IN A NUTSHELL
Parashat Tazria continues to discuss the laws of purity (tahara) and impurity (tum’a) and the key role that the priest plays to distinguish between them. If you were impure, you were forbidden from entering the holy space of the Sanctuary.
These categories show us the difference between God and human beings. God is immortal (exists forever); humans are mortal (will all die one day). God is spiritual; humans are also physical. The things that make a person tamei are connected to our mortality (that we die) and physicality (that we have a physical body and not just a soul).
The parasha begins with the laws relating to childbirth – the impurity it brings, and also the command to circumcise a male child on the eighth day. It continues with laws relating to tzaraat, often translated as leprosy, but which refers to something larger than a disease, because it affects not only people but also clothes and houses. It was the job of the priest to examine the symptoms, and to declare the person clean or unclean or to be separated until a clearer decision could be made. The Sages said that tzaraat is a punishment for the sin of lashon hara (evil speech).
QUESTION TO PONDER
Why do you think these laws want us to remember always that we are physical and mortal (and can therefore become ill and die)?