Friday, January 14, 2022

Seder 86: Lev 14:1-32---Cleansing after a Skin Condition

 Leviticus 14:1-32 describes the cleansing ritual for a person who is judged by a priest to no longer have a defiling skin condition.  It is an elaborate ritual with several stages, befitting the fact that a person who has suffered a sort of death is coming back to life.  The ritual includes a number of things that symbolize cleansing---living water, blood, hyssop, for example.

In a ceremony with two birds (vv 6-7), one bird is killed, symbolically taking on the ritual impurity of the skin condition.  The second bird is dipped in the blood of the first bird and then allowed to fly away, symbolically taking away the ritual impurity.  This ritual with two birds reminds us of the one with two goats that will be described in Lev 16.

The person who is being cleansed shaves off all his hair, symbolizing a sort of new birth (vv 8-9).  

In a later stage of the ritual, each of the major kinds of sacrifice is involved, with the exception of a fellowship offering (vv 10-20).  It is often asked why a "guilt" or "reparation" offering is included.  One commonly given answer is that the reparation offering makes up for the offerings that the person was not able to give while being away from the tabernacle or temple with the ritual impurity.  Provision is made for someone who cannot afford all of these sacrifices (vv 21-32).

In Mark 1:40-45, when Jesus takes away a man's skin condition, he directs the man to go through the ritual of  Lev 14.  As  Matthew Thiessen points out, Jesus did not oppose Israel's ritual purity system.

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