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The Sacrifices of Childbirth

The Parsha in a Nutshell Parshat Tazria continues the laws of purity and impurity begun in Parshat Shemini. One of the key roles of the Priest was to distinguish tahor from tamei, pure from impure. Impurity meant an individual was forbidden from entering the sacred space of the Sanctuary.  These categories show us the contrast between God and human beings….

The Power of Praise

…relationship between husbands and wives. I mention this for two reasons, one obvious, the other less so. The obvious reason is that the Sages were puzzled about the major theme of Tazria-Metzora, the skin disease known as tsaraat. Why, they wondered, should the Torah focus at such length on such a condition? It is, after all, not a book of…

The Price of Free Speech

…it is as bad as the three cardinal sins – idolatry, murder and incest – combined. More significantly in the context of Hannah Smith they said it kills three people, the one who says it, the one he says it about, and the one who listens in.[2] The connection with this week’s parsha is straightforward. Tazria and Metzora, are about…

The Eighth Day

…that co-creation is the eighth day, the day He helps us begin to create a world of light and love. [1] Quintus Tineius Rufus, Roman governor of Judaea during the Bar Kochba uprising. He is known in the rabbinic literature as “the wicked.” His hostility to Jewish practice was one of the factors that provoked the uprising. [2] Tanhuma, Tazria,…

How to Praise

…Shabbat 147b. [7] W. H. Auden, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats,” Another Time (New York: Random House, 1940). DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR TAZRIA – METZORA What is the problem with praising a person’s innate abilities? How could Rabban Yochanan have used praise to encourage a growth mindset in his students? Does targeted praise and encouragement of your efforts motivate you?…

The Sacrifices of Childbirth

At the start of this Parsha is a cluster of laws that challenged and puzzled the commentators. They concern a woman who has just given birth. If she gives birth to a son, she is “unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period.” She must then wait for a further thirty-three days before coming into…

The Sign of the Covenant

The sedra of Tazria begins with the laws of childbirth and the command of circumcision: “On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” (Lev. 12:3) Since the days of Abraham, this has been the sign, for males, of the covenant between God and the people He has summoned to be His witnesses: God further said to…

Is there such a thing as Lashon Tov?

The Sages understood tsara’at, the theme of this week’s parsha, not as an illness but as a miraculous public exposure of the sin of lashon hara, speaking badly about people. Judaism is a sustained meditation on the power of words to heal or harm, mend or destroy. Just as God created the world with words, He empowered us to create, and…

Maternal Identity

Advances in medical technology such as in vitro fertilisation have raised complex ethical and legal questions. In the case of surrogacy for example – where the ovum comes from one woman, but the fertilised embryo is carried to term by another – who is the mother? On the one hand, the donor mother from whom the ovum is taken contributes…

Evil Speech is a Plague

I believe we need the laws of lashon hara now more than almost ever before. Social media is awash with hate. The language of politics has become ad hominem and vile. We seem to have forgotten the messages that Tazria and Metzora teach: that evil speech is a plague. It destroys relationships, rides roughshod over people’s feelings, debases the public…

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