Tazria

With God's help, you and I begin today to study the weekly portion Tazria, and we will read chapter 12 of the book of Vayikra. This is probably the shortest chapter in the whole Torah. It has only 8 verses, and it is wholly and entirely devoted to the postpartum purification of a woman. Why and how a woman must purify herself after giving birth, you and I will find out. Let's begin with verse 1 of chapter 12.

The verb tazria, which is used here, comes from the root zayin-resh-ayin; the word zera, from the same root, means seed – both the seed of a plant, and the seed of a man, and the seed of a woman (the egg cell). And this can be understood in two ways: either the woman will take into herself the seed of the man, sow into herself the seed of the man, or the woman herself will give her seed. In the Talmud there is a saying of the sages that if the woman gives seed first, a boy is born, if second – then a girl. As far as we know, this has no biological confirmation, but such was the knowledge of the sages at that time. From this we can conclude only that the word zera (seed) can also be used in relation to the egg cell.

The state of uncleanness of a woman (tame'a) is in no way connected with hygiene, but, as we have already said, is connected with the word tum'a (ritual uncleanness or defilement), it is not a negation of something. It can be connected with the word le'etom (to seal hermetically, to close something, to make inaccessible). Thus, tum'a is a kind of being sealed off, impermeability to holiness.

What is the essence? Why does a woman become unclean after she has given birth, or why does a woman become unclean during her monthly period? Right away we need to recall (for the umpteenth time) that this uncleanness is in no way connected with sin. A woman who has become unclean as a result of her monthly period or as a result of childbirth has, of course, done nothing bad. A woman, unlike the whole animal world, has such a biological peculiarity that her body is constantly waiting for pregnancy. In the uterus, in a woman's womb, there is a layer called the endometrium. It renews itself every month, and the result of its renewal is the monthly bleeding in a woman. This is the layer to which the fertilized egg cell is supposed to attach itself (if one appears). Every month every woman prepares everything in order to become pregnant. If anything happens – she has everything ready. No animal, no one in the world behaves this way, the way a woman does. Every month this layer renews itself in a woman, and from the state when she is ready to receive a child, ready to give new life, she comes to a state when conception is impossible, when she has bleeding. The potential of vitality leaves her. And there, where the potential of vitality leaves us (as the saying goes, “a holy place is never empty”), there uncleanness appears. And an example from a completely different area: if a person holds in his hands a Torah scroll or some scroll from the Tanach and puts it down, the hands become unclean. But if instead he takes in his hands Homer's “Iliad” or “Odyssey” or the works of Ilf and Petrov, nothing happens to the hands. Only the Torah, which gives life, when it is let go of, defiles the hands.

When a woman gives birth, the situation is very similar. Inside her there was life, a child was developing. When she gave birth to a boy, she did a great thing. Mission accomplished, as they say. But the life that was inside came out. Inside her there is no life (the one that was there), and as a result she becomes unclean. Where vitality departs, uncleanness appears. I will repeat again: this is not sin, this is not bad, this is a natural state. It restricts the woman, but it is not sinful. For seven days the woman is considered unclean after the birth of a boy, just as during her bleeding (niddat). This means that she is forbidden to her husband: intimacy between the spouses at this time is forbidden. Besides that, it means that the woman may not touch anything holy or enter the Holy, come into the Tent of Meeting or into the Temple.

People are often indignant at this restriction. Again: why is a woman who has given birth, who has seemingly fulfilled such an important commandment, unclean, and why can she not enter the Holy? A journey into the Holy is like a flight on an airplane, it is touching something that by its nature is far from a person. Just as a woman after childbirth is not fit for long journeys because of her infirmity, in exactly the same way she is released from the need to have contact with what would demand much effort from her in her infirmity. This does not apply, by the way, to modern synagogues, churches, gatherings, services and so on, which are not defined as the Holy in the Temple sense, and a modern woman can go there on any day, thank God.

On the eighth day the woman is already clean, she is permitted to her husband, and together they can take part in the circumcision of the son. It would be sad if everyone around were rejoicing that the boy is entering the covenant of Avraham, that dad is fulfilling an important commandment, while the married couple is not whole, because intimacy between them is forbidden due to the woman's uncleanness. Therefore the Torah grants such a special mercy toward the woman, that after the birth of a boy she is unclean seven days and on the eighth day, the day of brit mila (circumcision), she becomes clean, that is, permitted to her husband, clean of the uncleanness of nidda. But that is not all.

Remember, we said that a person who has washed himself during the day remains unclean until evening. This is a process of acclimatization, adaptation, purification. In a woman, since the changes that have taken place are much more serious, the period of this acclimatization is correspondingly much more serious. At this point she is not unclean for her husband, she has already been purified, but this kind of purity does not yet allow her to enter the Temple and touch the Holy. The state is intermediate: she is no longer sick, she is convalescing. And she must remain in this state for another thirty-three days. The whole period of purification thus (simple math) amounts to 33 + 7 = 40 days. This is after the birth of a boy.

In the fifth verse we read what happens if she has given birth to a girl.

Altogether (again simple arithmetic) 66 + 14 = 80 days. And one might think: is a girl really twice as bad as a boy, and after her one has to purify oneself twice as much? What has she, poor thing, managed to get up to, having only just been born, that her mother after her is considered unclean twice as long as after the birth of a boy? The answer – nothing. Another answer – a girl is in no way worse than a boy. But a girl is destined to be a mother herself, she is a future mother, every girl, she is chava (giving life), like the first woman. The potential of vitality that leaves a woman who has given birth to a girl is greater, as it were more life departs from her. And the holy place left behind, which is never empty and which will be filled with uncleanness, is also greater. Therefore the purification after the birth of a girl is twice as great, because a girl is better than a boy. There is twice as much life in her.

