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One of the most polarizing films ever made is Alain Resnais’ 1961 film, “Last Year at Marienbad.” Critics today generally have positive views of the film, and it is considered among the one hundred or so best pictures of all time. Japanese director Akira Kurosawa claimed it as one of his favorites. It was also nominated for a number of Academy Awards, and though it did not win any of them, it did capture a number of lesser honors.
The film’s detractors asked one simple question – what in heaven’s name is the film about? The plot of the film is so ambiguous, treading the line between dream and reality, that it’s hard to know what happened in the film – if anything. People left the theater asking what they had just watched.
I sometimes feel the same way reading portion Metzora. As it turns out, it was my bar mitzvah parsha in 1977 (though it was a double portion that year). But our sages, understanding our confusion, stepped in to help guide us. Let me share just one example of how they understood the deeper meaning of the rituals of purification.
When a person suffering from tzaraat, usually translated as “leprosy” but probably denoting a skin ailment like plaque psoriasis, underwent a ritual of purification, he/she brought four items to the priest. These are described in Leviticus 14:3-4: “If the priest sees that the leper has been healed of the scaly affliction, the priest shall order two live pure birds, cedar wood, crimson thread, and hyssop to be brought for the one to be purified.” The birds were to be offered as sacrifices, but what about the other items, specifically the cedar wood and the hyssop, a colorful, tiny shrub common in the Middle East.
Writing in the 9th century CE Midrash Tanchuma (Buber edition, Metzora 8:2), they explain:
Shimon ben Eleazar said: Leprosy comes on account of haughtiness, for so you find in the case of Uzziah (in II Chron. 26:16, 19; his dates were 783-742 BCE): “But when Uzziah was strong, he became so arrogant that he acted corruptly against G-d. During his anger with the priests, leprosy appeared on his forehead”. How was it cured? “With hyssop.” Among the trees there is none [as short] as the hyssop. Because the leper has humbled himself, he/she is cured through the hyssop.
In other words, the passage in Leviticus 14:4 is describing a symbolic purification process. Disease strikes when we act haughtily. Its antidote is therefore its opposite – humility and modesty. That’s why the Torah pairs the majestic cedar with the tiny hyssop plant.
Wonder if the sages could have helped explain “Last Year at Marienbad”.
- Rabbi Scott Hoffman
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