Torah · Weekly Parasha VideoParashat TazriaRabbi Uri Nahum · June 19, 2017 · Tazria · תזריע · 15 Min Parasha RoundupSave⌄ShareParasha class with Rabbi Uri Nahum, from BSD Productions’ 15 Min Parasha Roundup.Transcript0:05Parashat Tazria. This week's parashah has 67 pesukim, and this parashah talks about0:11the laws of human contamination, tumat ha'adam. As Rashi mentions right in the beginning0:16of the parashah, last week we spoke about which animals are tameh and tahor. Now we speak0:21about human beings who are tameh and who are tahor. Usually this parashah is read together0:27with Parashat Metzora, when it's a leap year, then it's read by itself. And from the beginning0:33of the Torah until now, this is the shortest parashah yet. We divided parashah into0:39two parts. The first part of the parashah is a small section, about eight, nine pesukim, and0:44that is the tumat leidah, as we'll explain soon. The second part of the parashah, which0:48is the main subject of the parashah, deals with the laws of tzaraat. Only nine mitzvot in0:54this week's parashah, seven mitzvot aseh, two mitzvot lo ta'aseh, and they number mitzvah number 1661:00until mitzvah number 172 in Sefer HaChinuch. Let's get to the parashah. The first section1:05of this week's parashah speaks about tumat leidah. Before we come to elaborate on these1:10halachot, we must make an announcement, and that is that these halachot are only from1:14the Torah. In practice, we don't necessarily keep this because due to rabbinical decrees1:20and the Jewish customs that we have. So therefore, this is only to understand the parashah. What1:27happens is that Torah tells us that when a woman gives birth, she becomes1:32tameh tumat nidah. How long is she tameh? Depends on what type of child it is, if it's a boy, if1:38it's a girl. If it's a boy, then the Torah tells us that she becomes tameh for 40 days.1:43What are these 40 days? The first seven days she's impure to her husband, like the regular laws1:49of nidah. At the conclusion of these seven days, she dips in the mikveh and she becomes a1:54tevul yom, which means she's permitted to her husband, but she may not eat or touch anything that's2:00kodesh, which is part of the korbanot. Also, she may not enter the Beit HaMikdash. This2:05continues for the next 33 days, totaling 40 days of tumah from the time she gave birth2:11to a boy. However, if it's a girl, then the numbers double. She is tameh tumat nidah. For 142:19days means to her husband, like the way we know it. At the conclusion of 14 days, she2:23dips in the mikveh, and then for the following 66 days, totaling the total of 80 days, she2:32is now tevul yom, which means she cannot enter the Beit HaMikdash, she cannot eat or touch2:36anything that's kodesh. At the conclusion of the tumah period, whether it's 40 days2:41for the boy or 80 days for the girl, then the woman brings her korban. It's called the2:47korban yoledet. What is that korban? Well, it depends. If she can afford it, then she brings a sheep for olah. The2:52sheep has to be within a year, and she has to bring also a turtledove or a dove for2:58korban chatat. If she cannot afford it, then she brings two birds, either two3:03turtledoves or two doves. One is used for korban olah and one is used for korban chatat. That's the first3:08section of this week's parashah. Now we get to the second section of this week's3:11parashah, a complicated section of the parashah because we're not familiar with these3:18halachot. They're not in our days as the Rambam. We're going to see soon the Rambam talks about it, that this3:22was only in a special time when the Jews were privileged to have the laws of tzaraat. So therefore,3:27we're very unfamiliar with it, and especially a lot of these things need visual. So therefore, we'll3:33try to explain it in the simplest terms that we can. This section of the Torah, which makes up3:39the laws of tzaraat, is broken up into four categories. The first part of this section,3:44the Torah actually breaks up these four categories. The Torah gives general laws of3:48tzaraat. The second category is the Torah speaks about the skin diseases that are not3:55tzaraat, and then the Torah speaks about the third category, talks about the tzaraat on the head or the face,3:59and finally the Torah speaks about the tzaraat on clothing. Let's begin with the first category,4:05which is the general laws of tzaraat. First of all, why does a person get tzaraat? What's the reason?4:12I'd like to introduce this part with the words of the Rambam at the end of4:18Hilchot Tumat Tzaraat. I'll