Translated from Hebrew by S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai

      Elisha: A Prophet for the Private Individual
Leprosy: Public Divine Providence
Directed Toward the Private Individual
(in an era of peak Giluy Panim – when Divine revelation is the operative mode)

      [In a non-leap year] the parasha of Tazria is read together with the haftorah that tells how Elisha the prophet heals the leprous Na’aman, military commander of Aram. Elisha “cures” Na’aman by rather unconventional means.

     The classic leprosy of the Torah applied only in the Holy Land and only at a time when all of the people of Israel were dwelling in their land, and preoccupied with the worship in the Bait Hamikdash. This leprosy was designed to awaken, to shake up the individual who had deviated from the proper path. In this the leper parallels the sota, the adulterous wife who was tested by the “bitter waters.” This miraculous test, which determined the truth or falsehood of her claim of innocence, would only work if the people of Israel enjoyed a high level of sanctity and purity, and it ceased to work “when adultery became common among men.”

      Leprosy comes as a response to slander, and as a response to arrogance – especially the leprosy of the head and of the beard. (See Kli Yakar)

      What sensation does the individual experience in such an enlightened era? How would an individual dare to stray from a norm of such Divine clarity, in which giluy panim, the revelation of God’s Face is so clear-cut, directing itself simultaneously at the vast public and at the private individual?

      The trap, the temptation, the pitfall in such an era is idolatry.

     One runs the risk of abandoning one’s own original uniqueness to merge with the vast group until one’s own uniqueness disappears into oblivion. Alternatively, one runs the risk of shutting oneself inside one’s own uniqueness. Both possibilities entrap the individual in avoda zara, idolatry.

     The one who nullifies his uniqueness to merge with the group is thereby losing his personal connection to his Creator, and canceling his self within the great ruling power that is taking control of him. This is idolatry in fact and per se’. One is worshipping a power of brute force instead of the merciful God Who is a Father to His creants, Who relates to every single one of them as to His only child. “Is Ephraim a precious son to Me?” “A child of delight?”

     For the other option, the idolatry of ego that lurks in ambush. The individual turns himself into a god figure, or he attributes godly powers to another individual – to a false prophet, to a sorcerer, or to any other sleight of hand charlatan.

     Leprosy is designed to help the private individual protect himself from the dangers of idolatry, in that leprosy is an obvious miracle, the diagnosis and treatment of which is given over exclusively to the hands of the Cohen - the priest, specifically. Even the most foolish of priests is authorized to deal with leprosy, yet not the wisest of scholars. The decision is the Cohen’s alone, regarding everything relating to leprosy. He determines: Pure or impure? There is no rational explanation; it is in no way a medical issue. The protocols for determining leprosy are designed to remove the notion of attributing some sort of natural power to leprosy. They also remove the notion that leprosy is a power unto itself, and the idea that perhaps the leper should be turned into a holy man, because something so extraordinary has befallen him. It may be worth remembering that a similar absurdity exists in our own day, when fools attribute supernatural powers to the mentally retarded.

     The leprosy discussed in the Torah is directed exclusively at repairing the character of the leper. It is not directed at repairing the world, though it is operative only in a world that has attained the highest height of sanctity. It is worth remembering the plague of leprosy that attacked the father of all prophets, when “his hand was grown leprous as snow,” for doubting the ability of the people of Israel to believe in the Creator.

     Elisha was the prophet of the private individual. More than any other prophet, he dealt with miracles designed to relieve the suffering of the private individual. The Scripture counts over twelve miracles for Elisha. The miracle of healing Na’aman’s leprosy was designed for a specific purpose: Precisely because of the miracles he worked at the level of the private individual, Elisha and his public were vulnerable to the danger of turning Elisha himself into an idolatry.

     The mob tends to mindlessly attribute Godly powers to the miracle worker. Yet it was a young Jewish girl taken captive by Na’aman who made the connection between Na’aman and Elisha. Na’aman has caused Israel grief, being the military commander of Aram, whose king has imposed his rule over Israel and is tyrannizing them. Na’aman, who has killed Achav and taken an innocent girl captive, making her into his wife’s slave girl, is struck with leprosy because of these two reasons, according to our Sages.

     Na’aman relates to the prophet as though he possesses a supreme power, though a limited one of course. This is precisely the attitude of the idolator: Attributing an independent supreme power to a human being or to a force of nature, a limited supreme power – limited but supreme nevertheless.

     Na’aman looks for ways to put pressure on the prophet, through the king; he must command Elisha to heal him. Here we find a belief in the regime as a power, one more power among the many powers of idolatry. The king rules over the people by a supreme power. Such belief does not contradict the idea of a warring among the lords. The idolator believes that the supreme powers may clash among one another.

     The king panics. Elisha does not. With perfect tranquility, he advises the king to refer Na’aman to him. Na’aman then attempts to exploit another idolatrous power, the mob. Not only does Elisha remain unimpressed but he does not even deign to receive Na’aman personally, but sends one of his serving boys instead, with the advice that Na’aman go immerse himself in the waters of the Yarden River, a river that even then, in the prophetic era, was considered unimportant. Na’aman is offended by this belittling attitude. He has expected someone who possessed magic powers, who would use his sorceries against Na’aman’s leprosy in a direct fashion.

     He obeys reluctantly, persuaded by his advisors – and lo, the miracle occurs. He realizes that a supreme power has intervened in his cure, but he has difficulty turning this supreme power into idolatry, for after all, nothing has been accomplished through any natural or human medium whatsoever.

      By using a natural medium for a miraculous event, one runs the risk that people will attribute supreme power to that natural power, yet using a supernatural power can mislead as well. These are the risks Elisha wished to minimize and remove.

     Elisha created a unique line of personalized Divine Providence, which drew on the generalized Divine Providence inherent in giluy panim, but was directed toward the private individual. He himself was a solitary prophet, operating under conditions of one on one, one individual with another, even taking care to preserve his own private dignity as an individual. For this reason he punished the youths who had insulted him by running after him and calling out jokes about his baldness.