Summary Tazria-Metzora - Rosh Chodesh 5762
Two Sifrei Torah again this week, for the thirteenth time in nine weeks! This time it's due to Rosh Chodesh coinciding with Shabbat. It also means a special Haftarah.

The double-portion of Tazria-Metzora deals with issues of ritual impurity. Tazria begins with the ritual impurity of the mother at childbirth, and Metzora ends with the ritual impurity at the time of menstruation.

In between are the laws concerning how to treat tzara'at, an affliction of the body, clothes or houses. Although tzara'at is usually translated as leprosy, from the description given in the Torah, we see that this isn't necessarily so. It was regarded by our sages as a physical manifestation of a spiritual malady, that of speaking lashon hara - slander. The remedy was to put the afflicted person outside the camp, where he or she would not be able to speak to another.

Points to Ponder - Ritually Impure or Dirty?
Tazria begins with the laws surrounding childbirth. According to Torah Law the mother is ritually 'unclean' for seven days following the birth of a boy, and for fourteen days following the birth of a girl.

Each time the Torah refers to cases of ritual impurity, it occurs following the loss of life, at least to an extent. Thus the most severe case is actual contact with the dead. A lesser case is the affliction of tzara'at-leprosy, described later on in the sedra. So why ritual impurity at the time of childbirth?

The answer is simple - for nine months, the mother has actually consisted of two lives together. At birth, one life - the baby, separates from the mother, rendering her ritually impure. Why then is the period for a daughter twice as long as for a son? The answer is that the daughter is a future potential carrier of life.

Metzora ends with the laws of ritual impurity for a woman at the time of menstruation. In this case, we are not dealing with a loss of life, but a loss of potential life.

Thus we see that the state of ritual impurity has nothing to do with being physically unclean. At the conclusion of the period of impurity, immersion in a mikveh - collected rainwater - is a strict Torah requirement. If the ritual impurity represents 'death', then water - rainwater - represents life.

Why is immersion for the other types of ritual impurity not required these days? To attend the service in the Temple, and particularly at Pesach-time, one had to be ritually pure. Today, we don't have a Temple, and therefore we are not required to be in a state of ritual purity, except for Kohanim, which is why they have to keep their distance at a cemetery, and may not serve on the Chevre Kadishah.

Family Purity Laws
As the laws concerning the woman who is ritually unclean have a direct bearing on her relationship with her husband, those laws apply to married women only. They form part of the Family Purity Laws. Simply stated, a husband and wife may not have intimate relations while she is menstruating, and for seven days afterwards. These laws provide a regular cycle within the framework of marriage, they enhance the mutual respect between husband and wife, and in the words of the Talmud, "they create a longing for each other, maintaining freshness in the marriage".

Back to the beginning....
In practice - notwithstanding the distinction between birth for a boy and a girl, the mother waits until she has been free of any flow of blood for seven days before attending the mikveh and resuming relations with her husband. Interestingly, for the average person, that is usually six weeks after giving birth, which today is what doctors recommend to allow the new mother's body time to heal.

Shabbat Shalom