Parsha Mitzvot: Metzorah: Mitzvah 173 – Concept 450
“This shall be the law of the Metzorah on the day of his purification: He shall be brought to the Kohen. The Kohen shall go forth to the outside of the camp; the Kohen shall look, and behold! The Tzara’at affliction had been healed from the Metzorah. The Kohen shall command; and for the person being purified there shall be taken two live, clean birds, cedar wood, crimson thread, and hyssop (Vayikra 14:2-4).” We are commanded to carry out the prescribed rules for purifying the Metzorah (Rambam, Hilchot Tumat Tzara’at – The Laws of Impurity Through Tzara’at).
The scales on the skin of the snake are a form of Tzara’at (bereishit Rabbah 20:4). We have a tradition that in the World to Come, people who suffered from different deformities while on the earth the previous time will be resurrected as completely healthy and with unblemished bodies. The snake will be the only exception to this rule (Rabbeinu Bachya)
This would imply that the person who is healed from Tzara’at is experiencing a taste of the healing of the World to Come, and is experiencing it in a manner that hints at being freed of the sin in the Garden, represented by the snake.
Each step of the purification process of the Metzorah is an allusion to the purification of the soul after death, and its preparation for the World to Come.
How can we apply this in practical ways to someone who has experienced healing? …to someone who is doing Teshuva? …to dealing with someone who has a physical deformity?