As for the burnt offering – that is clear. We said that one of the kinds of burnt offering is the offering of thanksgiving. A woman who has given birth has something to thank the Most High for. Not always, not in all times was childbirth easy: the woman herself, God forbid, could die, and the child, God forbid, could be born dead or die in the process of birth. And the woman, understandably, must thank God for the deliverance, for the successful birth.

Less clear is that it must be a chatat offering. We said that there are two different understandings of the nature of the offering chatat. One understanding is based on the fact that the word chatat can be interpreted from the word chet (sin), and we noted that this understanding is not very fitting. According to another understanding, the word chatat can be interpreted from the word chitui, which means purification, sterilization, disinfection. And then the chatat offering is a purifying offering. Those who see the offering chatat as a sin offering try right away to find some sin in the woman who has given birth. What can one suppose? In the process of birth a woman (this often happens, I can say this as a person who has delivered babies – not given birth, of course, but delivered babies) says things that she would not say in a sound state of mind. She says: “As if I would ever again, even once, with my husband?!” or “The next one you will give birth to yourself!”, or some indignation addressed to Heaven for the sufferings she is going through. In a word, she can say too much. Of course, one cannot condemn a woman in such a state, but those who understand chatat as a sin offering also say that perhaps it is for this very thing that it is brought. Or perhaps it is brought because the woman, having felt, having lived through the punishment that was given to Chava (to give birth in pain), brings her offering for Chava's sin.

Closer to me is the understanding that the chatat offering which is brought here is a purifying offering. And then the pshat is completely clear. The woman has been purified, and therefore she brings an offering for her purification. Everything is simple, and no mysticism, and not even any criminology.

We also read in previous portions that there is a situation where the Torah makes a discount for the poor with regard to sacrifices. This was called korban ole veyored (an offering with a markup and with a discount, rising and descending). If a woman is poor, what then, is she now not to give birth? If she cannot buy a lamb, what then, is she now not to go to the Temple?

And all this is the teaching about a woman after childbirth. We remember that Miryam and Yosef, when they came to the Temple (Luke 2:22–24), brought two turtledoves, which shows, on the one hand, that they were not rich people. And on the other hand, it shows that they treated the Temple with respect and brought the sacrifice according to the Law.

Man of God, covered in skin (13:1–28)

With God's help, you and I continue to study the weekly portion Tazria. In the last talk we read about a woman's infirmity, which arises as a result of fulfilling a commandment. On the one hand, this is an illness, on the other hand, it has good, kind causes. Here you and I will talk about infirmities that arise for reasons that are not very good. We will talk about a phenomenon which in Hebrew is called tzara'at, which it is customary to translate as leprosy, but this is not quite a correct translation. Leprosy (or Hansen's disease) has not been found in any remains in the Middle East, and it is completely unknown whether it existed at all at that time. Besides that, the disease that will be discussed further on has completely different symptoms of development. It so happened that first the Greek, and then also the Russian translators began to use the term leprosy to designate this disease. We, though, will probably settle on the Hebrew term tzara'at and will use it.

Tzara'at is a special disease. There are psychosomatic diseases, which manifest on the body, but their root is in the soul (from the Greek psycho, soul), in a person's behavior, in his nervous system. Tzara'at is distinguished by the fact that it is, one could say, a “pneumosomatic” disease (from the Greek pneumo, spirit). It is a disease that also manifests in the physical body, but its roots are spiritual. In our time the disease tzara'at does not exist, although many spiritual problems still manifest on the skin, and there are people who are able to interpret them somehow. But tzara'at precisely in the sense the Torah speaks of does not exist in our time. We will read and figure out what it actually is. And we will begin with verse 1 of chapter 13.

Here the person is called adam. To designate a person the Torah uses different words in one connotation or another. Sometimes it uses the word nefesh (soul), sometimes the word adam, sometimes the word ish. A person called by the word adam, – this is a certain level of development. This word is connected with the word dimyon (resemblance or likeness), this is the one who lives by likening himself. He takes in morality, moral foundations from outside. These may be the foundations of society, it may even be the Divine will, some Divine principles. He is moved not by his inner nature, but first of all takes in certain guidelines from outside. This is a high level, because as the model of likening, as the object of likening, one can choose the Most High Himself. This is the name which the Most High originally gave to the created Adam, placing in him the qualities of likening, creating him in His image and likeness. A person called ish, – this is the one who lives by his own mind. And this is another level, which we will still get to. But in this chapter we begin with the word adam and further on we will see what will change.

A person himself, even if he is a dermatologist, even if he is a major specialist in the field of skin health, does not have the right to diagnose tzara'at in himself on his own. If a person has seen on his skin some growth, something very suspicious, such that it makes him wonder: “Isn't this tzara'at?!”, then he must go to Aharon and the kohanim.

Let us first figure out: why the skin in particular, why does the Torah speak of some spots on the skin? The skin is an amazing organ of a person: besides its many functions that it performs in the organism, it is a boundary, that which gives a person his form. And as a boundary it defines the relation between the inner and the outer, including how a person relates to other people, and how he himself respects other people's boundaries. For example, it is often said that tzara'at is a punishment for evil speech, when a person interferes in what is not his business and reasons about what he should not reason about (a good example – Miryam, Moshe's sister). Or when a person takes upon himself some authority that he should not take – like King Uziyahu, who wanted to become a kohen and turned out to be struck with tzara'at for his whole life, this is also a good example. That is, the skin is responsible for relationships with the outside world, for relationships between people. Therefore tzara'at manifests precisely on the skin, it is a signal that shows a person: something is wrong with you in these relationships.

