Dead Live
Till the inner sanctum is destroyed
And you fly free over the field
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The healing of the metzorah (loosely translated as "leper"). At last, he breaks out of the endless cycles of sevens, as he too reaches "the eighth day."
The ritual embodies duality: the living flesh, and the dead tzarrat lesion, the two birds--one slated for death, the other, marked in blood, set free to fly "over the face of the field"; two sheep.
The greatest tension is between inner and out--an echo of the "days of filling" consecrating the Dwelling, which also revolved around "going outside" and remaining in the "doorway." The chapter opens with the metzorah being "brought/ coming in" and the priest going out (ve-yatza). The metzorah must sit alone "outside" the camp; then can come "in." One bird of the offering is offered "within" the Dwelling, the other flies away outside. The spacial focus comes to the fore in the laws of house-tzarrat, in begins with parts of the inner dwellings cleared away to "outside" the camp, and closes with the complete destruction of teh houses' wall. the tzaraat experience somehow revolves around a redefinition of inner space)
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