Leviticus 14:1-15:33
(In a regular year, read with Parashah 27; in a leap year read separately.)
“Adonai said to Moshe, ‘This is to be the law concerning the person afflicted with tzara‘at on the day of his purification’” (Leviticus 14:1-2).
Excerpt:
Male and Female Regulations
“I can do all things through Messiah whose power strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
When believers claim, “We can’t keep the whole Torah,” they are usually arguing that keeping Torah is impossible, so why try. The truth is no one can keep the whole Torah; no one is supposed to. There are different regulations for men, women, priests, for those living in the Land, those living outside the Land in the diaspora, foreigners and natural-born citizens of Isra’el and for when there is a Temple and when there is not.
We should strive, however, to obey the instructions are meant for us individually. Men should keep men’s regulations; women should keep women’s. Foreigners should not try to live as though they are citizens living in the Land. No one, Jew or gentile, should follow the regulations for Temple services as there is no Temple.
This parashah discusses bodily discharges coming from men or women, including seminal emissions and blood. It describes regulations for whether the discharge is flowing or whether it has stopped. Elohim goes into detail regarding objects that become ‘unclean’ when they comes in contact with a person with a discharge.
Whoever sits on a chair or a saddle that an ‘unclean’ person used must wash his clothes and bathe. If someone touches the body of an ‘unclean’ person with a morning hug or launders their clothes, they have to follow the washing protocol. If the ‘unclean’ person spits on someone, that someone is to wash their clothes and bathe. If the ‘unclean’ person touches a clay pot, it must be broken; a wooden spoon or other utensil needs to be rinsed in water.
A man with a seminal emission is to bathe his entire body and be ‘unclean’ until evening, the beginning of the next day. Any clothing, leather or fabric, on which there is semen must be washed. After a man and woman have sexual relations, they are both to bathe themselves in water and be ‘unclean’ until evening, the beginning of the next day.
When a woman has an issue of bleeding, she is considered ‘unclean’ as in her time of niddah. Everything she lies or sits on is ‘unclean’ until evening, the beginning of the next day. Whoever touches her bed or anything she sits on is to wash their clothes and bathe and be ‘unclean’ until evening, the beginning of the next day. If the woman’s issue of bleeding is different from her monthly cycle, she is to consider herself in niddah for the entire time.
“In this way you will separate the people of Isra’el from their uncleanness, so that they will not die in a state of uncleanness for defiling my Tabernacle which is there with them” (Leviticus 15:31).
The common denominator regarding every discharge, whether from a man or woman, is washing. This type of cleanliness is normative in most western cultures. Generally, showers or baths are taken on a daily basis and bed clothes are washed regularly. Such action suggests that Torah is obeyed whether or not it is actually professed.
For a complete copy of this Torah portion, the readings from the Prophets, gospels, letters, and study questions, please purchase Open My Eyes: Wonders of Torah.
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