Then another question arises. As is well known, dermatology is the field of medicine that deals with the health of the skin, from the word derma (skin) in Latin. Why are the national dermatologists precisely the kohanim, why did such an honor fall to them? First, the tradition says (we see this in the Torah as well) that the descendants of Aharon have a good eye. The Levites as such, the descendants of Levi, carry in themselves the severity of their ancestor. We remember that Levi (together with Shimon) took revenge on the inhabitants of Sh'chem for the violation of Dina. We also remember how after the story of the golden calf the Levites took Moshe's side and punished the people. We also remember that when Moshe refuses to accept the mission of being sent, the Most High tells him an amazing thing: “Here, your older brother, Aharon, is coming to meet you, and he is joyful.” Throughout the whole book of Bereshit we read about disputes over the birthright. And here Aharon the kohen was able to overcome this rivalry, this desire of the firstborn – to rule at all costs. And he meets the success of his younger brother with a joyful heart, he knows how to rejoice in the success of his brother. It was not always so in the book of Bereshit, again, we remember this. And therefore the kohen is given such a right – to examine a person – in the hope that the kohen will look at it with goodness and not seek how to accuse the one who stands before him, not seek how to diagnose in him as many diseases as possible. Besides that, the kohen has a connection to the Holy, has experience of being in the Holy and carries some standard within himself, and will be able to give pastoral, psychological help.

So, the person on whose skin something or other was found is brought to Aharon or to his sons, the kohanim.

So, the disease which is called tzara'at, has certain signs. We already see them: it is something under the skin, where the hair changes its color to white, tzara'at is generally connected with the color white. One can understand this as a hint: a person must be white (as in the saying – “white and fluffy,” although being fluffy is not necessary), that is, clean, dressed in clean clothes. But when a person does something unclean, soils himself, a peculiar kind of spot is placed on his body: “Here is the standard for you, this is how you must be on the inside.” The soul of a person, which strives for purification, pushes the uncleanness out of itself. This is something inner, which shows itself outwardly as just such a white formation on the skin.

That is, such a person, whose spot has already turned white, but it is not yet visible whether it will penetrate under the skin and whether there will be white hair on it, the kohen shuts away into a seven-day quarantine. This quarantine is not so that the person can drink beer and watch television, and not even so that the person can read clever books. The quarantine is given to the person as time to think and to put himself in order: as we said, a rash on the skin is a warning, and a person can somehow work with this warning.

Nothing is written here about the evening and sunset, but we know the general rule for the purification of a person.

That is, the person has seemingly already gone free with a clear conscience, and suddenly what we considered a scab has started to grow. Such a person is released not unconditionally, but under self-observation.

Such a seemingly insignificant little word the Torah uses – vehinne (and behold), and behold he sees. But this tells us that the kohen looks with interest: whether the scab has spread or not, whether the person is clean or not, there is care for the person here. The kohen is not an extra, not some unconscientious family doctor (I am not talking about all family doctors) who just sits and examines people in a purely technical way. The kohen looks with anxiety and concern, and behold, he sees that this scab is there on the skin.

In verse 9 we read a slightly different story. Seemingly similar, but slightly different.

In verse 2 we read: “A person, if he has an affliction of tzara'at…” Here, though, we read something slightly different: “An affliction of tzara'at if it is on a person…” This is not just a change in word order. It happens in hospitals too, when we observe the attitude toward patients in different situations. Sometimes they say it like this: “Here sits a certain patient, Chaim Chaimzon, and he has – tachycardia.” That is, first of all Chaim Chaimzon, the person, and only then do they specify that he has tachycardia. But it also happens that behind the disease the person can no longer be seen. And the doctor says: “So, for the tachycardia give this, for the hypertension – give this, for the hypotension – give this,” that is, the prescription is given to the symptoms of the disease, and not to the person.

When a person sins for the first time, commits some crime, an offense, this offense is not yet part of his nature. What is this like? Every person is on some level, as on a staircase, from every step he has the possibility to take both a step up and a step down. For example, a thief can say: “At least I don't kill.” A drug addict can say: “At least I don't try hard drugs.” An alcoholic says: “I don't try drugs.” From every step there is a step down, and a person holds himself back so as not to take it. And, correspondingly, there is a step up, which a person can always take. For someone the choice is to refuse a glass of vodka, for someone the choice is to get up an hour earlier for prayer, not at six in the morning, but at five, someone struggles for this. And everyone makes a choice on his own level.

When a person goes down a step, this does not immediately become his nature: if a person has stolen once, then the person becomes one who has stolen, but if a person makes stealing part of his nature, then he becomes a thief. And here, in verse 9, it is about the affliction being in the person, he has, as it were, already acquired the nature of a certain sin, this sin has become his nature: he is no longer one who has stolen, he is already one who steals, he is a person who lives by stealing. This is a different level, much lower than the one we spoke about earlier, in verse 2.

What does this mean? This is a sin with which the person has already come to terms, it has become chronic, as it were grown into the body, and the person lives with it. That is, in this case it is clear that the person is unclean, and no quarantine, no time for reflection is needed for him. This does not mean that a person who has tzara'at is not given any help. He is sent outside the camp, his reflections, his inner work must now be done outside the camp. But it must be done, and help must be given to him.

In verse 12 we read something quite astonishing:

What can the kohen not see? He cannot see the internal organs. Tzara'at can strike the internal organs too, but the kohen, of course, does not see this. The kohen looks at the naked person, and everything he sees is covered with tzara'at. And this is the case we are considering.

