Parashat Tazria-Metzora 5786

by Rabbi Margie Cella

This week’s double parashah deals with the subject of leprosy and other forms of impurity. The tsara-at of the Torah is not the same leprosy that we know today. It was some kind of skin condition which was easily transmitted, not only to other people, but also to physical objects like furniture, clothing, and houses. One who suffered from it was isolated from the community for at least seven days. Only a priest could diagnose it, or declare a person or dwelling cleansed of the infection.

Other sources of impurity included menstrual blood and blood associated with childbirth for women, and, for men, seminal emissions not resulting from intercourse. Contact with a dead body also rendered one unclean.

Today, since we no longer have a Temple, the kohanim can’t perform most of their ritual functions. Therefore, halakhically, we are all considered to be in a state of impurity today.

Given all of this, many people find these passages to be boring and irrelevant in our modern world. Nevertheless, we still read and study them as part of our annual Torah reading cycle. So, we must ask ourselves: why are they in the Torah, and what are we to learn from them in 2026?

I think we can all agree that this tzara’at was something negative. These days many of us are overwhelmed by negative feelings of despair over the current state of affairs in our world. These feelings can be pervasive, affecting those around us as well, at home, work, and synagogue. They prevent us from being productive. Tikkun olam, repairing our world, can only happen if we commit to working collaboratively to make it a reality. Begin by working on yourself—positivity is also contagious!

Oseh Shalom, Maker of Peace, help us to overcome our negativity and bring peace to Your world.