2 Kings & Tazria: Skin

This is my last blog post before a surgery that will prevent me from writing for a month. My next post will probably be the first week of June. In the meantime, here are some earlier posts for the rest of Leviticus and the first portion in Numbers:

• May 4-10: Acharei Mot & Kedoshim: Fire of the Molekh
• May 11-17: Emor: Death Is Not Holy
• May 18-24: Behar: The Injustice of Wealth
• May 25-31: Bamidbar: Two Kinds of Troops

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Na-aman, head of the army of the king of Aram, was an important man to his master, and high in his favor, because through him God had saved Aram. And the man was a mighty warrior, a metzora. (2 Kings 5:1)

metzora (מְצֺרָע) = one stricken with tzara-at (צָרַעַת) = a disease characterized by patches of unnaturally white skin (possibly vitiligo), or scaly white skin (possibly a form of psoriasis). (Tzara-at was formerly mistranslated as “leprosy”.)

What would it mean for an important public official in Aram to have an obvious skin disease?

An Israelite metzora

The skin disease tzara-at is a major topic in this week’s Torah portion, Tazria (Leviticus 12:1-13:59), as well as in the accompanying haftarah, the story of Na-aman in 2 Kings 5:1-19.

The Torah portion includes detailed and lengthy instructions for determining whether a skin affliction counts as tzara-at. If a priest determines that it does, the metzora must live outside the camp (or later, outside the town), isolated from the rest of the community.¹ If someone else gets within shouting distance,

… then he must call out “Tamei! Tamei!” All the days that the mark is on him, he will be tamei. He is tamei, dwelling alone, his dwelling outside the camp. (Leviticus 13:45-46)

tamei (טָמֵא) = ritually impure; polluted, contaminated, defiled.

The instructions in Leviticus apply to Israelites. But General Na-aman is an Aramaean.

An Aramaean metzora

The kingdom of Aram was located between the kingdom of Israel² and the expanding Neo-Assyrian Empire. (The Assyrians conquered Damascus, the capital of Aram, in 732 B.C.E. and Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, in 720 B.C.E.) Although no Aramaean documents relating to skin disease have been unearthed, we do have cuneiform documents showing how Assyrians viewed skin diseases.

A recent study of these tablets concludes:

“Someone displaying skin imperfections might involuntarily unsettle his peers in everyday social interactions and the gods during religious and ritual events. Therefore, purity represented both a form of everyday cleanliness and a ritual requirement.”³

Since certain skin diseases resulted in isolation and ritual impurity in both Israel and Assyria, it is likely that they were treated that way in Aram, as well. So is not out of place for the Aramaean general in this week’s haftarah to say that if bathing in a river cured tzara-at, he could have stayed home in Damascus, which had two small rivers.

“Couldn’t I bathe in them, and become tahor?” (2 Kings 5:12)

tahor (טָהוֹר) = ritually pure. (Sometimes tahor is used metaphorically to describe something physically clean or morally pure.)

Na-aman as a metzora

Let’s look again at the opening verse of this story:

Na-aman, head of the army of the king of Aram, was an important man to his master, and high in his favor, because through him God had saved Aram. And the man was a mighty warrior, a metzora. (2 Kings 5:1)

We are not told when Na-aman’s skin develops white patches. A reasonable assumption, given the widespread custom of excluding people with skin abnormalities from regular social intercourse, is that Na-aman was important to and favored by the king of Aram before he got tzara-at, and now that he has the disease, his position is threatened. That would explain why Na-aman goes to a lot of trouble in search of a cure.

Just as people in the Neo-Assyrian Empire believed the gods punished individuals for bad deeds by afflicting them with skin diseases, medieval Jewish commentators believed that God punished people in the Hebrew Bible for bad character traits. Bamidbar Rabbah, a 12^th-century commentary, cites Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi bar Rabbi Shalom, who said that eleven bad traits led to being afflicted with tzara-at: blasphemy, illicit sex, illicit bloodshed, slander, arrogance, trespassing, lying, stealing, swearing false oaths, profanity, and idol worship. Rabbi Yehudah then cited cases of individuals in the Hebrew Bible whom he claimed had tzara-at, and identified their bad character traits.