If the human soul, squeezing uncleanness out of itself (as we gave the example), has already squeezed out everything, the whole body is already covered with tzara'at, then the inside has been purified, there is no uncleanness inside anymore. This is like a pendulum that has swung as far as it can to one side: it will not move any further in that direction, the reverse movement will begin. Therefore a person who is completely covered with tzara'at, is declared clean. This principle also works in other cases. For example, if the whole community of Israel becomes unclean, then it is declared clean. Or if all the judges of the Sanhedrin consider someone guilty, then he must be released as innocent.

If the body comes to terms with it, grows through the tzara'at, learns to live with it, then the person cannot be clean, just as in the case of long-standing tzara'at,

The kohen himself does not purify and does not defile, he declares the status. As we have already explained, when the whole affliction is white, then it is clean. We should probably say one important thing: all this going to the kohen, it is not for nothing, a person is not given a warning on the skin for nothing. The kohen is called not simply to state cleanness or uncleanness, which he does, but also to talk with the person. “Brother, you've got tzara'at apparently. Why? What happened? How are things in general? How are the kids? How's your wife? How are you managing to pay off the mortgage?” Well, to ask some questions. It is very important that such a warning gives a person the opportunity to meet with the kohen. If we simply said: “As soon as you have some emotional or spiritual problem, go to the kohen,” then there would be many people who would constantly be at the kohen's, they would come to the kohen with every little problem that they could have solved themselves. Here something hatches out on the skin – this is a summons for you to come to the kohen.

On this matter a completely different, but also similar question is asked with regard to the purity of women. The purity of a woman is connected with her vaginal discharges, and often these discharges leave stains on a woman's underwear. And this is a really awkward, a very embarrassing sort of thing. A woman shows these stains to some rabbis and asks whether she is permitted to her husband or not. One would think, why this? It is all unpleasant, and men usually regard it with a certain squeamishness. Why all of a sudden is a woman made to go to a rabbi or forced to go to a rabbi and ask such a question? And, besides that, it is terribly immodest. But this gives the opportunity, in turn, to ask questions concerning the woman's life, and perhaps to touch on some things that she does not just talk about, it is an opportunity to talk.

It is exactly the same with tzara'at. Dermatology, work with the skin, examination of the skin – a procedure that is really-really-really not one of the pleasant ones. The kohen examines the person and at the same time conducts a conversation with him, this is a time for pastoral care. And the seven-day time in quarantine is also a time of pastoral care. And very important is the ability of the kohen (and each of us must test himself for this ability), having seen the unclean, not to become unclean. Seeing uncleanness in a person, to keep love for him and to look closely into him with care, with concern, with worry, the way people worry about themselves, in the hope of his purification.

If in the first case we read: “A person who will have…”, in the second case: “An affliction that will be…”, then here it is already simply flesh. This is the third level. If some person, who perhaps has already turned out to be only a body, flesh, and it is hard to awaken anything spiritual in him, had some boil and it healed:

Here one more detail appears – reddishness. If white symbolizes only mercy, white is the sum of all colors, it is perfection, it is some kind of absolute, then red symbolizes anger. Here it is no longer simply an indication, an example of what a person should be. Here is the manifestation of anger in his life, which is already inside him and also comes out. In such a person the spot can also be reddish. In the other cases this was not so.

In this case, as we see, a second period of quarantine is not required.

Let us stop and pay attention. We are already reading the fourth case that the Torah describes. It all began with there being adam – a person who had a problem. The second stage, when the problem will be with the person, that is, the person himself has moved into the background, and his problem has become more dangerous than he himself. He has fallen into the power of that sin which has become his nature and which leads to tzara'at. At the third stage we read about a person who is called vasar (flesh). This is, it would seem, no longer even a personality. And in his spot a reddish color can appear. We read that it is white or white-reddish, and we noted then that this is the beginning of the manifestation of anger. And anger is when the soul itself already wants to break out of the body. The fourth stage, which we read about here, is when the reddish shade already predominates. And the manifestation on the skin itself is no longer a boil, but a burn, that is, something from outside. In a state where society is holy, where the whole people is the neighbor of the Most High, the absence of elementary protection, which allows a burn, – this is already a loud siren in a person's head. We are speaking about the people of Israel, which the Most High chose as His house, in which the Most High wants to live and on which special demands of holiness are placed. Therefore it has been given the whole system of warnings that is called tzara'at. And a burn is also a warning in a person's life, perhaps relevant in our life as well, unlike tzara'at. Although this does not mean that one should point a finger at a person who has burned himself.

So, a person came to the kohen, and he had a burn, a healed place, reddish or white.

And at this level too there is a possibility of repentance. And what is amazing, psychological self-help can also be done in seven days. And at this level too the kohen looks closely into the person with concern. And again, this vehinne (and behold) truly conveys the concern of the kohen. Regardless of the level to which a person has sunk in sin, there is care for him, guardianship, there is hope for correction. Moreover, the speed of correction can be the same for one who has stumbled a little and for one who has fallen completely.

Even though a person, as we have already said, has perhaps even lost his personality, he can be ritually clean. Purity has no relation to sin. For the umpteenth time I will repeat that being unclean is not a sin, and being clean is not righteousness. One can be a ritually clean thief, one can be a ritually unclean woman who has given birth.

We see that one and the same process repeats itself, and the Torah repeats this to us. And often one has to face the question: why these tedious repetitions of one and the same thing? Just say it like this: “If there are two signs: white hairs in the spot and the spot is beneath the skin, then it is tzara'at! If not, then seven or fourteen days of quarantine – and off to freedom with a clear conscience.” Why all these repetitions? But here we see how a person descends from one level to another. We see how tzara'at is reflected, manifests itself in the degradation of a person, how a person passes from the state of adam into the state of almost without personality, in which the soul's striving for life is no longer so great. And this chapter is a practical instruction to the kohanim not only about how to diagnose spots, but also about how to observe certain processes that take place in a person. After all, when someone comes to the kohen, it is not written on him: adam, or the tzara'at that the person has, or flesh. And, in order to find out the level a person is on, in order to understand his spiritual state, the kohen must not only examine him, but also talk with him. And this is the most important thing.

