by Rabbi Eitan Cooper
Posted on April 20, 2023
About ten years ago, on a trip to Vienna, Austria, shortly after getting married, I had the opportunity to visit Heldenplatz (“Heroes Square”). Anyone who visits Vienna probably encounters this massive space at the center of the city—it’s hard to miss. …
by Rabbi Dr. Eli Yoggev
Posted on March 31, 2022
This week’s and next week’s Torah portions deal with a skin disease called tzara’at. Our parsha speaks about diagnosing the ailment. The healing process begins with the kohen, the priest, coming and assessing the situation, and deeming the suffering individual’s status that of a metzorah (a leper).…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 15, 2021
Who are our modern-day metzoraim, the people who are pushed outside of normal society and keep distant and hidden from everyone else? The metzora is not a leper, but he is much like one. He has a serious skin disease and is sent outside of the Israelite camp, in an area that would eventually become outside of the city walls of the Land of Israel.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 19, 2018
QUESTION: I am nine months pregnant, and my husband and I have been doing Lamaze classes to prepare for the birth of our baby. Part of the Lamaze method includes pressure massage and massage of the abdomen. I have been told, though, that it is forbidden by halakhah for my husband to do this because I will be in niddah at that time. …
by Rabbi Avi Weiss
Posted on May 25, 2016
Why is there a time of physical separation between husband and wife every month – a law found in this week’s Torah portion? (Leviticus 15) To be sure, a mandate ought be observed no matter – but is there a rationale?…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 7, 2016
The Torah spends a great deal of time addressing the phenomenon of tzara’at, spots on the skin that can render a person ritually impure. A person with such a spot needs to have it inspected by a kohen to determine if it is indeed tzara’at, and if it meets certain criteria, the kohen will declare the person impure.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 22, 2015
The double parasha Tazria-Metzorah details the laws of tumah, any impurity that would require people to maintain their distance from the Mishkan. The primary focus is on the metzorah, a person afflicted with the skin disease tzara’at, and how he is to become pure. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 1, 2011
In parshat Shmini, after the Mishkan was dedicated, the Kohanim were given the charge to “distinguish between the holy and the profane, and between the ritually impure and the pure” (Vayikra 10:11). That is, they must protect the Mishkan from those who are ritually impure and thus they must know all the laws the pertain to ritual purity and impurity.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 4, 1998
Parshat Tazria details many laws of purity and impurity which, for the most part, are not relevant today. However, it begins with the laws of childbirth and the mitzvah of brit milah, of circumcising Jewish males on the eighth day. What is the purpose of the brit milah?…
3700 Henry Hudson Parkway, 2nd Floor
Riverdale, NY 10463
Phone: (212) 666-0036
Fax: (212) 666-5633
Email: office@yctorah.org
Click here to sign up to receive updates from YCT straight to your inbox.
