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
How do we navigate the tension between devotion to mitzvot and the pursuit of understanding their significance in our lives? In this week’s parsha, we explore the seemingly archaic ritual purity laws. Rabbi Michael Hattin joins the discussion to highlight…
Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Tazria
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 Tazria 5782: Selective Memory; Choosing Productive Narratives Description: Why bring a sin offering after giving birth? The Gemara suggests that is all about forgetting. Parashat HaChodesh, on the other hand, is all about remembering. Yet these parshiyot usually fall…
Podcast series, Pardes Parsha Podcast, Jewish calendar, Rosh Chodesh, Tanakh, Torah
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
Why bring a sin offering after giving birth? The Gemara suggests that is all about forgetting. Parshat HaChodesh, on the other hand, is all about remembering. Yet these parshot usually fall together in leap years. Perhaps this points to the…
Podcast series, Pardes Parsha Podcast, Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Tazria
One of the main topics in Parshat Tazria is tzara’at, a unique sickness that causes your skin to be uncomfortable, white and flakey. It can also affect fabrics, leathers and plastered building stones. This is notoriously one of the “yuckiest”…
Educator resources, Meaning-making, Tanakh, Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus), Tazria
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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