Netvort parshas Metzora 5771:            In the Field
By Rabbi Joshua (cosmopolitanly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Parshas Metzora deals mostly with the purification process of the metzora, the person afflicted with tzara'as. While the rabbis tell us that the word 'metzora' is short for 'motzi ra,' or bringing out bad, and is a reference to the evil talk that the metzora spoke, perhaps we can explain that 'motzi ra' means the expulsion of evil, meaning that the process of purification is meant to rid the metzora of the inner evil that brought about his condition.  In any case, as part of this process, the metzora brings two birds, one of which is slaughtered as a sacrifice, and the other of which is to be sent out into the fields. The Zohar explains that the bird to be slaughtered represents evil speech, and the one to be sent to the field represents good speech. Thus, the process encompasses both, 'sur meira,' or turning from evil, and 'ashe tov,' doing good.  This was actually the message that the merchant who, as recorded in the midrash, came to the town of Tzipori and asked who would like to obtain a potion that gives life. When Rav Yanai came and told him that he would like to obtain it, the merchant cited the verse in Tehillim (34:14-15) which says, "Who is the man who wants good?  One who guards his tongue from speaking evil, and who turns from evil and does good, who seeks peace and pursues it'. The midrash (Vayikra Rabbah, 16:2) relates that Rav Yanai was very impressed by this lesson. Rav Moshe Sternbach, in his Ta'am Va Da'as, explains that Rav Yanai had thought, until then, that to guard oneself from speaking evil, a person  only needs to be careful not to speak bad things, and that can be accomplished by staying away from the world at large, isolating oneself, as the metzora does.  The merchant taught him that to be truly cured of an inclination to speak evil, one must also be proactive, and, as the verse in Tehillim  says, turn from evil, do good, seek peace and pursue it.

Based on the Zohar and midrash, we can further understand why the living bird was sent out into the field. Rav Dovid Feinstein has said that this represents going out into the world, mingling in society, and thereby having an opportunity to observe people's good actions and speak favorably of them.  Perhaps we can add, based on a teaching of Rav Yochanan Zweig, that observing the everyday workings of society allows a person to see the wider picture.  Lashon Hora, as the rabbis tell us, unlike motzi shem ra, which is completely false, actually does contain an element of truth in it, but it narrowly focuses on one aspect of what is really happening. As a result, the person ends up obscuring the true nature of what occurs. In this context, going out to the field gives a person a wider vision, and a better chance to understand the circumstances behind what he sees.  Observing events in this way, he will be able to avoid the kind of narrow focus which leads to evil talk.

I would like to add a further note, based on another midrash, which my late teacher, Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Berkovits, was fond of citing.  The midrash brings a verse in Tehillim (116:9) which says, "I will walk before God in the land of the living."The land of the living, says Rav Yehudah, refers to the streets and the market places.  Dr. Berkovits used to say that this represents authentic Judaism, in that it speaks of the need to bring Torah into the market place, among people engaged in their everyday activities. The Talmud says that a metzora is considered as being dead. One explanation of this is that the metzora, until he is purified, must dwell alone, away from the rest of the population, outside the city.  Living that kind of life in which he has no interaction with people, and no chance to bring out the good in others, constitutes, according to this midrash, a virtual death.  Only when the former metzora is able to re-enter the streets and the market places can he be considered as walking in the land of the living.  This is what the two birds brought by the repentant metzora represent.  The slaughtered bird represents the dissolution of his former self, and the bird sent free into the field represents the rising of his new self, a living person concerned with the needs of society.

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