Inner Dimension Parasha Teaching

 

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Tazria-Metzora

Leviticus 12:1--15:33

1st Aliya

12:1--13:23

2nd Aliya

13:24--13:39

3rd Aliya

13:40--13:54

4th Aliya

13:55--14:20

5th Aliya

14:21--14:32

6th Aliya

14:33--15:15

7th Aliya

15:16--15:33

Haftarah

II Kings 7:3--7:20

 

Glossary of Names

 

Aharon--Aaron

 

B'Har Sinai--on Mount Sinai

 

C'na'an--Canaan

 

d'ror--liberty

 

egel--calf, young bull

 

Gan Eden--Garden of Eden

 

Halachah--Hebrew Law

 

kadosh--holy

 

kohen/cohen--priest

 

Kohen Gadol-- High Priest

 

minchah--meal-offering

 

Sh'mini--eighth

 

Yom Kippur--Day of Atonement

 

 

 


vaYikra (Leviticus) 12:1

1st Aliya

HaShem spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to the Children of Y'israel, saying: When a women conceives and gives birth to a male, she shall be contaminated foe a seven-day period, as during the days of her separation infirmity shall she be contaminated. On the eighth day the flesh of the fore skin shall be circumcised.
The creation of human life is the most sublime phenomenon in the universe. By bringing life into being, man and women become partners with G-d, Who gives a soul to their offspring. But this new life begins with tumah, spiritual impurity, to show people that the mere fact of life is not enough. Life must be a tool for the service of G-d: otherwise it is nothing.

vaYikra (Leviticus) 13:24

2nd Aliya

If a person will have a burn from fire on his skin, and the healed skin of the burn is a white baheres that is streaked with red or is all white; the Kohen shall look, and behold!--hair has turned white in the baheres, and its appearance is deeper that the skin, it is "tzaraas" that erupted on teh burn, the Kohen shall declare him contaminated; it is a "tzaraas" affliction.

The Kohen must carefully examine the spot. If it does not contain white hair and also does not appear to have penetrated the skin, the Kohen must quarantine the person for seven days. On the seventh day, he must examine it to see if the size of the discoloration has expanded. If it has, it is a sign of uncleanness and the Kohen must declare it unclean. However, if after seven days the spot remains stable and has not expanded, it is clean and the Kohen must declare it so.

vaYikra (Leviticus) 13:40

3rd Aliya

If the hair of a man's head falls out: He is bald at the back of the head, he is pure. And if his hair falls out toward the front of his head, he is frontally bald, he is pure. And if in the posterior or frontal baldness there shall be a white affliction streaked with red: It is an eruption of tzaraas on his posterior or frontal baldness.

This loss of hair is not a nesek, and he is not contaminated by virtue of short hair and spreading. The bald skin can have tzaraas only if it develops one of the four shades of white, and the contamination is proven by healthy skin within the affliction and by spreading.

vaYikra (Leviticus) 13:55

4th Aliya

The Kohen shall look after the affliction has been washed, and behold!--the affliction has not changed its color and the affliction has not spread, it is contaminated, you shall burn it in fire; it is a penetrating affliction in his worn garment or in his new garment.

The verse specifies that if the color has lost its intensity--even if it has not grown in size--the item is tamei. If it did grow, therefore, it is surely tamei.

vaYikra (Leviticus) 14:21

5th Aliya

If he is poor and his means are not sufficient, then he shall take one male lamb as a guilt-offering for a wave-service to provide atonement for him; and one tenth-ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal-offering, and a log of oil.

Every animal offering must be accompanied by a meal-offering, so that a metzora who is wealthy enough to bring three animal-offerings brings three tenth-ephah of flour. Since the poor metzora brings only one animal, he requires only one meal-offering.

vaYikra (Leviticus) 14:33

6th Aliya

HaShem spoke to Moshe and Aharon saying: When you arrive in the land of C'nan that I give you as a possession, and I will place tzaraas affliction upon a house in the land of your possession; the one to whom the house belongs shall come and declare to the Kohen,...

When the Canaanite inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael saw that the Israelites would conquer the Land, they hid their valuables in the walls of their homes. In order to enable the Children of Y'israel to acquire the wealth in the walls, G-d placed an affliction on the part of the wall where the treasure was concealed, so the offending stones had to be cut away, revealing the treasure.

vaYikra (Leviticus) 15:16

7th Aliya

A man from whom there is a discharge of seamen shall immerse his entire flesh in the water and remain contaminated until evening. Any garment or anything of leather, upon which there shall be seamen, shall be immersed in the water and remain contaminated until evening.

The Torah teaches that if a man who has a seminal discharge, either as a result of sexual intercourse or as the result of a nocturnal emission. Such a man must immerse himself in a mikvah and then he remains unclean until evening. If a women has intercourse with a man and the man has a seminal discharge, then both the man and the woman have the same decree of ritual uncleanliness. In order to be purified, both of them must immerse in a mikvah and they remain unclean until evening.

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