Rabbi Yehudah said: “For arrogance, this is Naaman … It is that he had an arrogance of spirit because he was a great warrior. It is due to this that he was afflicted with leprosy.” (Bamidbar Rabbah)⁴

Na-aman’s arrogance

General Na-aman does exhibit arrogance during the first part of the haftarah. On his quest for a cure, he travels with an escort of men, horses, and chariots, and he brings riches in gold, silver, and clothing to pay anyone who heals him. That is how things are done by men in high positions.

When he arrives at the prophet Elisha’s house in Samaria, he and his retinue halt, and he waits for the prophet to come out and greet him. But Elisha just sends out a messenger to tell the general:

“Go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your skin will be restored and be tahor.” (2 Kings 5:10)

Naman stalks away, saying:

“Hey! I thought he would surely go out to me, and stand and call on Y-H-V-H, his god, and wave his hand toward the spot, and cure the disease. And aren’t the Amanah and Parpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I bathe in them and become tahor?” And he turned and went off in a rage. (2 Kings 12:11-12)

He is too important to be told, second-hand, to take a bath! He wanted a magic show! Na-aman is also arrogant about his own country, assuming that the very small rivers in the capital of Aram are superior to any river in Israel.

Then his servants approached and spoke to him, and they said: “My father, [if] the prophet spoke to you of a great thing, wouldn’t you do it? Then how much more when he says to you: Wash and be pure.” (2 Kings 5:13)

Addressing a superior as “my father” was a sign of respect in the Ancient Near East, the equivalent of saying “sir”.

Then he went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had spoken. And his skin was restored, like the skin of a little boy, and he was tahor. (2 Kings 5:14)

Na-aman overcomes his arrogance because he is not too self-centered to listen to the advice of his social inferiors.

In fact, he began his quest for a cure by listening to the advice of a social inferior. His wife is waited on by a girl whom Na-aman’s men kidnapped when they were raiding in the kingdom of Israel. Out of the kindness of her heart, the Israelite slave tells her mistress:

“Oh, I wish that my master were in front of the prophet who lives in Samaria! That’s when he would be cured of his tzara-at!” (2 Kings 5:3)

A more arrogant and self-centered man might assume that a foreign slave could not possibly know anything about the subject. But Na-aman believes her.

And [Na-aman] came and told his master, saying like this, like that, the girl from the land of Israel said. (2 Kings 5:4)

Reactions of two kings and a prophet

Na-aman’s master, the king of Aram, does not listen to what his general is telling him about a prophet in Samaria. Perhaps he is distracted by the sight of Na-aman’s tzara-at, and has subconsciously stopped treating his general as an important man. At least the king writes a letter for Na-aman to take to the king of Israel. But when Na-aman delivers the letter, the king of Israel opens it and reads:

“Behold, I have sent to you my servant Na-aman! And you will cure his tzara-at!” (2 Kings 5:6)

The king of Israel tears his clothing, and cries out:

“Am I God, to deal death and life, so this person sends to me to cure a man of his tzara-at? Indeed, you see that he is looking for a quarrel with me!” (2 Kings 5:7)

The king of Israel absolutely does not want another war with Aram. He tears his clothes in despair because he is so self-centered, he assumes that the letter is a communication from one king to another, and Na-aman is just the delivery man. It never occurs to him to investigate whether the famous prophet Elisha, who lives in Samaria, could cure Na-aman.

But Elisha sends the king of Israel a message saying:

“Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, please, and he will learn that there is a prophet in Israel!” (2 Kings 5:8)

Elisha is polite to the king, but he also sounds boastful (though it is true that Elisha has a track record of miracles). When Na-aman does show up at the prophet’s house, Elisha does not open the door to greet him, but merely has a servant tell the general what to do. We do not learn at first whether Elisha is too arrogant to greet a visitor himself, or whether he has an ulterior motive.

A deliberate outsider

I think Elisha does not greet Na-aman when he first arrives because he wants to test Na-aman’s character. Social considerations do not matter to him because he works directly for God.

