Impurity and its Causes
Leviticus 12:1-15:33
Last week’s reading, Shemini, began with the death of Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu. They obviously did something wrong in what was to be the inauguration of the tabernacle (mishkan). Whatever it was—bringing an improper incense offering into the tabernacle, or doing so when intoxicated, or yet something else—their misstep was immediately punished: a “fire came forth from God” and they died on the spot.
Next week’s reading, Aḥarei Mot, picks up where last week’s left off: In fact, its first verse reports that God spoke to Moses “after the death (aḥarei mot) of Aaron’s two sons.” This leads to an obvious question. What are the two intervening readings—this week’s Tazria‘ and Metzora‘—doing there? Logically, Shemini ought to have been followed immediately by Aḥarei Mot. The readings of Tazria‘ and Metzora‘, should have been put someplace else. The answer to this seemingly trivial question is actually quite important.
The death of Nadab and Abihu was not only a personal tragedy for them and their family; it raised a crucial question for all of Israel. What do we do when someone dies suddenly in the sacred tabernacle or, later on, in the Jerusalem temple? The tabernacle/temple was deemed to be nothing less than God’s earthly habitation, the holiest spot on earth. As such, it had to be protected from any form of impurity, and there was no greater impurity than the presence of a dead body in God’s sanctuary.
And yet, despite all the caution exercised by priests and Levites as well as ordinary Israelites present in the temple, you could never be absolutely sure that some source of impurity might not somehow find its way inside and thereby render the sanctuary impure. In fact, it was not just ritual impurity (contact with dead bodies, or various other sources deemed impure) that needed to be ritually purged, but human sinfulness as well.
The day on which the purging took place was Yom Kippur, but the detailed procedure for the purging is described in Aḥarei Mot. We think of Yom Kippur as the fast day par excellence, a day of introspection and a time of forgiveness. It certainly includes these things, but its focus, and the significance of everything that the High Priest did in the temple, was connected to the need to return the temple to a state of absolute purity, as it was in the beginning.
So the answer to the question of why the readings of Tazria‘ and Metzora‘ occur where they do is simple. Having described how Nadab and Abihu died and thereby rendered the tabernacle impure, the Torah then goes on to discuss other sources or transmitters of impurity: various animals, birds, and fish that are impure; a man’s seminal emission or other discharge; a mother’s purification immediately following her giving birth; men or women suffering from various diseases; and more. These subjects are treated in Tazria‘ and Metzora‘. Then, having discussed all these, the Torah goes on to detail the way the sanctuary is to be restored to its pristine state of purity.