"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill."

Yeshua's saying in Matthew 5:17 is foundational to our Messianic Jewish vision. Here Messiah upholds the continuing validity of the Hebrew Scriptures and places himself at the heart of Jewish messianic expectations as the one who fulfills Torah. He goes on to teach this fulfilled Torah in detail through the rest of what we call the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

The Sermon closes as "the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes" (Matt. 7:28-29), but Yeshua's Torah-fulfilling work does not end there. As soon as he descends the mount, we read:

There was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean." He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them" (Matt 8:2-4).

Yeshua has just taught fulfilled Torah in his sermon. Now he shows the same fulfillment in action, not only by teaching its true, inward meaning, but also by accomplishing what the Torah is seeking, restoring the ideal that it envisions.

In a recent book, What Jesus Meant (New York: Viking, 2006), best-selling author Garry Wills writes that "one of the main lessons" of the miracles of Yeshua "is that people should not be separated into classes of the clean and unclean, the worthy and the unworthy, the respectable and the unrespectable" (p. 29). Wills reminds us that "many of Jesus' miracles are worked for outsiders-for non-Jews like the centurion (Lk 7.9) or the woman from Tyre (Mk 7.29) or the leper from Samaria (Lk 17.16). But the greatest category has to do with people who are unclean, with whom observant Jews are to have no dealings . . . to show that no person made in God's image should be treated as unclean" (p. 30). Ultimately Garry Wills' Jesus is "willing to challenge the entire 'holiness code' of his time" (p. 31), which is largely synonymous with the book of Leviticus.

Wills's portrayal of Yeshua as a radical alternative to religious formalism is compelling, but he seems to overlook Yeshua's words, "I have not come to abolish the Torah, but to fulfill." Yeshua does indeed transcend the leper's uncleanness by stretching out his hand to touch him, but then he removes the uncleanness. He does not just obliterate clean-unclean distinctions, but he removes uncleanness altogether. Then, just as dramatically, Yeshua sends the leper to a priest, as the Torah commands:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: This shall be the ritual for the leprous person at the time of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest; the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall make an examination. . . . (Lev. 14:1-3)

Leprosy is the subject of this week's parasha, Tazria (Leviticus chapters 12 and 13), as well as next week's, M'tsora (Leviticus 14-15). The Hebrew term, tzara'at, signifies a number of different skin diseases, all of which threatened the holiness of Israel. The fate of one struck with tzara'at was grave: banned from the camp, assigned the clothing of a mourner, he was required to announce his own uncleanness, crying "Tamei, Tamei!" so that no one would be polluted by his touch. The priests, who were charged with maintaining the holiness of Israel, were responsible to examine the one who showed any sign of tzara'at and declare him afflicted or well.

"It is a decree of Scripture," writes the great medieval commentator Rashi, "that there is neither impurity of afflictions of tzara'at nor their purification except by the word of a priest." Even if a leper thought that he had become free of his disease, he was not to rejoin the people until a priest came to him "outside the camp" (14:3) to declare him clean. The priest, however, could not cleanse him, and would certainly not touch him. His role was strictly to examine and verify that the leper was cleansed, and then to see that he offered a proper sacrifice to confirm his cleansing. But he has no authority to cleanse; only Messiah possesses that.

Torah's description of tzara'at is puzzling if we see it as strictly a medical condition, because it does not correspond to leprosy or any other condition known to medicine. The sages of old saw it, therefore, as symptom of sin, the visible outworking of inner disorder. The leper remained outside the camp morally as well as physically, suffering not only from disease, but also disgrace. Another of the great medieval commentators, Ramban, summarizes this perspective in his commentary on Leviticus 13:47, noting that tzara'at "is not in the natural order of things, nor does it ever happen in the world outside Israel."

But when Israel is wholly devoted to God, then His spirit is upon them always, to maintain their bodies, clothes, and houses in a good appearance. Thus as soon as one of them commits a sin or transgression, a deformity appears in his flesh, or on his garment, or in his house, revealing that God has turned aside from him.

If we accept Ramban's claim that tzara'at will appear "as soon as one of them commits a sin or transgression," then we have to admit that we are lepers.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. (1 Cor. 1:26-29)

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers-none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11)

Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers-Messiah cleanses lepers such as these. Yeshua healed a leper right after his foundational teaching in the Sermon on the Mount to remind us that we are all lepers, desperate for Messiah's healing touch. He has the power not just to pronounce upon our leprosy as the priests can do, but to free us from it entirely, as no priest can. Yeshua does not just declare the clean-unclean distinction to be at an end, but he makes the leper clean again. At the same time, Yeshua sends the leper to the priest. He is not in stark conflict with the priests as Wills imagines, but he does have a different and far greater role.

Here is another lesson for us. Priestly authority is needed to teach and apply Scripture, to maintain values and tradition. Without such authority, we would have little sense of community, and would soon fall into spiritual anarchy. Only Messiah, however, can bring about the ideals that religious authority espouses.

As followers of Messiah, we may be able at times to evaluate and judge fairly, but we can hardly bring to pass the standard by which we judge. We need to pursue spiritual life with awareness of such limitation and in the humility that results. We may be able to discern the effects of leprosy in ourselves and others, but only Messiah can cleanse the leper . . . as he once cleansed us.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Russ Resnik