A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: TAZRIA (LEVITICUS 12:1-13:59)

By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant   This week’s Torah parsha, Tazria, is extraordinary not for its content, but for its absence of content. Tazria has been labeled “the Torah parsha least likely to be studied”(1). It has also been accused of having “challenged and confused generations of Torah scholars, as well as legions of […]

A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: TAZRIA-METZORA (LEVITICUS 12:1-15:33)

By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant   This week, we read a double Parshiot (TAZRIA), followed by Parsha (METZORA). Each of these Parshiot describe in punctilious detail, the bewildering phenomenon of ‘TZARAAT’. In effect, this is a physical manifestation of a spiritual malaise, frequently mistranslated as ‘leprosy’. An individual afflicted with ‘TZARAAT’, would be referred […]

A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: TAZRIA-METZORA (LEVITICUS 12:1-15:33)

By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant This week, we read a double Parshiot (TAZRIA), followed by Parsha (METZORA). Each of these Parshiot describe in punctilious detail, the bewildering phenomenon of ‘TZARAAT’. In effect, this is a physical manifestation of a spiritual malaise, frequently mistranslated as ‘leprosy’. An individual afflicted with ‘TZARAAT’, would be referred to […]