I think that the important conclusion from this chapter belongs not to the field of dermatology, but to the field of pastoral care. On the one hand, this chapter is about how attentively and with what love one must treat people on whose skin there are boils, whose soul asks for purification, and this does not always look aesthetic at all, and how often we prefer aesthetics to love. On the other hand, it is an encouragement to people whose problems are uncleanness that bursts out and hinders life, which is like boils on the skin, like the sores of tzara'at. Not to be embarrassed, not to be ashamed to turn for help, to seek purification, to seek a loving kohen who can give healing. And to remember that we have a High Priest, we have His fellow shepherds. I think that this is a great encouragement for us.

With God's help, you and I continue to study the weekly portion Tazria, and we will read from verse 29 of chapter 13 of the book of Vayikra. Let me remind you that in the first part of the chapter we read about four cases of affliction with tzara'at. We began with a person who was called adam, who had an affliction on the skin. Then we read about the case when the affliction comes to the foreground, and now the affliction together with the person comes to the kohen. In the third case the patient was called vasar (flesh), on his skin there were white spots (like ordinary tzara'at) and reddish spots. And we said that this is already a manifestation of anger. In the fourth case the person was also called vasar (meat, flesh), but there were more reddish spots. We said that these are four degrees of the degradation of a person together with tzara'at, his fall from level to level. In verse 29 a new type of patient (or patients) appears before us.

Why did ish (man) or isha (woman) suddenly appear? The first time we encounter the concept of ish and isha is when Adam meets his wife Chava and says: “This one will be called isha, because she was taken from ish.” As soon as Adam expressed a judgment, became a reasoning person and gave birth to a new idea, he was no longer adam, but ish. Ish is a person who no longer lives only by imitation, but can do something of his own, a reasoning person. And, since a reasoning person has appeared and ideas will be born in him, he needs an isha, the one who will bring these ideas to life, work out their details. The husband thinks abstractly, the wife – concretely. For a man there is a room, for a woman in this room there are curtains, tables, chairs, napkins, frills and poufs. A man, thinking in a manly way, for the most part will not think of buying a pouf for his room, but the wife will take care of coziness. However, the soul of any person consists of the masculine and the feminine, that is, we not only think abstractly, but also embody our ideas. That is how it should be.

So, ish or isha – this is not simply man or woman, these are reasoning people, thinkers, one could say, the intellectual elite or nobility, leaders of the people, those who can guide the people, teachers – in short, serious people. But these serious people can also have a problem. Their problem shows itself in the fact that they may have an affliction on the head or on the beard. The beard (naturally, in men) is considered the disclosure of the ability to think, the ability to judge, the disclosure of wisdom in the world. The beard is a manifestation of reasonableness in outward appearance. The word zakan (beard) is often explained as coming from the phrase ze kana (this is knowledge, which a person has acquired). Of course, this does not mean that a person who has no beard is stupid, or that a person who has a beard is, on the contrary, smart. But we are talking about certain symbols: it is not for nothing that the affliction arises precisely on the beard, precisely on the head.

Here it is fitting to ask: why, then, do we say that the thinking organ is the heart? A person thinks in the heart, but nevertheless understanding is born in the head. Often, instead of the word to understand, the Torah uses the word to see, to behold (we move following our eyes) or to hear, as when we say: “Hear, Israel!” Perception of the world, understanding of the world is born in the head. And a mass of distortions can occur if the head runs far ahead of the heart: cold reason ceases to be feeling. Following reason, a person can turn from a “nerd” or a “bookworm,” as people usually call it, into a completely unfeeling person, who can no longer be attentive to other people, values only intellect and, because of his intellectuality, disregards human feelings. This is one of the reasons why an affliction appears on him. And even though this is an important, smart, serious and busy person, he too must come to the kohen.

This is the sign that we did not see in the previous cases. A thin yellow hair speaks of a thinning of the flesh, of the fact that the very flesh from which the hair grows becomes weak. The connection of reason with the material world weakens. The hair “rusts,” does not receive enough nutrients, the flesh itself weakens, the hair becomes thin. And this is an unclean affliction.

The word netek is usually translated as scall, and we too will translate it that way. But the word netek itself has the same root, nun-tav-kuf, as the word lenatek (to disconnect, to tear apart), that is, it is a rupture, a rupture of connections. Somewhere in a person reason has torn away from the heart, or his picture of the world has been torn apart. That is, if the kohen saw two signs – the subcutaneous manifestation of this affliction and yellow thin hairs on it – this is tzara'at of the head, netek (rupture or scall). There are also other variants.

According to the Torah, people's hair is black, because the majority of Jews at that time were black-haired. But on the affliction there are no black hairs, and it is impossible to determine how much the hair has changed its color. And the kohen deals with this person the same way he deals with anyone who is suspected of being a carrier of tzara'at.

The question arises: if the kohen declared him clean, why does he need to wash himself and launder his clothes? Even if a person was not unclean, but came before the judgment of the kohen and the kohen declares him clean, he must go and wash himself. Most likely, this was the reason why people went to the kohen who was called Yochanan the Immerser. He, being a kohen and having a certain prophetic spirit to see the purity and impurity of people, had the right to declare them clean if they brought the fruit of repentance. When he saw Yeshua, he said: “How can I possibly issue you any kind of certificates?” But Yeshua answered him: “You are, after all, the kohen here. Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Even the Mashiach comes to the kohen, it is precisely the kohen who testifies to His purity, and only after that does He go to wash.

