“When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a white pot, scab, or bright spot…” (Vayikra 13:2)

The Torah uses the expression “Adam Ki” in three places. Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dunner (1913-2007) explains the usage of this expression in each of these situations:

  1. In Parshas Vayikra (1:2) “אָדָם כִּי־יַקְרִיב מִכֶּם קָרְבָּן לַה’” (“…If a man brings an offering to Hashem…”). Since the verse uses the word “mikem”, we learn that a person who brings a korbon not only elevates himself, but the Korban he brings effects all the people around him in a positive way, regardless of who they are.
  2. In Parshas Chukas “…אָדָם כִּי־יָמוּת בְּאֹהֶל…” (“…when a man dies in a tent…”), we speak about a person who dies and causes someone to become tamei. By dying, the deceased has separated himself from klal Yisrael, which is alive.
  3. In our verse in this week’s parsha, it speaks about a person who has tzaraas, “אָדָם כִּי־יִהְיֶה בְעוֹר־בְּשָׂרוֹ…”. Someone did certain sins which caused him to separate from the group and go into solitary confinement.

The common denominator is that all three pesukim relate to one’s relationship with his community. When a person lives in a community, everything that he does can affect the community and the individuals in it. It may be positive, such as when he brings a korbon; or negative, such as when a person dies, and in the case of our verse, a person who must repent and change his ways in solitary confinement so he won’t negatively influence his community.

How does being in solitary confinement bring one to repent? To my understanding, it’s because people are community minded, concerned about what others think and feel about the way that they act. This causes people to act differently than if they were alone, as the pressures of society might cause people to do things that go against their better judgement.

A person in solitary confinement doesn’t have an impact on others, and others don’t have an impact on him. This separation from society enables him to reconnect with his inner self, and the hope is that he will correct his ways. This is because most Jews are inherently good, and they understand the right way to act; therefore, we hope that in solitary confinement this person will learn to act in a good way.

In fact, the Seforno says that when it comes to tzaraas that affects the houses, the Torah says that someone else should empty the house of its belongings. The Seforno explains (14:36) that this is to give the owner time to pray and to repent for his sins.

A similar idea is also found regarding the person who kills accidentally. He must go to the city of refuge, and once he is out of his normal environment, he has the opportunity to reconsider his actions, have remorse on the past, and fix his ways for the future.

During these days of sefiras ha’omer we are in a type of exile, and as such our rabbis recommend that we do introspection and clean up our act, especially between man and his fellow man. This parsha of Tazria/Metzora almost always comes out during sefiras ha’omer because it deals with sins of interpersonal relationships and it beckons us to reevaluate where we stand and how we act with others. Our job is to view this time period as an “island”, an opportunity to carefully examine our actions.

May our sefiras ha’omer not only bring us closer to Torah but also bring us closer to our fellow man.