I’m struck by how this week’s parasha is the spatial middle of the Torah, you could say it’s the
heart, and how likewise its content graphically communicates the heart of the Gospel.
To understand our Hebrew Word of the Week, we need to understand a certain skin disease.
Leprosy is a horrific disease that we in the West are mostly insulated from, for better and for
worse. For better, in that we don’t have to suffer the horrors of watching loved ones rot away
in a slow, living death. For worse, because we we’re left insulated from this disease that gets
several chapters of airtime in the Torah and the Gospels, chapters that we have a difficult time
connecting with emotionally.
It’s notable that Leviticus 13:2 and 9 of this parasha uses the Hebrew term ‘ אדם adam’, which
also means ‘humanity’, in reference to the leper or potential leper. If you want a better
understanding of the Torah’s diagnosis of the spiritual state of humanity, you may want to get
on Google Image and do a search on “leper” or “leprosy”. The pictures you see will probably
bring tears to your eyes, but they’ll also bring this whole theme into much clearer focus for you.
The good news is that the story doesn’t end with the heart-breaking pictures on Google Image.
The story ends with God sending his Messiah to cleanse the lepers, and with that same Messiah
sending out his disciples to do the same, which brings us to the present.
Just as our Master often taught in parables and cryptic language, we see God in the Torah
sometimes choosing to speak through the language of ritual and symbolism. Leviticus 14 gives
us an elaborate ritual for the cleansing of a leper, a ceremony bulging at the seams with
Messianic significance and Gospel symbolism. Our Hebrew Word of the Week relates to the
special venue of that ritual.
In Leviticus 14:3 and 5 we read that the priest and the leper being cleansed are to go outside
the camp to a place of running water. The Hebrew terms here for flowing water is ‘ מַיִם חַיִים
mayim chayim’. Ok, you noticed. That’s not one Hebrew word, it’s two! You’re right, we have
two Hebrew words this week. But, this week we have a double portion reading too, so I guess
it’s only fair that we’d have two Hebrew words. The Hebrew word for water is ‘ מַיִם mayim’, and
the Hebrew word for flowing is ‘ חַיִים chayim’. The fascinating thing about this term, ‘ חַיִים
chayim’, is that it’s also used in reference to the bird that is dipped in the blood of the
slaughtered bird and then set free: it’s the live bird, it’s ‘ חַיָּה chayah’, which is the singular of
חַיִים‘ chayim’. What does this teach us? It teaches us that there is a concrete picture in the
Torah for the abstract concept of life: the picture of running water, flowing and tumbling, clean
and cool and fresh.
This foundational Torah concept and linguistic Hebrew context gives us a framework for
understanding the essence of Messiah’s mission. In John 4 he has a long discussion with the
Samaritan woman about the deep thirst of humanity for true life, for ‘living water’, or ‘ מַיִם חַיִים
mayim chayim’, and concludes their discussion with the revelation that he is the only
authorized dealer of the living water and – get this! – it’s free. Similarly, in John 7 on Hoshana
Raba, the seventh day of Sukkot, at the height of the Water-Pouring Ceremony, we see Yeshua,
shouting in the Temple, declaring that everybody who comes to him will experience that same
מַיִם חַיִים ‘ mayim chayim’, that same living water, tumbling out of their inner persons in
refreshing and boundless torrents.
The practical application?
1. Next time you see a river, stream, lake, or waterfall, of feel the rain on your skin, remember
the life Messiah came to bring the world.
2. Next time you pour a cup of water, stop and contemplate how the life of the Holy Spirit deep
in your soul satisfies your deepest thirst, and take a minute to thank God before taking a sip.
Perhaps you could even do the classic Jewish toast, “l’chaim, to life!” as a celebration of life in
Messiah.
3. Next time you open the Scriptures, remember that in Ephesians 5:26 the Word of God is
likened to a cleansing stream. Let his Word wash over your soul, cleansing and bringing new
life.
4. If you’ve never celebrated the Feasts before, start celebrating them! You’ll be especially
blown away by the Messianic significance of the Water-Pouring Ceremony on the seventh day
of Tabernacles.
L’chaim!
Yisrael
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