But in our case the matter does not end there, the person must again keep watch over himself. He has been released early, but with a condition, that is, on parole. Therefore in verse 35 we read:

Note that here it speaks of an important person, a person with status, and we see that he humbly goes to the kohen. Just as the kohen deals with a poor man, a simple person or a person in a stage of serious spiritual degradation, in exactly the same way he deals with a person of high status and intellect. Every person must go to the kohen, in this all are equal, and thus all righteousness is fulfilled. We will see further on that the kohen cares for the people so much that he deals not only with people.

In verse 38 we read of one more clinical case:

That's the story. If their whole skin becomes covered with white spots, if this is something like vitiligo (impaired pigmentation of the skin), then there are no options here: they come to the kohen, the kohen examines them and says that they are clean. And a perfectly reasonable question arises: “But why do they need to go to the kohen then, if it is clear anyway that in their case, when there are numerous white spots on the skin, they are clean?” But this is precisely the essence of the kohen's service. Sometimes a person receives a summons simply for a routine medical checkup: “You are most likely healthy, you are clean, but show yourself to the kohen, so that you do not become unclean.” This is a preventive visit to the kohen. Again I will repeat that this is a signaling system of communication with the Most High in holiness, which existed then. And it is not at all necessarily relevant today. Therefore those who have vitiligo or some other signs that we are talking about should not hurry to accuse themselves, and all the more should not be subjected to accusation from others.

In verse 40 we read about a new type of patient.

Where did the woman go? Why is nothing written here about the woman? Not only because we will be talking about baldness, and women, as a rule, do not go bald, but also because it is about a rupture between the intellect (the mind) and the realizing power. A person may be in such a state that his ideas are no longer of this world, they are not subject to realization, the head has come completely detached. Perhaps it all looks beautiful, but the roof is soaring very high above the earth. And because of this the connection with the feminine principle of the soul is broken, therefore it is simply ish. It is not by chance that the Torah chooses its words here.

In modern Hebrew the word kereyach simply means bald. But in the Hebrew of the Torah the word kereyach means bald on the back part of the head, bald at the back of the head.

A person who has a bald patch in front is called gibbeyach. Two different words in Hebrew. So, let's repeat once more. If a person has gone bald at the back, he is called kereyach, and he is clean. If he has gone bald in front, he is called gibbeyach, and he is also clean. Why does the Torah bring two different cases, two different situations, if the outcome is one and the same? Tell a person whose hair has fallen out that he is clean; if in front, then he is gibbeyach, if at the back, then he is kereyach. One need not even write this, because the Torah is not a Hebrew textbook. Why is all this written? A person has, as it were, a visible part of the mind, in modern language – consciousness, and this is the front part of the head. And a person has the subconscious, the invisible part, this is the back part of the head. This is what we will be talking about: when there is an affliction, one can try to understand where a person's problem lies.

The expression on his head is his affliction can be understood purely visually, that the affliction is on his head, and it can be understood as a metaphor: his blood is on his head, he himself earned this affliction on his own head.

In verse 45 we read a few words about the rules of conduct for one afflicted with tzara'at in polite society. Such a person does not appear in polite society.

Clothes are torn at the collar, it is not necessary to rip the shirt off yourself, and there is no need to style or do your hair. Ve'al-safam ya'te (he will wrap his mouth) literally means he will wrap himself up to the mustache. We can see something similar in mourning customs, when people come to express condolences to the family (this has been preserved in the Eastern communities, among Yemenite Jews), they cover the lower part of the face with a tallit, as if covering the mouth, as though they are afraid to say something. In exactly the same way a person afflicted with tzara'at must close his mouth, cover his mouth. And he must warn that he is unclean. It is forbidden to approach an unclean person, because touching him makes one unclean, and a person who is going to Jerusalem to worship, a person who must enter the Temple or the Tent of Meeting, can naturally become unclean from this touch, and he will have to wash himself and undergo purification. A great deal was done in order to warn travelers going to Jerusalem, going to the Holy, about uncleanness. By the way, that is precisely why tombs were painted, graves were painted, so that people would know that this place is unclean, and if one enters there, one can become unclean. When Yeshua calls his opponents like painted coffins, he means that the beauty of what is painted and looks splendid is like a warning not to come near, because inside there is uncleanness.

So, one afflicted with tzara'at must tear his clothes, have a disheveled head, cry out: “Tame! Tame!” and cover his lips.

Alone does not mean in complete solitude. We read in the Tanach that lepers associated with one another, they had their own community, their own camp, there were people who fed and supported them. But the person sits apart from all of society, apart from polite society, apart from those who have entry into the Holy.

With this our portion finishes its discussion of tzara'at on people and moves on to an even more interesting account – about tzara'at on clothing. We said that although tzara'at is sometimes called leprosy, it is not quite leprosy, it is not Hansen's disease. It is a phenomenon that can also appear on clothing, which is precisely what serves as proof that it is not simply a disease. Here it is probably appropriate to explain why tzara'at afflicts clothing at all and what meaning there is in this. The human body needs clothing; in society we go about in clothing that covers something, hides certain parts of our body. Besides that, this is how we present ourselves, clothing shapes our image. In exactly the same way the soul also has garments. The garments of the soul are called midot (traits, qualities of character). This word has the same root, mem-dalet-dalet, as the word madim (uniform), which defines a person's status, his position in society. The soul reveals itself through the filters of our qualities of soul: if we are modest, then modesty will show, if we are proud, then pride, greed, envy will show. Qualities can be both good and bad, they show vividly in our interaction with others. Spoiled qualities are like soiled clothing, and then tzara'at appears on the clothing.

