{"id":73715,"date":"2020-04-24T08:50:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T05:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=73715"},"modified":"2022-06-30T12:35:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T09:35:21","slug":"metzora-purification-and-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/metzora-purification-and-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Metzora: Purification And Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[368,369],"acf":{"old_id":"73715","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46171,"related_cahpter":"1093","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"How to leave quarantine, and rejoin the community\r\n\r\n","content":"<p>Following upon the previous <em>parasha<\/em>,<em> Metsora\u2019 <\/em>deals with bringing a healed leper back into the camp. It begins with God telling Moses: \u201cThis shall be the ritual for a leper at the time that he is to be cleaned&#8221; (Lev. 14: 2). The priest shall go outside the camp, and begin the rite of purification. Interestingly, there are no instructions in either <em>parasha<\/em> for curing the afflicted. The priests were only told how to diagnose the disease and distance the sufferers from the camp so that they would not defile the surroundings of the Tabernacle. The only recourse for the unclean was to atone and pray to God to cure them.<\/p>\n<p>Once free of the disease, there was a complicated two-part ritual before they were allowed to re-enter the camp. First, the priest took two clean birds; he killed one and mixed its blood with fresh water; he dipped the other bird into the diluted blood and let it go, whereupon it flew away. The sufferer then washed himself and his clothes, shaved his head, and then sat outside his tent for seven days. On the eighth day he was allowed to re-enter the camp, at which time he brought four types of offerings to the Tabernacle, thereby fulfilling the second part of the ritual. Why did the rite have two distinct parts? What was the significance of the two birds?<\/p>\n<p>In his painting, Avner Moriah visualizes the first part of this purification ritual. In the background, we see yellow hills typical of the desert environs of the Israelite camp. A round-topped tent on the left suggests the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the area of the encampment. Although the Bible does not specify that it was the High Priest who performed the purification ceremony, it does refer to \u201cthe\u201d priest. The artist interprets this as an allusion to the High Priest, holding two birds, wearing his ritual garments: the tunic; the robe of the ephod with its hem of pomegranates and bells; the breastplate of judgment with its precious stones; and the miter.<\/p>\n<p>The image is rendered in a style called \u201cconceptual,\u201d rather than \u201coptical,\u201d which was common in the ancient world, for portraying an important figure engaged in a significant act. Thus he appears in a perspective that combines a profile view of the head, legs, and arms with a frontal view of the eye, shoulders, and chest.<\/p>\n<p>The formal image of the High Priest holding the two white birds signifies two relevant points. First, the idea of repentance and atonement as prerequisites for curing leprosy is reminiscent of the Day of Atonement, wherein the High Priest brings two goats, one for a purification offering and one to be sent away as a scapegoat. Second, the clean white birds can be perceived as symbols of purification, one bird standing for the community of Israel and the other for the cured leper, who was now pure and thus able to rejoin the society from which he had been banished.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":73716,"id":73716,"title":"28 Metsora","filename":"28-Metsora.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/28-Metsora.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/metzora-purification-and-return\/28-metsora\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"28-metsora","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":73715,"date":"2020-04-24 05:50:19","modified":"2020-04-24 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