PARSHA POSTS: TAZRIA

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Apr 17, 2024, 10:42 PM

What Is the Problem? Is There a Problem?

This shall be the law of the person afflicted with tzara'ath, on the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the kohen. Our weekly portion Metzora might be a bit late to tell us of the affliction...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Apr 17, 2024, 2:23 PM

Tazria, a Torah section for women

G^d is a feminist It's true that G^d punishes Adam for following the bad advice from Eve, but after that, He tells Abraham he should do anything Sarah tells him! Most of the Torah doesn't mention women. When they appear, it...

William Hamilton

Apr 12, 2024, 6:13 PM

Doing the Opposite

Losing sight of your child can turn a peaceful stretch along a stream into a formidable, frightful wilderness. Fear flips the switch. Well, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what can flip the switch in the opposite direction. What...

Mordechai Silverstein

Apr 12, 2024, 5:37 PM

God’s Plea for Self-Awareness

At first glance, much of Parshat Tazria reads like a public health directive for both how to diagnose and treat a variety of skin ailments and clothing blemishes. For the rabbinic sages, this focus seemed religiously inadequate for they...

Apr 12, 2024, 2:04 AM

Othello, WikiLeaks and Mildewed Walls (Tazria, Covenant & Conversation)

It was the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, that translated tsara’at, the condition whose identification and cleansing occupies much of Tazria and Metzora as “lepra”, giving rise to a long tradition identifying it with leprosy. That...

Apr 12, 2024, 1:10 AM

Naaman’s Leprosy

Shabbat Tazria Haftarah 1 Kings 4:42-5:19 The Torah this week goes into detail about what is called Leprosy but should be understood to mean any infectious skin disease. The Priests were the equivalent of the medical class, and their role was...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Apr 11, 2024, 11:19 PM

Listen to the female hostages!

The concept of women being taken hostage is sadly not new and goes back to the days of the Tanach. In fact, we encounter such a case in the Haftara for Parshat Tazria, Melachim II 4:42-5:19. In Melachim II 5:2...

Apr 11, 2024, 11:12 PM

Israel – Hamas war: Resentment, anger, and atonement

Police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, October 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

On October 7th, chaos replaced order and life was contaminated by death, like the Torah's postpartum woman, whose traces of death need separation to restore order

Apr 11, 2024, 10:41 PM

Refuah shleima, World

We live in a sick world. Or do we? The cancer of antisemitism has metastasised globally since October 7th. When we adopted the motto, "Never Again", we believed we had cured history's most chronic social ill. We thought we had friends...

Apr 11, 2024, 10:41 PM

Impurity of Skin and Sin: Parshat Tazria

Today marks the day when I have finally finished teaching the book of Job which we started studying in November 2022. Job's body was assaulted by a very difficult skin disease. So reading parshat tazria this week is very...

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