There is a dispute among the sages about where tzara'at begins. Does the Most High begin with a person's body, in the order in which this is described in our portion: first – the person, then – the garments? Or does the Most High, in His mercy, first warn, touch a person's garments, and only afterward, if the person pays no attention to this, does tzara'at pass onto his body? And most commentators lean toward the view that the Most High begins precisely with the clothing, it is precisely the clothing that the Most High first afflicts with tzara'at. But in the text of the Torah the treatment of the person is described first, because a person, of course, is much more important than his clothing. Therefore the kohanim are instructed not in chronological order but in order of importance. So, further on we will be talking about tzara'at on clothing.

Fabric on a loom is interwoven orthogonally, some threads pass under others. The threads running along the fabric are called the warp; the threads crosswise to them are called the weft.

A person found a greenish or reddish affliction on his clothing and carried the clothing to the kohen. “But why?” – a modern person will ask. If one of our contemporaries has an affliction on his clothing and it even seems to him that this is such a terrible thing as tzara'at, he will simply throw this clothing away. But in those times there were people who had one garment for all occasions: they gave it as a pledge, they covered themselves with it at night, and it was vitally important for many. Therefore the Torah is merciful, and the kohen is also merciful. He will not say to the person: “Sorry, I am a kohen, a descendant of Aharon, I am solving world problems here, and you have come to me with your pantaloons! If something is wrong, just throw it away!” No, the kohen must also deal with clothing.

In modern Hebrew the word mamir means malignant. What must be done with unclean clothing? The uncleanness of clothing cannot be cured in any way.

How much care the kohen has for clothing!

We only recently read (in verse 42) the words karachat and gabbachat with regard to a bald patch at the back and a bald patch in front. With regard to clothing these are the reverse side and the face side.

We see that the kohen, who could simply fine a person a pair of trousers or a cloak, he deals with his clothing. But note that it is not only the kohen who deals with the clothing of a person who has gone bad in something and who is being warned. The Torah itself devotes no small amount of space to this, no small number of verses, and this is the mercy of the Most High toward a person's property, so much does the Most High care about trousers, dresses, blouses and little hats.

And with this we finish the study of chapter 13 of the book, and also the study of the weekly portion Tazria.

Our weekly portion Tazria begins with the laws about a woman who has given birth, and about her uncleanness in connection with this, about the period of purification and about the sin offering.

The portion itself is called by the word tazria, which means she will conceive, or she will sow. A woman, if she sows first, according to the Talmud, gives birth to a boy. What does “sows” mean? It means that in the process of sexual intimacy she is the first to release the egg cell, and, accordingly, after her the man releases his seed, as a result of which a boy is born. We will not go into the medical aspects of these assertions; let us dwell on the word itself, tazria (she will conceive), which comes from the root zayin-resh-ayin and shares its root with the word zera (seed). A great many theories are built on the idea that Yeshua Mashiach, in whom we believe, was born of the seed of the woman, and that this is the very seed that is spoken of in the first chapters of the book of Bereshit, because a woman supposedly has no seed. But not so fast, because, from the Torah's point of view, a woman does have seed: both what is released by the man and what is released by the woman during intimacy, at conception – both the one and the other are called zera (seed). In addition to this, the Torah itself does not mean seed in the literal sense. Of course, neither the seed, nor the egg cell, nor the spermatozoon is at enmity with anyone; it is the descendants, the followers, who are at enmity. And, of course, the descendants of Chava are the very same people as the descendants of Adam, there is no difference, because they both brought them forth.

One of the frequent questions arises: why must a woman, after childbirth and after the period of purification, bring a sin offering? We see that this was not only commanded but also practiced: Miryam, the mother of Yeshua, brings a sin offering after her purification, that is, this is a completely real offering. Why is childbirth a sin? And, of course, the traditional mistake: since a woman is unclean after childbirth, it is precisely for her uncleanness that she brings a sin offering. But no, we know that uncleanness in itself is not a sin. Then what is the offering for?

A woman, when giving birth, experiences very strong pains. Although there are women who give birth painlessly and easily and do not even feel that they are giving birth. I have come across such cases, and they are described in medicine. Nevertheless, in general a woman gives birth very painfully, and you often hear that a woman may say or think up something during the process of childbirth. Pain causes a person to lose control, and in this state a woman may say too much, promise too much, make some vows inwardly. And in order to be cleansed of all these statements made by mistake, of these emotions, of the bitterness that arises, for this the woman brings a sin offering. There is no sin either in intimacy between spouses, or all the more in childbirth – both the one and the other are holy. And the sin offering is brought not for marital intimacy and not for the birth of a child, but for what could have happened to the woman during the process of childbirth.

The next very important topic in the portion is the topic of so-called leprosy. I say “so-called” because the word tzara'at, which the Torah uses, can only loosely be translated as leprosy. Apart from the external symptoms, there are no parallels between leprosy (lepra) and tzara'at, which is a punishment mainly for an evil tongue (lashon hara).

Many illnesses can be determined only by a doctor. If we feel unwell, if we see some problem, we go to the doctor. The Torah encourages going to a doctor. The Torah says that the doctor is given authority to heal, although this in no way prevents us from also turning to the Most High in prayer. We know that when Miryam, Moshe's sister, fell ill, he prayed the shortest, most laconic prayer: “LORD, heal her, please!” And we know that the LORD heals. He not only hears prayers, He also answers prayers, He heals. And the name of Yeshua acts in the same way, we see many miraculous healings. And still, with our illness we go to the doctor.

What, then, happens when a person falls ill with tzara'at? A person who has seen on himself even a small discolored patch of skin must, by the law of the Torah, turn to the kohen. Tzara'at is diagnosed by no one except the kohen, only the kohen can make this diagnosis. Even if the person is himself a doctor, a dermatologist, a skin specialist who understands all skin diseases, nevertheless he goes with his illness to the kohen. And not only with his illness, not only when he is covered all over with scabs, but even if some discolored bit of skin has appeared on him. Why is that?

