Tazria
Torah: Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59
Haftarah: II Kings 4:42-5:19
Brit Chadassah/New Testament: Luke 7:18-35

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying:

‘When a woman gives birth and delivers a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days; as she is in the days of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. 3 Then on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 And she shall stay at home in her condition of blood purification for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. 5 But if she gives birth to a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, as in her menstruation; and she shall stay at home in her condition of blood purification for sixty-six days.

Leviticus 12:2-5

7 Then he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who gives birth to a child, whether a male or a female.

Leviticus 12:7

These statutes were given directly by YHVH to Moses to relay to the sons of Israel. The sons of Israel were and are responsible to know and teach their women who have given birth about the length of their uncleanness. Back then, when the Tabernacle and later the Temple stood, the women needed to offer sacrifices according to what they could afford. Now that neither the Tabernacle nor the Temple exist, these sacrificial laws are in abeyance, as in they cannot be fulfilled.

13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a wrongdoer. 15 But women will be preserved through childbirth—if they continue in faith, love, and sanctity, with moderation.

I Timothy 2:13-15

I suspect that when Paul wrote this observation to Timothy he was thinking about this mitzvah and the connection between atonement for childbirth and preservation. This may be why the ancient Hebrew women took barrenness as hard as they did, because childbirth is a blessing. Mary (Miriam in Hebrew) was blessed as the woman who gave birth to the Preserver of Israel, Yeshua, her and our Savior.

Reading over chapter 13 in this portion generates the observation that two people are involved with respect to uncleanness. These two people are the priest and the person.

For the most part, chapter thirteen is directed to the priest who is assigned to make the necessary evaluations with respect to uncleanness or leprosy in a person.

For the unclean person, his role is more passive and he or she must submit to the evaluations of the priest and his instructions about what needs to be done.

m’Tsorah
Torah: Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33
Haftarah: II Kings 7:3-20
Brit Chadassah/New Testament: Matthew 23:16-24:2, 30-31

This portion is about a leper who has been cleansed from leprosy. That is covered from Leviticus 14:1 – 32. The rest of chapter fourteen is devoted to cleansing a house from leprosy.

As noted for the previous portion, Tazria, there are two people who are involved: the priest and the unclean person, who was declared a leper. Whereas earlier, the priest was active in evaluation and decision making, the person was passive. 

When dealing with a leper who has been healed from leprosy, both the priest and the person have active roles.

  1. The priest offers the prescribed sacrifice and accompanying rituals.
  2. The leper washes his clothes and shaves off all his body hair.
  3. Seven days later, the leper again shaves all of his body hair, bathes and washes his clothes.
  4. The next day, the cleansed leper brings sacrifices.
  5. The priest then offers the sacrifice on behalf of the leper and makes atonement for him.

Chapter 14:33-57 prescribes the steps needed to cleanse a house from leprosy or uncleanness.

The first thing to note is that YHVH can put a mark of leprosy on a house. That means He’s responsible for it.

34 “When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put a spot of leprosy on a house in the land of your possession

Leviticus 14:34

The process can be simplified to these steps.

  1. The owner of the house sees the mark and reports it to the priest.
  2. The priest takes the lead and orders the house be emptied.
  3. The priest then evaluates the mark according to the criteria set forth in this chapter.
  4. The owner and family does as the priest instructs.
  5. The priest offers sacrifices.

Leviticus chapter 15 is a detailed discussion of bodily emissions which render the male or female person unclean.

Both Keil and Delitzsch and the Believer’s Bible commentaries offer cogent summaries of this chapter and I cannot improve on them, so I’ll quote both of them. They were both taken from my e-Sword app on my iMac.

The Uncleanness of Secretions. – These include (1) a running issue from a man (Lev 15:2-15); (2) involuntary emission of seed (Lev 15:16, Lev 15:17), and the emission of seed in sexual intercourse (Lev 15:18); (3) the monthly period of a woman (Lev 15:19-24); (4) a diseased issue of blood from a woman (Lev 15:25-30). They consist, therefore, of two diseased and two natural secretions from the organs of generation.

Keil and Delitszch on Leviticus 15

15:1-18 Chapter 15 deals with the uncleannessarising from discharges from the human body, either natural or diseased. Verses 1-12 seem to refer to a running discharge from a man, resulting from disease, such as gonorrhea. The ritual for cleansing is given in verses 13-15. Verses 16-18 refer to the emission of semen, involuntary (vv. 16, 17) and voluntary (v. 18).

15:19-33 Verses 19-24 deal with a woman’s normal menstrual cycle. This required no offerings. Verses 25-30 describe a discharge of blood from a woman, but not connected with menstruation—therefore abnormal. Verses 31-33 summarize the chapter.

Believer’s Bible on Leviticus 15

There are two general observations that I wish to add to the above summaries. The first observation is that ritual uncleanness resulting from bodily emissions lasts until the evening. The second observation is that this type of uncleanness will get a person killed if the Tabernacle, later Temple, is defiled.

31 “And so you shall keep the sons of Israel separated from their uncleanness, so that they will not die in their uncleanness by their defiling My [l]tabernacle that is among them.”

Leviticus 15:31

In the present time, we think more in terms of hygiene and washing our hands of soap and water. Prior to writing this commentary, I had thought that leprosy was all but unknown in the modern era. Looking at the Wikipeda article on leprosy showed me how mistaken that assumption was. The knowledge in Tazria and m’Tsora certainly apply today as they did in ancient times, though we have more drugs available to treat the condition today.

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