Tazria“She conceived”

The 27th Torah Portion Reading4th reading in the Book of Leviticus

Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59Ezekiel 45:16 – 46:18

Mark 9:14-50

Tazria

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TazriaThe Shadows of the Messiah

Titles of Messiah

• Male Child - Revelation 12:5• Child of the Virgin - Isaiah 7:14• Seed of David - Romans 1:3

Grammatical Difficulties

Leviticus 12:1-2 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.

Grammatical Difficulties

Leviticus 12:2 …… when a woman will conceived seed, and born a man child:

Rabbi Attar comments, "The Torah does not switch verb tenses unnecessarily without trying to draw our attention to some additional meaning."

Attar’s Mystical Interpretation

The woman in the passage correspondsto 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.

The Woman Conceives

Leviticus 12:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child:

Rabbi Attar says that the verse alludes to the Jewish people as a conceptual entity, not unlike many other passages in the Bible which refer to the nationof Israel as a wife.

Before and AfterLeviticus 12:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child:

Why does Leviticus 12:2 mention the conception ofthe child? The conception of the child is not relevant to the ensuing laws which govern the ritual state of a woman after she gives birth to child. It would have been sufficient for the Torah to say, "When a woman will give birth to a male child," just as it says regarding the birth of a daughter: "If she will give birth to a female" (Leviticus 12:5).

Before and AfterRabbi Sbirn'on ben Lakish taught,

The LORD created Adam’s spiritual essence on the first day of creation, but Adam's spiritual soul did not enter Adam's physical being until the LORD formed his body from the earth on the sixth day. So too, the LORD formed the divine spirit of every human being before creation, but the spirit does not enter the human being until the moment of conception in the mother's body. Likewise the Messiah:

It’s a Boy

The word tazria means ‘she will conceive.’ The verb is closely related to the Hebrew word for ‘seed’ zerah, , and it is not the normal word that the Hebrew Bible uses to discuss the conception of a child.

Ordinarily, Biblical Hebrew uses the verbHarah to describe a woman conceiving a child.

Ben Joseph and Ben David

King David said in Psalm 139:5 You fashioned me afterwards and before

Birth Pains of Messiah

Leviticus 12:2 Then she shall be unclean for seven days.

Micah 4:9-10 Is there no king among you, or has your counselor perished, that agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth? Writhe and labor to give birth, Daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth; for now you will go out of the city, dwell in the field, and go to Babylon.

Ritual Impurity

A woman who gives birth to a son becomes unclean for seven days. The Torah speaks frequently about states of "clean" and "unclean." According to the Torah, it is possible for a person to be ritually clean (tahor) or ritually unclean (tamei), but what does it mean to be one or the other?

Eve’s Uncleanness

Leviticus 12:1-2 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.

The Blood of Purification

Leviticus 12:3-4 3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.

Leprosy

Leviticus 13:3 And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.

Leprosy, Death, and Sin

Leviticus 13:11

It is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not shut him up: for he is unclean.

Leprosy, Death, and Sin

Leviticus 13:45-46 45 And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. 46 All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.

Flesh and the SpiritLeviticus 13:15 And the priest shall see the raw flesh, and pronounce him to be unclean: for the raw flesh is unclean: it is a leprosy.

The Priest in Judgment

Leviticus 13:27 And the priest shall look upon him the seventh day: and if it be spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy.

Leprosy, Corruption, and Decay

Leviticus 13:46

All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.

God’s Sanctuary

God's Sanctuary represents immortality and incorruptibility. In His presence, there is no death, no decay, and no decomposition.

The Signature

Leprosy also acts as an archetype for all human sickness. Sickness results from the breakdown of the flesh. Death follows. Leprosy graphically representsthat progression. Sickness, death, and decay have no place in God's presence. His Sanctuary on earth reflects that heavenly Sanctuary. Therefore He bans lepers from the Sanctuary.

The Signature

Romans 7:24-25 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.