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בדד ישב מחוץ למחנה מושבו

He shall dwell in isolation; his dwelling shall be outside the camp. (13:46)

The metzora is called this because the name is an acronym for motzi ra, (he) brings forth evil (speech). In the Talmud Arachin 16b, Chazal explain why the metzora is the only one of the tameiim, individuals who are subject to ritual contamination, who is isolated from the community. He was the cause of divisiveness between man and his fellowman; thus, he should also be separated from the society which he slandered. This presents a question. The first person to speak lashon hora, slanderous speech, was Chavah, who repeated the serpent’s critique of the Almighty. Exploiting a ploy favored by…

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ובמלאת ימי טהרה לבן או לבת תביא כבש בן שנתו לעולה ובן יונה או תור לחטאת

Upon the completion of the days of her purity for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a sheep within its first year for an Elevation-offering, and a young dove or a turtledove for a Sin-offering. (12:6)

Upon completing her period of purification, the yoledes, woman who gave birth, brings two korbanos, offerings, because she seeks atonement for two types of sin. The Korban Olah, Elevation-offering, atones for any resentful thoughts she may have had against her husband or Hashem during the painful moments of childbirth. The Sin-offering atones for the possibility that, in her dire pain, she might have sworn never to have physical relations with her husband. The requisite of two atonements for one activity is rare. The following anecdote reinforces this idea, lending us insight into the character of one of this past century’s…

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וביום השמיני ימול בשר ערלתו

On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. (12:3)

Interestingly, the opening lines of Parshas Tazria relate to the Bris Milah that is to take place on a boy’s eighth day of life. This is juxtaposed upon the previous parsha, Shemini, which concludes with the words, “to distinguish between the contaminated and the pure.” The exhortation makes it incumbent upon us to learn how to distinguish between things that appear to be similar, such as between purity and the contamination. Horav Yehonasan Eibeshutz, zl, explains that specifically the mitzvah of Milah distinguishes between tamei, ritually impure, and tahar, ritually pure, and between the members of the gentile nations and…

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