wealth and glory.  The righteous suffer illness and privation. Then, as prophets often do, he predicts a reversal. The evil will be punished and the righteous rewarded. Then Elijah will arrive, assuring justice and harmony. He will drink an infinitesimal from the cup set aside for him at our Seder. There is something to look forward to.  We need that.

 

When a person has a remission from tzoraath [leprosy?] there are two unique, elaborate rituals. The second, a set of animal sacrifices, is fairly familiar except for the application of sacrificial blood and oil to the thumb, ear and great toe of the survivor. Such applications were made when the priests were initiated into their service. I suppose it is an entry service, welcoming the cured leper, who until now could not participate in the sacrificial rite, back in.

The other, unusual, service is not familiar at all. Water, hyssop, and  crimson thread  are ingredients of the ash , mixed with spring water, used to purify those contaminated by death in the ritual of the red heifer. They are a reminder that the cured leper is a living miracle; he had been in a dead-like state and was now welcomed back to the living.

The really weird part of the ritual is the dipping of a matched, living bird into the blood of its brother – mixed with the (defective) purifying  water-  and then set free! The cured leper is set free, but only after an intense purification ritual. Now she can roam freely.  The path may be toward further purity, or it can lead to re-contamination.

Tazriah (the previous parsha) and Metzorah are usually read together.  Tazriah introduces a series of purifying bird sacrifices with the postpartum re-entry ritual that usually involved paired birds. Unsanctified, random birds, flying into the ritual area, could disrupt hundreds of planned rituals. Is it strange that the section ends with the release of bird with that potential?

This year, as missiles fly, with the potential for the darker end of days prophesized elsewhere, I need the comfort of Elijah’s annunciation.

Freedom and power need direction.