Parashat Tazria talks about Tzara’at, and there's a beautiful Midrash found in the Parasha, that connects it a pasuk in Iyov (38,25):
מִֽי־פִלַּ֣ג לַשֶּׁ֣טֶף תְּעָלָ֑ה וְ֝דֶ֗רֶךְ לַחֲזִ֥יז קֹלֽוֹת
Mi Pilag LaShetef T’Alah…
Who created a channel for a torrent of rain, or a path for thunder clouds?
The midrash says that in Arabic, they call a hair a Shitfah, so the pasuk can also be translated as, “Who fashioned the channel
for the hair?” meaning that for every hair on a person, Hashem made its own follicle.
Earlier, Iyov had complained (9,17)
אֲשֶׁר־בִּשְׂעָרָ֥ה יְשׁוּפֵ֑נִי וְהִרְבָּ֖ה פְצָעַ֣י חִנָּֽם׃
Asher B’Se’arah Yeshifeni…
“He shattered (or stepped on) me with a tornado ,and multiplied my wounds without a cause.” (Se’arah here, is translated as tornado, but in other contexts it means Hair)
Iyov was saying that his Yisurim were for nothing, and Elihu, one of the people that spoke to him, replied that everything Hashem does is Middah k’neged middah.
And since Iyov started off with the word Se’ar/ hair, God said to Iyov, “Even for the hair, I created its own follicle.”
The Gemara says, Iyov cursed by using the term hair, and God responded in a Ruach SeArah, and said to him, “I have not confused one hair from the other. I made so many hairs on the head, and every hair has its own channel, its own follicle. Do you think I confused Iyov and Iyov ?
There is a constant thread of Iyov denying God's Hashgacha and involvement. He said, “There's no way that God can watch everything and see everything.” So God chose to demonstrate, through myriads and unfathomable amounts of creations, how He is in control of everything- even the hairs on one's head, and every follicle of every hair!
The Midrash continues, discussing a certain kohen who determined whether someone had Tzara’at (we'll call it leprosy for lack of a better term) or not. At one point, he needed some extra money so he decided to leave the town. He told his wife that people would still come, and that she should charge them something. Since a woman could not determine if someone had Tzara’at or not, he gave her some tips and told her to send the people to somebody else to decide. He told her that when looking at the different types of Tzara’at (which has to do with hairs), every single hair has its own follicle, and if the follicle dries up, the hair won't grow properly. His wife then said to him, “You're going to leave to look for parnasa? If God created a follicle for every hair on the head, do you think that God can't create parnasa for you here, without having to travel?” So he stayed.
Additionally, regarding. Tzara’at, the Ben Ish Chai says that we shave the head of the Metzorah (as discussed in the second Parasha of this week), in order to purify the person. Why? Because when you shave someone's head, you can see the bumps from all the follicles. We want to show this man the follicles, he says, because one of the reasons people speak Lashon Hara is because they think that someone's going to take away from them, so they feel a need to put others down.
We want to show this man that very hair has a follicle, and we don't need to put anyone down. We don't have to worry about anyone taking away our parnasa. As it says, everyone can do his own thing. There are enough pieces of the pie for everybody.
That’s the Midrashic lesson from this week's Parasha- the lessons of Iyov, hair, and of Hashem watching over our lives.
Have a Shabbat Shalom.