A thought on Parshas Tazria Metzora

"...v'chiper al ha'mitaher..." (14:19) "...and he shall provide atonement for the one who is purifying..." In the Torah's guidelines for purifying the person with negaiim - body afflictions which signified a form of plague - there are some "finishing touches" which involve sacrificial offerings. The Torah illustrates this process which, as our verse says, culminates in making this contaminated individual pure again. The difficult word in the Torah, for us, is "v'kiper". We know that kappara is atonement. It can also mean to clear away or expunge. We might tend to understand it as a synonym, in context, for cleansing or purifying, particularly because our verse says that "this kappara will happen to the one who is being purified." Virtually all commentaries and earlier sources understand that the word as used in our verse has nothing to do with atonement. Atonement is generally defined as a process whereby a person can be expiated or forgiven his sin or misdeed through the experience of suffering, or relinquishing something valuable or personal. That suffering or atonement in turn serves as a means of appeasing or reconciling with whomever or against Whom one had transgressed. What is the nature of the kappara mentioned in our passage? Is it purifying, cleansing or atoning? The Gan is emphatic: in context, the ritual process of the person with negaiim is not for atonement. He writes that literal atonement has no place at that stage in the person's life: he has already suffered therefore he has already atoned. Even though our perspective is that a negaa befell a person as a consequence of his having sinned, the negaa itself brings distress, discomfort and public humiliation. That is all considered kappara. When one suffers, even when his suffering is the result of his own misdeeds, that suffering serves to help him recognize that he has gone astray, and ideally he will recognize through self-scrutiny where and how he erred. By bringing a person to that introspection and humbling awareness, he has now attained kappara. Suffering constitutes atonement. This, writes the Gan, is the most compelling reason that we must understand the kappara of our verse as taking on a very different meaning. The ritual steps which the Kohanim take in addressing the person with a negaa cannot atone for him. The Kohanim are doing the work, not the sufferer. The "kappara" can only mean the cleansing or clearing the record of the repentant sufferer who has paid his dues and, through the sacrificial closure, is ready to move on. Good Shabbos. D Fox The Gan was written by 13th century Rabbeinu Aharon ben Yosi haCohen, Baal Tosfos More pirushim presented by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox at http://thoughtonparsha.blogspot.com/