Day 7: Leviticus 15:16-33 (Study Notes)
Parsha Tazria-Metzora: Day 7 (Leviticus 15:16-33)
The final portion of this week’s parsha discusses the various aspects of uncleanness that arise from bodily discharges. The first section discusses discharges from the nose and mouth. These can be understood as those discharges that are expelled when someone coughs or sneezes.
The discharges can be released when someone is healthy or when someone has a cold or other respiratory illness. Either way, the discharges make the person and the things that contact the discharges unclean. Anyone who contacts the person, the discharge, or any bedding or cloth with the discharge on it is declared unclean. They must wash their clothes, bathe in water and remain unclean until evening.
The second half of the final parsha portion discusses male seminal discharges and female discharges of blood. As mentioned previously, both of these types of discharges contain within them the seeds of life. If from a Jew, they contain the seeds of a potential Jewish life. When these discharges are released and not fertilized/“put to use”, in Hashem’s eyes, the release is tantamount to death.
So, like touching a corpse, when a person comes in contact with male or female discharges of their sexual organs, the person who touches the discharge becomes unclean and must wash in the same manner as when they touch the carcass of an animal or a corpse of a human body.
If the discharge occurs for many days, the male or female must be separated from the community until the discharge stops. This is a means of protection for the community so that unnecessary uncleanliness does not spread.
Too, if it is a discharge of the sexual organs, again, the continual discharge contains the seeds of life. So the separation period can be seen as the person with the discharge sitting shiva in a way for the loss of the potential Jewish souls that could have been born should the seeds have been fertilized instead of lost in the discharge.
By studying the sons of Judah with Tamar in Genesis 38, we can understand the severity of consequences that can arise if a male purposefully discharges his seeds instead of putting them to use. When Tamar was marrying Judah’s first son, he sinned gravely and so Hashem killed him. Judah’s second son was given in marriage to Tamar according to Jewish law.
But, the second son did not want to be the kinsman redeemer for Tamar—he did not want his seeds instead to bear children so his brother’s name could survive. So, the second husband purposefully discharged his seeds instead on the ground whenever he was intimidate with Tamar.
This loss of Jewish life angered Hashem so much that Hashem killed Judah’s son immediately. A judgment of eye-for-eye.
When these discharges discharge stops, the person must bring a guilt offering of 2 birds. This offering is the guilt offering of a person who cannot afford female lamb or goat. So, we see that Hashem does not require the highest price, even if the person is wealthy enough to bring the lamb or goat. Reading Leviticus 5, we can understand that this guilt offering is brought because of the person’s guilt of touching human uncleanness.
After offering one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering, the per will be purified, cleaned, and forgiven.
Am Yisrael Chai!
Kimberly Davis