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Leper with craisin mouth and sesame seed eyes

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Leper with raisin eyes and fruit leather mouth

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Torah Thoughts

Parashat Tazria focuses on two types of “tumah,” or ritual impurity. One touches most peoples’ lives, the time following childbirth, which really only affects the relations between a woman and her husband.

The majority of the parsha, though, is focused on how to identify and deal with “Tzara’at,” which is generally translated as leprosy, though we believe it is not the same thing we refer to as leprosy nowadays.

Whatever it was, Tzara’at was identified by the Cohen, who after observation had the power to declare the person afflicted either contaminated or purified. An afflicted person was isolated from the community and periodically reexamined until cured, or until declared to be permanently afflicted.

A person who recovered, before being able to rejoin the community, would wash both his/her clothes and body, before being able rejoin the community, as will be seen in next week’s parsha, Metzorah.