Triennial Cycle III: Lev. 14:33-15:33
Humash Etz Hayim, page 663
Haftarah: 2 Kings 7:3-20, p. 676
1. (14:33-53) The law of tzara’at on a house.
2. (14:53-57) A summary of chapters 13-14.
3. (15:1-33) This chapter describes the rules governing discharges of various
bodily fluids and their effect on the ritual purity of the individual.
Most of our reading this week deals with the human body. Although the human body is familiar to us, the approach to the body reflected in these chapters may be foreign to the twenty-first-century mind.
The Torah tells us that a woman is to undergo a period of ritual impurity after childbirth. Surprisingly, the prescribed period differs depending on whether a boy or a girl was born.
A great deal of attention is paid to tzara’at, a leprosy-like skin disease. Specific procedures are set forth for diagnosis and for quarantine. A sacrifice is to be offered upon remission. We learn that tzara’at may afflict not only people but also garments and even houses.
The Torah also directs our attention to the discharge of body fluids, those from males, those from females, and the rituals of purification available for such circumstances. (Rabbi Avram Kogen)