just read in English. The Rambam says as follows, that the tzaraat is not a normal occurrence.4:24It's one of the signs and wonders that existed amongst the Jewish people to warn them of4:29lashon hara, as the Gemara says,4:33metzora means motzi shem ra. So Rambam highlights lashon hara. But the Gemara brings seven different reasons why a4:39person could contract tzaraat, and there's also other reasons are brought down in Midrashim.4:43The seven reasons, I'll list in the Gemara, Masechet Arachin, daf tet zayin amud aleph, are as follows.4:48Number one is lashon hara. Number two is murder. Number three is shevuat shav, which means unnecessary vows.4:54Number four is gilui arayot, which is immorality. Number five is haughtiness. Number six is stealing.5:01And finally, number seven is stinginess, sarut5:05ayin. What is tzaraat? Tzaraat is basically a discoloring that happens to one's body, clothing, or home.5:11In our parasha, we only deal with the tzaraat on the clothing and the tzaraat on the person's body.5:18On the body, which is the first section the Torah speaks about, there are four shades of white that make up5:26tzaraat that could appear on a person's body. We listed them here from the brightest to the dimmest shade.5:32If it's baheret, what the Torah calls baheret, which means it's a snow white color. Or it's a se'et, as the Torah says,5:39se'et. It's a color of the wool that has been sheared from a baby sheep. It was just born,5:46that fresh white wool, that color of white. And then Torah calls5:51sapachat. Sapachat really means a subcategory, and you can have a subcategory of these two shades that we mentioned,5:57which is baheret and se'et. That means you can have a sapachat, a subcategory of6:01baheret, and here the Chachamim tell us that the color is like the same color that they use for the plaster6:05on the heichal in the Beit HaMikdash, or the sapachat of se'et, which is a subcategory of6:11a se'et, which is the same color as the membrane of an egg.6:14The Torah also mentions, you'll see the word6:18adamdam in the parashah, and the Rambam explains that's like taking two drops of blood in a cup of milk and mixing it together.6:25That little bit of redness, that could also appear within one of those four shades of white,6:31and it'll also be considered a6:34tzaraat. Anything that's dimmer than the membrane of an egg, although it's white and appears on a person's skin,6:40is not tzaraat. And also, it has to appear as if it's deeper than the skin, and there is a size.6:48In order for something to be qualified tzaraat, it has to be a minimum size of a gris hakilki.6:53What is gris hakilki? It's the size of an area of 16 hairs long and 16 hairs wide.6:59You must have that minimum size of an area which has this infection of7:04tzaraat in order for it to be considered7:06tzaraat. Who could be involved in7:10tzaraat? And the Torah tells us, and the Chachamim really, the Rambam brings it down,7:13that anybody, including children, a baby who just born, and even slaves can contract tzaraat and become7:20tamei. However, goyim, non-Jews, and a ger toshav, even if they would have the skin disease,7:26they're not in the category of7:28tzaraat. Once a person gets it, he has to show it to somebody who knows.7:32Once a person gets this infection, he has to show it to somebody who knows.7:35Anybody could look at it. However,7:36the declaration of a person becoming tamei or tahor can only be done by7:43a kohen. And the Torah tells us also that a person can only look at the tzaraat to determine its shade,7:50if it's really tzaraat or not, during the daytime.7:53What is the process of a person when a person becomes7:56metzora? So, a person gets an infection on his area...8:00On his body, and he sees that perhaps8:04beitzadaat, it has to be the size of a gris, then he must go to the kohen.8:07When the kohen looks at it, there are three possibilities.8:09Number one is he can make him tahor.8:11How is that?8:12Well, if he looks at the white and he sees it's dimmer than the membrane of an egg,8:16so he declares him tahor right away.8:19However, if he sees any of the following two signs on the8:23tzaraat, then he declares him tamei immediately.8:25What are those two8:26signs? Number one is two white hairs in the infected area,8:30or something called a michya, which means a small area of skin8:34that's either not infected or it's dimmer than the membrane of an egg.8:39This is option number two.8:40Option number three is that the kohen could close away the metzora for seven days.8:47Why? Because he sees no