April 18, 2026 – Tazria/Metzora (She will conceive/Infected one) – Parshat 27/28

• Torah: Leviticus 12:1-15:33
• Haftara: Isaiah 6:1-24
• Brit Chadasha: Mark 9:40-50

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃ דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר אִשָּׁה֙ כִּ֣י תַזְרִ֔יעַ וְיָלְדָ֖ה זָכָ֑ר וְטָֽמְאָה֙ שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֔ים כִּימֵ֛י נִדַּ֥ת דְּוֺתָ֖הּ תִּטְמָֽא׃

Vayedaber Adonay el-Moshe lemor. Daber el-beney Yisra’el lemor ishah ki tazria veyaldah zachar vetame’ah shiv’at yamim kimey nidat devotah titma.

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be unclean seven days; she shall be unclean as at the time of her menstrual infirmity.

[Rabbi Chayim ben Attar observed curious difficulties in the Hebrew of Leviticus 12:2. A literal translation of the Hebrew sounds clumsy in English: “When a woman will conceive and she gave birth to a male child…” In Or HaChayim. his commentary on the Torah, Rabbi Attar asks why the Torah uses the future tense of the verb, “she will conceive” and then switched to a past tense form, “she gave birth” This seems all the more unusual because, a few verses later, when discussing the birth of a daughter, the Torah does use the correct future tense form of the verb: “and she will give birth to a female”(Leviticus 12:5) Rabbi Attar comments, “the Torah does not switch verb tenses unnecessarily without trying to draw our attention to some additional meaning” Moreover, Rabbi Attar found it curious that the Torah says, “and she gave birth to a male” instead of saying, “and if she gives birth to a male”. The Torah speaks as if the birth of a son is an accomplished fact, but there is no certainty that a woman who conceives will give birth to a son rather than to a daughter. Why does the Torah state the matter as if it had already occurred? These grammatical anomalies inspired Rabbi Attar to look deeper. According to his mystical interpretation of the passage, the woman in the passage corresponds to the congregation of Israel, i.e., the Jewish people. The conception of the child refers to Israel’s service to the LORD through the observance of the commandments and the study of Torah. The birth of the child refers to the coming of the Messiah and the advent of the Messianic Era.] a

And concerning our Metzora, Our Leprosy, this Messiah became unclean, stricken for us. Yeshiyahu HaNavi said of Messiah Isa, 53:2-6 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.4 Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
a [First Fruits of Zion – Shadows of the Messiah – Book 3, 585 ( Or HaChayim: Commentary on the Torah by Chayim ben Attar, vol. 3, Leviticus (trans. Eliyahu Munk; Jerusalem, Israel: Lambda Publishers, 1999), 3:1057]

Ahav V’shalom Umish’pachtanu love and peace to our family in Messiah from Beth Hallel Lodi