The Parshiot of Tazria and Metzora continue the discussion of the laws of tumah v'taharah, ritual impurity and purity.
A woman who conceives and gives birth to a male child, shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her menstrual period she shall be unclean.
On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
She shall remain in the blood of her purity for thirty-three days: she shall touch no holy thing, nor come into the Sanctuary, until the days of her purification have been completed.
The birth of a daughter renders a mother ritually impure for fourteen days, followed by sixty-six days of "pure blood" (ordinarily, a discharge of blood renders a woman ritually impure, but during these days it does not).
At the conclusion of these periods—a total of forty days for the birth of a boy and eighty days for the birth of a girl—the mother brings two offerings: a lamb for an ascent offering and a pigeon or turtle dove for a sin offering. If she is poor and cannot afford a lamb, she brings a bird instead.
The Laws of Tzaraat
If a person has on the skin of his flesh a se'eit, or sapachat, or baheret (patches of varying degrees of whiteness), and it forms on the skin of his flesh a lesion of tzaraat ("leprosy")--he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the priests.
And the priest shall look at the lesion on the skin of his flesh: if the hair in the lesion has turned white, and the appearance of the lesion is deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a lesion of tzaraat, and the priest shall see this, and pronounce him unclean.
If, however, the white patch "is not deeper in appearance than the skin, and its hair has not turned white," the Kohen should order the afflicted person to be quarantined for seven days. If at the end of the seven days the white patch has spread, the person is pronounced unclean; if it has not, the afflicted person is sequestered for an additional seven days.
And the priest shall see him again on the seventh day. And, behold, if the lesion is somewhat dimmer, and the lesion did not spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him pure: it is but a scab; and he shall wash his clothes, and be pure.
But if the lesion has spread in the skin... then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is tzaraat.
However,
If the tzaraat has spread over the skin, and the tzaraat covers all the skin of the one with the lesion from his head to his foot, as far as the priest can see... it is all turned white: he is pure.
A third sign of tzaraat (in addition to hairs on the afflicted area having turned white, or the white patch spreading following the quarantine) is the appearance of "live" (i.e., healthy) flesh inside the afflicted area.
Patches appearing on the hair-covered parts of the head or face are rendered unclean by yellow, rather than white, hairs. Different rules apply to patches appearing on healed wounds or burns.
The Leper
And the tzarua in whom the lesion is, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall grow long, and he shall cover himself down to his upper lip, and call out: “Unclean! Unclean!”
All the days during which the lesion shall be in him he shall be unclean; he is tameh. He shall dwell alone; outside the camp shall his habitation be.
Such is his condition until he is healed of his affliction and undergoes the purification process to be described in the next Parshah, Metzora.
The Contaminated Garment
Garments, too, can be afflicted with tzaraat:
And the garment in which there is the lesion of tzaraat, whether it be a woolen garment, or a linen garment; whether it be in the warp, or woof... whether in a leather garment or in anything made of leather...
If the lesion is deep green or deep red in the garment... it is a lesion of tzaraat, and shall be shown to the priest.
And the priest shall look at the lesion, and shut up the article with the lesion for seven days... If the lesion spreads... he shall burn that garment... For it is a malignant tzaraat; it shall be burnt in the fire...
And if the priest looks, and, behold, the lesion is somewhat dimmer after the washing of it; then he shall tear it out of the garment... [if it does not return and] the lesion has departed from it, then it shall be washed a second time, and be ritually pure.
This is the law of a lesion of tzaraat in a garment of wool or linen, either in the warp, or woof, or anything of leather, to pronounce it tahor (ritually pure), or to pronounce it tameh (ritually unclean).
The Purification
In the second Parshah to comprise this week's reading, Metzora, the Torah proceeds to outline the process of the metzora's purification and rehabilitation:
And G‑d spoke to Moses, saying:
This shall be the law of the metzora on the day of his cleansing; he shall be brought to the priest.
The priest shall go out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and see if the plague of tzaraat has been healed in the metzora.
Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two live and kosher birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered over an earthen vessel with fresh spring water.