sign.8:48All he sees is the area is infected, but he sees no sign that he should make him a8:54metzora. He doesn't see the two signs that we mentioned above,8:56so he closes him for seven days.8:57After he closes him off for seven days, he comes back,9:00and the kohen now looks again at the area that was infected.9:03And again here we find that there are two possibilities.9:07Number one is he can become tahor.9:09How is that so?9:10When he sees that the area became either dimmer than before or went away.9:17Number two is he could become9:20tamei. How is that so?9:21By having one of the signs of tzaraat that we mentioned before,9:24which means either two white hairs or an infected area within the middle of the9:31tzaraat, or there's a third, which is if it spreads.9:34If the tzaraat spreads bigger than it was beforehand,9:37the person becomes tamei on the spot.9:39If nothing happens, nothing changed,9:41it was exactly the same as it was when he first closed him away for seven days,9:45then he's closed off for another seven days,9:47and then he's brought to the kohen again to examine the tzaraat after the second closing.9:54And over here, if nothing happens again, he becomes tahor.9:57If, however, it spreads or has two hairs or has the10:03michya, then he's declared tamei and he's10:05metzora. If at any time when the Kohen is examining the10:11metzora, the area of tzaraat spreads throughout the person's whole body,10:14it covers his whole body, then he's declared tahor on the spot.10:17There's a very interesting10:19halacha that when tzaraat is only on a certain part of the body, it becomes tameh,10:23but if it spreads throughout the whole body, he becomes tahor.10:26And now we move on to the second section of10:31tzaraat. The Torah mentions over here two skin conditions which are not necessarily10:37tzaraat. The Torah talks about something called shechin and10:40michvat esh. What is10:41shechin? Shechin basically is any inflammation that comes on a person's skin that's not due to a burn,10:46as opposed to michvat esh, which means a strike of a fire,10:49which means any burn on the skin due to fire.10:52And the Torah tells us the halachot are as follows.10:55First of all, when the skin is burnt, they can never become11:01tzaraat. Even if you see some sort of coloring, they can never become11:04tzaraat. And when the skin is completely healed,11:06then it goes back to the same rules that we mentioned beforehand by a person's regular skin.11:10The special dinim by shechin and michvat esh is only when they begin to start healing.11:16And when they begin, they can only become tameh11:19means the Kohen can only declare the person tameh with one of the following two signs:11:23either two white hairs, or if it spreads.11:26If the metzora needs to be closed away, also we find a difference over here.11:30He's only closed away for one week only.11:32If after a week nothing changes, he's not closed again,11:36but rather he is declared tahor and he goes home.11:39We move on now to the third section of11:42tzaraat. Torah talks about the tzaraat on the head or the face.11:44And here Torah tells us about three different11:47tzaraats, and one is called netek, second is called gabachat, and the third is called11:51karachat. I'm saying these terminologies that you should be familiar when we come to the11:55parashah, we should be familiar with what we read on Shabbat.11:58What is11:59netek? If a person's hair falls off from his head or from his face, which means his beard,12:06naturally without pulling him off,12:08and it's still surrounded by hair around it.12:11And the area that became, I guess, bald12:14is the size of a gris, then he must come to the kohen.12:17The kohen looks for signs of12:20tumah. The signs of tumah are not white skin color or white hairs like we had before.12:26Rather, over here the kohen is looking to see if there's two thin yellow hairs.12:31That's what makes him12:32tameh. If he sees nothing, then what he does is he closes off the metzora for a week,12:38and then the guy comes back.12:40When the person comes back after a week, which is really on the seventh day,12:44the kohen now looks for one of three signs.12:47Two will make him tameh, one will make him tahor.12:48The two signs that will make this person tameh is12:52if this area, the affected area, has grown two yellow hairs,12:57or if it's spread,12:59the baldness spread a little bit bigger,13:01so then that person is declared tameh on the spot.13:03However, if he sees that two black hairs grew in that area,13:06then the person becomes tahor