Parashat Tazria 5784

by Rabbi Margie Cella

This week’s parashah begins with the description of the purification ritual for a woman following childbirth. If she gave birth to a boy, she was ritually impure for seven days, then an additional 33 days; both of those time periods for a girl. In either case, she then was to bring a burnt offering and a sin offering to effectuate her atonement and be deemed pure once again.

Following this, there is a lengthy discussion of a skin disease called tsara’at, leprosy. Anyone suffering from this condition had to be examined by the priest, who would declare them either clean or unclean; a designation of unclean required that the individual isolate themselves from the congregation before reexamination by the priest. There were multiple ways in which leprosy could potentially be manifested on the body of an individual, and any blemish on the body that had a suspicious appearance was treated in this manner. Additionally, leprosy could appear in garments; any that could not be cleansed in seven days were required to be burned.

We have all learned quite a bit about the experience of dealing with a highly infectious disease. Though a Covid diagnosis in most cases does not pose the level of danger that it did during the pandemic, it nevertheless can be extremely contagious. If there is any lesson that we can take from that time, as well as from the biblical instances of tsara’at, it is to be more considerate of others by doing everything in our power to avoid exposing them to our germs when we are sick. Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Ba’Zeh – All the people of Israel are responsible for one another.