The live bird, the piece of cedar, the scarlet thread and the bundle of hyssop are then dipped into the blood of the slaughtered bird and the spring water in the earthen vessel. The blood and water mixture is also sprinkled seven times on the metzora, and the live bird is "let loose into the open field."
And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and be clean, and after that he shall come into the camp; but he shall remain outside his tent seven days.
On the seventh day, the metzora-in-purification once again washes his clothes, shaves his hair, and immerses in a mikvah.
On the eighth day he brings a series of offerings: two male sheep—one as a guilt offering and the other as an ascending offering—and a female sheep as a sin offering; all three are accompanied with "meal offerings" consisting of fine flour, olive oil and wine. A pauper who cannot afford three sheep substitutes two birds for the sin and ascending offerings.
Blood from the guilt offering is sprinkled on the cleansed metzora's earlobe, and on the thumbs of his right hand and foot. Oil from the meal offering is placed on these parts of his body and on his head, after being sprinkled seven times in the direction of the Holy of Holies in the Sanctuary. Thus, "the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be purified."
Tzaraat of the Home
Not only persons can be afflicted with tzaraat. In Tazria we read how garments, too, may be deemed "leprous"; now the Torah sets down the law of the contaminated house:
And G‑d spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying:
When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I will put the plague of tzaraat in a house of the land of your possession;
He that owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying: "It seems to me there is as it were a plague in the house."
And the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, so that all that is in the house be not made unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house.
And he shall look at the plague, and behold: if the lesions in the walls of the house are greenish or reddish depressions, appearing lower than the wall, then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days.
On the seventh day, the Kohen again examines the marking. If it has faded or disappeared, then that area is scraped clean and the house is pure. If it remains unchanged, he locks up the house for another week. However,
If the priest shall come back on the seventh day, and shall look, and, behold, if the plague has spread in the walls of the house;
Then the priest shall command that they remove the stones which have the lesions, and they shall cast them into an unclean place outside the city. And he shall have the house scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scraped off outside the city in an unclean place.
And they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar and plaster the house.
The removed stones are replaced with new stones, the house is re-plastered, and closed for a second seven-day period. And the end of these seven days,
If the plague come back, and break out in the house... it is a malignant tzaraat in the house: it is unclean.
And he shall demolish the house, the stones of it, and its timber, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them out of the city into an unclean place.
If the tzaraat does not return, the "healed" house undergoes a purification process similar to that of the healed metzora:
...and [the Kohen] shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird, and in the spring water, and sprinkle the house seven times... and he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields. And he shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.
The Zav
Concluding the series of laws on ritual purity of the sections of Shemini, Tazria and Metzora are the laws of the zav, the niddah and the zavah.
The zav is a man who has a white, non-seminal discharge from his reproductive organ. The zav remains in a state of ritual purity throughout the time that the discharge continues and for seven days after it has stopped. During this time, anything he touches, moves, sits and lies upon, or anything that is touched by any of his bodily fluids, is rendered tameh, ritually unclean.
On the seventh evening he immerses in a mikvah and becomes pure. On the eighth day he brings two birds as offerings.
A seminal discharge (whether in coitus or otherwise) renders the person ritually unclean for one day—until the next sunset and immersion in a mikvah.
And if a woman has a discharge, her flesh discharging blood, she shall remain in her state of menstrual separation for seven days...
A menstruant woman is a niddah; a woman who has a discharge of blood at a time other than her regular period is a zavah. Both are rendered ritually unclean: the niddah for seven days (provided she has stopped bleeding); the zavah until the end of seven "clean days" which she begins counting after her flow has ceased completely. A man having relations with a niddah or zavah, in addition to transgressing a severe biblical prohibition (cf. Leviticus 18:19), is also rendered ritually unclean. Both the niddah and zavah are purified through immersion in a mikvah.
(In practice, Torah law rules that since it is very difficult to determine whether a discharge occurred precisely "in its time," every woman seeing blood should count seven "clean days" before immersing.)
And shall you separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness when they defile my Sanctuary that is among them.
This is the law of him that has an issue, and of him whose semen goes from him, and he is rendered unclean with it.
And of her that is ailing in her menstrual flow; and of one who has an issue, of the man, and of the woman; and of him that lies with her that is ritually unclean.