Parshas Tazriah-Metzorah 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- 1 day ago
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וארבעה אנשים היו מצרעים פתח השער ... (מלכים ב' ז-ג)
The four metzoraim (lepers) identified as Geichazi and his three sons, were forced to sit outside the city of Shomron due to their infliction. Nevertheless, Hashem orchestrated that they became the instrument of salvation for Malchus Yisroel in the face of the Aramean threat. The Torah states that a metzorah must isolate himself outside the camp so as not to make it impure, however that biblical commandment applied only to the machaneh in the desert, and by extension the city of Yerushalayim, which maintained a heightened level of kedusha due to the Bais Hamikdash being there. But why were the four lepers not allowed into the city of Shomron?
R’ Meir Simcha of Dvinsk zt”l (Meshech Chochma) answers that despite the many terrible and sinful kings who ruled Malchus Yisroel, they considered themselves upstanding Jews. In fact, in their minds, these kings followed halacha and adhered to the Torah, albeit only to the parts that they wanted to. As such, the kings of Malchus Yisroel treated their capital city of Shomron with the same reverence as Yerushalayim - the capital city of Malchus Yehuda. Whatever halachos applied to Yerushalayim also applied to Shomron.
Although their logic is wrong, there is still a valuable lesson to be gleaned from this. We may think that our minor good deeds will never tip the scale in our favor so there is no point in even trying to do them. However, it’s important to remember that regardless of a person’s level of yiddishkeit, doing a mitzvah - any mitzvah - is beloved by Hashem nonetheless.