Parshat Tazria Metzora

 

 

The Parshah of Tazria continues the discussion of the laws of Tumah v’Taharah, ritual impurity and purity.

 

A woman giving birth should undergo a process of purification, which includes immersing in a mikvah (a naturally gathered pool of water) and bringing offerings to the Holy Temple. All male infants are to be circumcised on the eighth day of life.

 

Tzaraat (“leprosy”) is a supra-natural plague, which also can afflict garments. If white or pink patches appear on a person’s skin (pink or greenish in garments), a Kohen is summoned. Judging by various signs, such as an increase in size of the afflicted area after a seven-day quarantine, the Kohen pronounces it tameh (impure) or tahor (pure).

 

A person afflicted with tzaraat must dwell alone outside of the camp (or city) until he is healed. The afflicted area in a garment removed; if the tzaraat recurs, the entire garment must be burned.

 

 

 

 

Last week’s Parshah described the signs of the metzora (“leper”) — a person afflicted by a spiritual malady which places him or her in a state of ritual impurity. This week’s Torah reading begins by detailing how the recovered metzora is purified by the Kohen (priest) with a special procedure involving two birds, spring water in an earthen vessel, a piece of cedar wood, a scarlet thread and a bundle of hyssop.

 

A home can also be afflicted with “leprosy” by the appearance of reddish or greenish patches on its walls. In a process lasting as long as nineteen days, a Kohen determines if the house can be purified or it must be demolished.

 

Ritual impurity is also engendered through a seminal or other discharge in a man, and menstruation or other discharge of blood in a woman, necessitating purification through immersion in a mikvah.

 

(from Chabad.org)