Can distance be a necessary part of spiritual life? In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Rabbanit Nechama Goldman Barash explore Parshat Tazria–Metzora and the Torah’s complex treatment of the human body. Through discussions of ritual impurity, illness, and healing, they…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora, Podcast series, Pardes Parsha Podcast
How do life’s transitions invite spiritual renewal? In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Rabbanit Nechama Goldman Barash explore the cycles of tumah (impurity) and taharah (purity) in Tazria-Metzora. They discuss how life experiences like birth, intimacy, and death naturally create…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora, Podcast series, Pardes Parsha Podcast
Can we uncover hidden blessings, even from within painful experiences? Join us this week as we delve into the profound purification rituals surrounding the mysterious affliction of tzara’at (often translated as “leprosy”) in the weekly Torah portion of Metzora. In…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora
How do we make sense of Divine reward and punishment in our complex world? In this week’s episode of the Pardes Parsha Podcast, Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield is joined by Dean Emeritus Dr. David I. Bernstein for a discussion on theodicy,…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora, Podcast series, Pardes Parsha Podcast
Parashat Metzora 5782: Sitting Alone Outside the Camp Description: The graphic description in the Torah of tzaraat, leprosy, leaves modern readers alienated and baffled. Can moral flaws truly manifest physically? Aesthetics and ethics mix in this week’s reading, where immoral…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora
The book of Vayikra introduces us to a whole new lexicon of terms for our spiritual life. This podcast introduces the ideas of tumah and taharah – purity and impurity – and illuminates some of their aspects through two examples…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora, Podcast series, Pardes Parsha Podcast
This week we will speak about Time and human processes. There is a dynamic of seven and eight which animates our parsha and recent parshiot. Learn all the details and more by downloading this week’s Parsha Discussion with Rabbi Alex…
Educator resources, Meaning-making, Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora
The strange skin ailment called Tzara’at, described at length in our double parsha, sounds arcane and irrelevant to our modern ears. Long ago, the ancient rabbis considered the matter, and rescued tzara’at from oblivion by making the matter not only…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora, Podcast series, Pardes Parsha Podcast
This week’s parsha, Metzora, is one of several in Sefer Vayikra which deals with things that seem rather strange and should no longer concern us today. After all, no one gets tzara’at (a skin disease similar to leprosy) any more,…
Educator resources, Meaning-making, Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora
The book of Vayikra is filled with laws of purity and impurity which are often difficult to understand and even harder to make relevant. In this podcast, Rabbi Mike Feuer explores one verse at the end of the parsha. It…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora, Podcast series, Pardes Parsha Podcast
The central focus of Tazria-Metzora is tzaraat, an ailment that can afflict the skin, clothing and the walls of our homes. Rabbinic tradition has always perceived tzaraat as a divine affliction for sins of a social nature: Rabbi Shmuel bar…
Educator resources, Meaning-making, Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora
Our double parsha is filled with details that articulate the Torah’s world of ritual purity and impurity -“Tumah” and “Taharah”. Why do we need these categorizations? How are these concepts relevant to our world? In this week’s parsha podcast on…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Metzora, Podcast series, Pardes Parsha Podcast
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