Torah Portion

Tazria-Metzora

תזריע מצורע

Leviticus 12:1–15:33
Second Kings 7:3–20

Tzaraʿat Purification: A Vestige of Demonic Exorcism

Tzaraʿat Purification: A Vestige of Demonic Exorcism

In Priestly law, impurity is stripped of its mythic origins in the demonic realm but still retains its dangerous, physical presence, and must be mitigated by specific acts of ritual cleansing and banishing, depending on the type of impurity. Purification from the skin disease tzaraʿat (Leviticus 13–14) offers the starkest example of such a ritual.

David Bar-Cohn
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The Tzaraʿat Paradox

The Tzaraʿat Paradox

Why is partially infected skin impure but fully infected skin pure? Mary Douglas’ insight into the polluting power of anomalies helps us make sense of this counterintuitive rule.

Prof.
Albert I. Baumgarten
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Priests & Rabbis Determine Ritual Reality

Priests & Rabbis Determine Ritual Reality

The Torah allows the removal of vessels from a house before the priest quarantines it for tzaraʿat, understanding impurity here not as the result of physical reality but of a human declaration. This idea is developed further by the rabbis, who apply it to other areas of Jewish law.

Prof.
Martha Himmelfarb
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Postpartum Impurity: Why Is the Duration Double for a Girl?

Postpartum Impurity: Why Is the Duration Double for a Girl?

After giving birth to a male, the mother is impure for 7 days, followed by 33 days of purification. However, with a female, the mother is impure for 14 days, followed by 66 days of purification.

Dr. Rabbi
Zev Farber
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Postpartum “Bloods of Purity”

Postpartum “Bloods of Purity”

Mesopotamian gynecological texts and what we know about women’s post-partum flow are helpful in parsing the unusual Hebrew idiom demei tohorah, literally, “bloods of purity,” used in Leviticus 12 to describe the second stage of postpartum bleeding.

Prof.
Tamar Kamionkowski
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Tum’ah: Ritual Impurity or Fear of Contagious Disease?

Tum’ah: Ritual Impurity or Fear of Contagious Disease?

Already in the early 2nd millennium B.C.E., people knew that diseases were contagious, and fear of contagion plays a key role in the Torah’s laws regarding the skin ailment, tzaraʿat. What does this mean for understanding other kinds of tum’ah?

Dr.
Yitzhaq Feder
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Gendering a Child with Ritual

Gendering a Child with Ritual

A child’s mother remains impure for forty days after the birth of a boy and eighty days after a girl. A comparison of this procedure with similar ones in Hittite birth rituals suggests that this gender-based differentiation serves as a kind of ritual announcement of the child’s gender.

Dr.
Kristine Henriksen Garroway
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Menstruant as Zavah: How the Laws of Niddah Developed

Menstruant as Zavah: How the Laws of Niddah Developed

Leviticus 15 describes two types of impure bleeding for women: menstruation (niddah), and bleeding that is “not during her menstrual period (zavah).” The Rabbis attempt to define the difference in an abstract manner, and in so doing, elide the two.

Prof.
Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert
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Sex During Menstruation: From Impurity to Prohibition

Sex During Menstruation: From Impurity to Prohibition

Leviticus 15:24 does not declare sex with a menstruating woman to be forbidden, only that it results in temporary impurity. Leviticus 18:19 and 20:18, however, strictly prohibit it. What accounts for these two different approaches?

Dr.
Eve Levavi Feinstein
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Niddah (Menstruation): From Torah to Rabbinic Law

Niddah (Menstruation): From Torah to Rabbinic Law

In Leviticus 15, the laws of niddah are about purity; Lev 18 and 20, however, prohibit sex during menstruation. The rabbis, who inherited both of these texts, create a new, hybrid concept: the prohibition of sex while a woman has the status of menstrual impurity.

Prof.
Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert
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Tzaraat in Light of Its Mesopotamian Parallels

Tzaraat in Light of Its Mesopotamian Parallels

Despite its lengthy coverage of tzaraat, biblical “leprosy,” the Torah omits discussion of its cause, its infectiousness, and its treatment. Comparison to the Mesopotamian rituals pertaining to a strikingly similar disease, Saḫaršubbû, shows that these omissions were far from accidental.

Dr.
Yitzhaq Feder
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On the Origins of Tevilah (Ritual Immersion)

On the Origins of Tevilah (Ritual Immersion)

When and why washing became immersion: between traditional-rabbinic and scientific-critical approaches to the origin of immersion and the mikveh.

Prof.
Yonatan Adler
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A Sin Offering for Birth Anxiety

A Sin Offering for Birth Anxiety

Following the purification period after birth, a mother must bring a חטאת –“sin offering,” despite her having committed no obvious sin. This offers us a unique glimpse into the prehistory of the Israelite cult, when apotropaic rituals (used to protect against dangerous forces) like those in other ANE cultures, were the norm.

Dr.
Yitzhaq Feder
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The Parturient’s Days of Purity: From Torah to Halacha

The Parturient’s Days of Purity: From Torah to Halacha

In reference to the parturient, the Torah speaks of a 33 or 66 day period of דמי טהרה “blood of her purity” as distinguished from a 7 or 14 day period “like menstruation.” What is the difference between these two periods according to Leviticus and how did later groups such as rabbinic Jews, Karaites, Samaritans, and Beta Israel understand it?

Dr. Rabbi
Zev Farber
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The Purification of a Niddah: The Torah Requirement

The Purification of a Niddah: The Torah Requirement

Jewish law requires a menstruant woman to purify herself by immersing in water. A schematic look at Leviticus 15 actually implies this is not a Torah requirement.

Dr. Rabbi
Zev Farber
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The Purification of a Niddah: When Silence Matters

The Purification of a Niddah: When Silence Matters

Immersing in the Priestly Text: In support of Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber's contention in “The Purification of a Niddah: The Torah Requirement” that the Torah does not require women to immerse after niddah in order to become pure.

Dr. Hacham
Isaac S. D. Sassoon
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Tazria-Metzora

תזריע מצורע

Leviticus 12:1–15:33

...וְהִנֵּה כֵּהָה הַנֶּגַע וְלֹא פָשָׂה הַנֶּגַע בָּעוֹר וְטִהֲרוֹ הַכֹּהֵן...

ויקרא יג:ו

...if the affection has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean...

Lev 13:6

Leviticus
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