In our life we very often receive some small, barely noticeable warnings from the Most High. And it would seem worth paying attention to them, stopping and thinking about what we are doing wrong, but often we react differently and say: “LORD, what did You say? I didn't hear, repeat it louder.” And the LORD repeats it louder, and if we did not hear, then a third time, and then what He said will no longer seem quiet to anyone. That is, we often attach no importance to those signs that God speaks into our life, and they accumulate and grow stronger. And it is better, having noticed a small, little detail, to turn to the kohen and examine your soul together with him. And we know that we have a perfect High Priest. And if we see some illness in ourselves, if we feel: something is going wrong, something is in the way, something isn't working out, then let's not pass it by. Turn to prayer even in some small troubles that seem insignificant to you, because the small may be followed by the large, and then, indeed, it will be harder to pray and to return. Any manifestation on the skin, any manifestation of little things in our life when it is not coming together – this is a reason for prayers, a reason for a debriefing, for what in Hebrew is called cheshbon nefesh (the bookkeeping of the soul), in order to check yourself and check your deeds. And this happens very often, it especially concerns speech in particular, evil speech in particular, or when we commit some insignificant crimes.

If we stole an expensive phone from a neighbor, pulled a wallet out of a pocket, ate a non-kosher sandwich or, God forbid, committed some other, greater sin, then our conscience will torment us and we can stop, think and repent. It is much harder with those sins that are small, insignificant, smaller than a grain of sand. They accumulate and form a cloud of dust around us. We begin to choke on this dust, the Mashiach cannot come near to us because of this dust. This dust settles on our skin (one can put it that way, loosely speaking) and begins to show itself as troubles in small, little, barely noticeable things: here it didn't work out, there it didn't work out... If something systematically doesn't work out for you, perhaps you have “kicked up dust” around yourself, and this dust is choking you. Therefore there is a good custom: every evening to forgive everyone who has sinned against us, so that “the sun does not go down on our anger.” And, on the other hand, to replay your day and look: did we not “kick up dust” on someone, did we not drive through a puddle, splashing someone without noticing, insulting someone, interrupting someone, not hearing someone out or answering too rudely, because we are busy with something else. We all often sin with such small “dusty” little sins, and they accumulate. Therefore we must be very careful.

This whole story with tzara'at as an illness that arises as a consequence of lashon hara (evil speech) may seem to a rational (in quotation marks or without quotation marks) person to be some kind of invention, some funny Jewish fairy tale: “How does what I say affect my skin?”

How can psychosomatics (the interconnection between the psyche and the body) manifest itself in skin diseases? Well, first of all, we know that a person really does have illnesses that can arise from nerves. Skin diseases such as herpes intensify when a person is nervous, if he is going through some stress. Psoriasis is also a disease that can spread excessively in the case of some nervous strain. And, however strange it may seem to someone, even in modern dermatology the treatment of warts with the help of hypnosis is accepted among specialists (I do not mean some magical actions, but real medical hypnosis, which puts a person into a state of trance and somehow acts on his psyche). Flat warts disappear when treated with hypnosis. Let us leave aside the kosherness of this process, let us not go into whether it is allowed or not and who is allowed, who is not. Let us note only the fact itself: with the help of hypnosis skin diseases can be treated. That is, a person, having changed his consciousness (or when his consciousness has been changed for him), can influence the state of his skin for the better or for the worse. And in exactly the same way tzara'at can manifest itself as a psychosomatic disease, or, cooler still, as a “Godsomatic” (theosomatic) disease, in the sense that it is a manifestation of God's action in our flesh, which signifies a warning.

A person afflicted with tzara'at goes out beyond the camp, does not live in the city, and must walk about and cry “Tame! Tame!” (“Unclean! Unclean!” or “Abominable! Abominable!”), warning people not to come near him. Why does he need this? When we say something evil about someone, when we denounce someone unjustly and slander someone, or reveal other people's secrets, or expose someone else's nakedness in public (figuratively speaking), we cause the person pain. The pain of separation from the community, the pain of separation from those people who are called upright, the pain of the fact that the person was accepted, considered good, and suddenly we ruin his reputation, ruin his connections with society, ruin his relationships with society. And in order to feel the harm that has been done to the person, the one afflicted with tzara'at is sent out beyond the camp and announces to everyone that he is tame, that he is unclean. When our evil speech is aimed at a person, we, as it were, “devour” his reputation, his good name, and this is painful. And the one who is struck by the illness as a consequence of slander is likewise forced to put himself on display, in order to feel, to feel through and through, this pain, these heavy emotions.

So, let us sum up. Tzara'at is a warning illness with a punishment, like a red card in sports. Any other skin disease that accompanies tzara'at can be called, to use the same sports language, a yellow card. It is a warning to us that we are doing something wrong. And in our life a chain of troubles, or even one small trouble (depending on how each person pays attention to his life), can be perceived by us as a yellow card, as a prompting to pray to the Most High. But not to ask at the same time: “Why are You sending me this? What are You sending me this for? How did I deserve this?”, but rather, with the help of the name of Yeshua, to check ourselves, to look into our heart (because Yeshua lights it up like a lamp), to see what we keep stumbling over in our “room.” And precisely in order to realize this, the one afflicted with tzara'at in ancient times had to cry out: “Tame! Tame!” In this way God lets us feel, realize on ourselves the harm that we have caused other people. These are a few words that I wanted to say about the weekly portion.

Read also the audio talk on the portion Tazria, the portion Metzora, the analysis of the concept of ritual impurity and the weekly Torah portions.