immediately.13:09If nothing changes, then what we do is we shave the area around it,13:13and the person is closed for another seven days.13:16If, again, he has the signs of tumah that we mentioned before, he's13:19tameh, but nothing changes again,13:22then that person is declared tahor and he goes home.13:25Then Torah tells us about something called gabachat and13:28karachat. Today, in our terminology in English, we'd say bald,13:30but really, gabachat means a person's hair falling from the top of his head,13:35bald only on the top of his head where the kippah goes,13:38and karachat is a person's sides and back of his head becomes bald.13:43Those have also different13:45dinim. The Torah separates, have to tell us that you cannot combine.13:49If a person has a little part of tzara'at on top of his head,13:54where the gabachat is, and a little bit in the13:56karachat, they don't combine together in order to qualify him as14:01metzora. The Torah tells us, though, that the way the person becomes metzora over there is as follows.14:06When one's hair falls out from either part of the head, from the top or from the side,14:11then the area will become tzara'at only in the same way that the skin becomes14:16tzara'at, which means if it's white and white hairs go out of it, or if it spreads.14:21The same thing that we mentioned by the skin.14:23And now we move on to the last section of this week's14:25parashah, tzara'at on a person's clothing.14:27There are only three types of clothing that become Affected or subject to14:33the tzaraat. Number one is wool, second is linen, and third is leather.14:37Only these three.14:38And also the color is not white, like we saw before, or yellow.14:42Rather, if there's green or red, that's the color of14:45tzaraat. How does this happen?14:47If a person sees the size of a grease on his clothing, green or red,14:51then he brings it to the kohen,14:53and the clothing is now closed for seven days.14:56And on the seventh day, we bring it out, we bring out the clothing,15:01and we have two possibilities.15:02If the color spread, the green or the red, then the whole cloth is burned right away.15:08If the color did not spread, then the affected area15:11and a little bit outside of the affected area is washed,15:14and the Gemara says there's seven detergents that you use to wash it,15:17and we close it off for another seven days.15:19After we close it off for another seven days, we bring out the cloth,15:22and now we have three possibilities.15:25If we see that the area which was affected spread,15:30or if the color in the area did not change, even if it stayed by itself,15:34then the cloth is burned.15:36If, however, the color turns to a different color, not green or red,15:40or turns to a lighter shade of green and red,15:43then the whole cloth is washed and becomes tahor.15:46However, if the color switched from red to green or vice versa,15:50then that area over there is ripped apart, it's patched up,15:54we dip it in the mikveh, and then it becomes tahor.15:57Those are the laws of tzaraat.16:00We'll conclude with a lesson from the Ramban.16:02The Ramban tells us that16:04tzaraat, the laws of tzaraat, teach us16:05the special providence that Hashem had with the Jewish people.16:08As the Zohar mentions in this week's16:11parashah, that a person's mouth16:13is what connects him to16:14HaKadosh Baruch Hu.16:15What he says, what he eats.16:17We learned what he eats in last week's16:18parashah. In this week's parashah, we see a person's mouth,16:21how he can use it to either become close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu16:24or far away from Hashem.16:25When Hashem sees that a person has become16:27distant from Him by speaking negative words,16:30Hashem reminds him,16:32whether it's on his clothing, on his house,16:34or on his skin,16:35reminding him, come back to Me.16:37And if he doesn't want to come back, then he's closed away16:39from everybody, from all of society,16:41to give him time to think16:43about the mistake that he did16:45in order to come back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.16:47We don't have tzaraat in our days, as the mefarshim tell us,16:50that it's a privilege that we lost16:52because it kept us in line,16:54and we should be16:55zocheh, be'ezrat Hashem, that we shouldn't speak any16:57lashon hara, as Hafetz Chaim tells us,16:59and we should come back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu17:01with the building of the Beit HaMikdash17:04HaShlishi and the final Beit HaMikdash,17:05be'ezrat Hashem, bimheרה בימינו, amen.