Our Gemara on Amud Beis discusses the paradoxical phenomenon of a tzoraas affliction that becomes purified if “it spreads completely.” (Vayikra 13:12.) What underlies this ironic ruling that a full spread of the tzoraas leads to purification?

Ha’amek Davar (ibid) takes the position that the affliction is still a kind of warning; a firm telegram from God to repent. If someone gets the message, all fine and good. However, the spread of the tzoraas over the entire body represents a complete rejection of the message, and sadly, so to speak, God giving up on that person. He is so far gone that it is not even worth putting him through the misery of social ostracism and punishment. By way of metaphor, if a child mildly misbehaves he gets punished. If he radically misbehaves, he gets expelled for a few days (like the metzora who is declared impure and must leave society), but if his behavior is completely out of line, he’s beyond punishment. He is seen as a special case and must be handled differently, perhaps with compassion or indifference depending on how antisocial he is. But regardless, nobody even wastes time trying to discipline him in a regular sense, because it is an unnecessary cruelty, since the child simply cannot manage, for whatever reason. Here too, this person who is not internalizing the message in his suffering, and the warning signs that his system is sending him via his spiritual/medical affliction, reached the point where he’s beyond the limits of this system to help them. The tzoraas spread everywhere. Additionally, we might also consider sending the antisocial metzora out of the community is also to protect the other community members from being influenced or hurt by this person. However, if his sociopathy is so pronounced, he can still stay in the community and not be ostracized because people know the game and won’t be seduced or fooled by him. He’s too far gone to have influence on anybody.

Tiferes Yonasan (Bamidbar 17:6) takes a different approach. He says, evil has power when it’s concentrated in one location. If it spreads far, while it might have broader reach, it also loses depth, and therefore is less impactful. In this case, the complete spread of the tzoraas creates a paradoxical reaction where it becomes diluted, and therefore a person can become purified. This is reminiscent of the Mishna Sanhedrin (8:5): “The dispersal of the wicked, so that they are not found in close proximity to each other, is beneficial to them, as they are less likely to provoke each other to sin, and it is beneficial to the world…The gathering of the wicked in one place is detrimental to them and detrimental to the world.”

On a deeper level, Ha’amek Davar’s interpretation while harsh, stands on it’s own logic. Tiferes Yonasan’s interpretation offers a nuanced way of understanding another indirect route toward personal redemption. The straightforward way is repentance and a recession of the lesion, a metaphor for a diminishing of the contamination of the sin. On the other hand, sometimes it spreads first and becomes diluted, so that eventually it can be corrected. That is an indirect route of repentance, perhaps the idea of somebody who continues to sin, but develops a broader and less intense perspective. At first he doesn’t stop sinning, in fact, he sins more. But in doing so, he begins to notice that everything loses its flavor. He indulges and indulges to a point that it’s all meaningless. He asks himself, what is all this anyway? And then, at that dark bottom, he sees the truth and starts to climb out. The darkest moment may be the turning point.

Tzror Hamor (ibid 13:9) says a similar idea and also draws a parallel to the following prophetic teaching in Sanhedrin (98a): “The son of David will come only in a generation that is entirely innocent, in which case they will be deserving of redemption, or in a generation that is entirely guilty, in which case there will be no alternative to redemption.”

Let’s hope that it does not have to come to that, but it’s good to know that, one way or the other God has our backs. Like a good father, He hopes we will learn our lesson and He lets us struggle for ourselves, but in the end He will still bail us out.