When Na-aman returns from dipping in the Jordan, Elisha apparently does open the door, because the text says Na-aman “stood in front of him” (2 Kings 12:15). Na-aman says politely:

“Here, please! I know [now] there is no god on all the earth except in Israel. And now please take a gift from your servant.” (2 Kings 12:15)

After all, he brought all that gold, silver, and clothing from Aram in the first place to pay for his cure. But Elisha replies:

“Y-H-V-H lives, whom I wait on, if I take—!” (2 Kings 5:16)

This is a literal translation of a statement containing two biblical idioms. “Y-H-V-H lives” means “As God lives,” or “By the life of God,” and serves as an introduction to swearing an oath.⁵ Elisha’s oath here is “If I take—” with the rest of the sentence omitted. When someone in the Hebrew bible starts a sentence with “If I” and does not finish the sentence, it is because the implied ending is “may I be cursed”, and nobody wants to curse themselves. So allowing for the two idioms, Elisha is swearing that he will not take anything from Na-aman.

Na-aman presses him to accept the gift, but he still refuses. Elisha might be refusing in order to get Na-aman to think of a way to express his gratitude to God instead of to the prophet who is God’s agent. But declining riches is not a hardship for Elisha, who is indeed a “man of God”; from the time he becomes Elijah’s disciple until he dies,⁶ he does not ask for anything but food, a place to sleep, and respect for himself and for God. Although he lives in a place where the trappings of social status matter,⁷ Elisha is a deliberate outsider.

Then Na-aman says:

“If not, then let your servant be given a load of dirt, [enough] for a pair of mules; because your servant will never raise up a burnt offering or a slaughter offering to other gods, but only to Y-H-V-H. [But] for this thing may Y-H-V-H forgive your servant: when my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down there, and he is leaning on my arm so I must bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may Y-H-V-H pardon your servant in this thing.” (2 Kings 5:18) ⁶

Elisha says: “Go in peace.” (2 Kings 5:19) In the Hebrew Bible, this is a polite way for a superior to give a subordinate permission to leave on a mission.⁸

Now that Na-aman no longer has tzara-at, he can return to being the king of Aram’s right-hand man, the one the king leans on, literally as well as figuratively. He can resume his old place in society. But he decides to be an outsider in one regard: he will worship the god of Israel, the erstwhile enemy of Aram. The experience of being a metzora has changed him.

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Today some people are like the authors of this week’s Torah portion in Leviticus, considering diseases and other misfortunes punishments from God, so it is right to exclude the metzora. Others are like the king of Aram in the haftarah, too distracted by the appearance of people who do not look normal by their standards to pay attention to what they say. Some are like the king of Israel, too wrapped up in themselves and their own issues to spare a thought for anyone else.

But some people are like the Israelite girl and Na-aman’s attendants, trying to help even those who have power over them. And some are like Na-aman, paying attention, thinking, and growing.

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1. Leviticus 13:1-44.
2. According to the Hebrew Bible, there was a single kingdom of Israel which split up in 931 B.C.E. into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
3. “Ancient Mesopotamian views on human skin and body: a cultural–historical analysis of dermatological data from cuneiform sources”, by Dr. Francesca Minen (published March 6, 2019), in Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2018.0056#FN6R.
4. Bamidbar Rabbah 7:5, translation in www.sefaria.org.
5. “Y-H-V-H lives” appears as an introduction to an oath 46 times in the Hebrew Bible, and only 3 times as an exclamation. (In addition, Job swears once that he will be honest using the word “Eil” instead of “Y-H-V-H” and God swears an oath using the phrase “I live” 17 times.) In 2 Kings, the prophet Elisha swears an oath starting with the phrase “Y-H-V-H lives” five times (2 Kings 2:2,4,6; 3:14; and 5:16).
6. 1 Kings 19:19-21, 2 Kings 13:29.
7. See the addendum to the story, 2 Kings 5:20-27, in which Elisha’s own servant tricks Na-aman in order to get enough wealth to buy“olive groves and vineyards and flocks and herds and male and female slaves”. (2 Kings 5:26)
8. The text informs us that two methods of worship, for Aramaeans as well as for their Israelite neighbors, were slaughtering and burning animals, and bowing down to an idol. Until now, Na-aman has been worshiping Rimmon, the god of Aram. He assumes that there are no universal gods, only gods of particular lands; and therefore that he can only worship Y-H-V-H by making his animal sacrifices on top of some dirt from Israel.
9. E.g. Exodus 4:18, where Moses asks his father-in-law Yitro, the head of the household, permission to return to Egypt, and Yitro says “Go in peace” (leikh leshalom, לֵךְ לְשָׁלוֹם, literally “go to peace”).

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