At the end of last week's Parshah, Shemini, we began to discuss the laws of
purity. These laws, called the laws of Tumah and Taharah, are
continued in this week's portion.
The first topic discussed is a woman who has given birth. She is impure for a set
amount of days, then she immerses in a mikvah (as mentioned last week, this is a
special body of water that makes a tameh [impure] person tahor
[pure]) and brings a sacrifice.
All baby boys are to be circumcised at eight days old; we call this the
brit milah.
Next topic of discussion is a unique disease called tzaraat. It is different from other illnesses because it has a spiritual cause and makes a person impure. If a person thinks he may have this affliction, he must go to a kohen and the kohen looks for signs to see whether it's the impurity of tzaraat or just a regular illness. The Torah teaches the kohen which signs to look for to identify the disease as tzaraat.
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