Parashat Tazriaפָּרָשַׁת תַזְרִיעַ

Tazria (“She Bears Seed”) opens by describing the purification process for a woman after childbirth. It then describes different forms of tzaraat, a discoloration condition on skin or clothing, and the requirement of an infected person to dwell alone outside the camp and be inspected by a priest. Tazria is the 27th Torah portion and the fourth in Leviticus, covering Leviticus 12:1–13:59. Its overarching concern is the biblical system of ritual purity and impurity (tum'ah and taharah): how a state of impurity arises, how it is recognized, and how a person returns to purity through immersion in a mikvah and Temple offerings. Crucially, tzaraat here is diagnosed and ruled upon by the kohen (priest) rather than a physician, framing the affliction as a matter of holiness and communal status rather than ordinary medicine. Rabbinic tradition famously reads tzaraat as a consequence of lashon hara (slanderous or evil speech), turning the portion into a touchstone for teachings on the power of speech, communal exclusion, and reintegration.

When Tazria is read on its own (typically in a Jewish leap year) and does not coincide with a special Shabbat, the haftarah in most communities is 2 Kings 4:42–5:19 (some communities begin at 5:1), the story of the prophet Elisha curing Naaman, the Aramean commander, of his tzaraat. The thematic link is direct: where the Torah portion details how the priest diagnoses and manages tzaraat, the haftarah shows a prophet healing it, with Naaman coming to recognize the God of Israel. In a common (non-leap) year Tazria is usually paired with Metzora, in which case the haftarah of Metzora (2 Kings 7:3–20) is read instead, except when the combined portion falls on Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Iyar, when the Rosh Chodesh haftarah, Isaiah 66:1–24, is read, or, in Israel only, on the 29th of Nisan, the day before Rosh Chodesh Iyar, when the haftarah is Machar Chodesh, 1 Samuel 20:18–42. If Tazria falls on Shabbat HaChodesh, a special Ezekiel haftarah replaces the regular one, and here a rite difference applies: most Ashkenazi communities read Ezekiel 45:16–46:18 while many Sephardi communities read Ezekiel 45:18–46:15. When that Shabbat is also Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the Torah is read from three scrolls: the parashah in six aliyot from the first, the Rosh Chodesh reading, Numbers 28:9–15, as the seventh aliyah from the second, and the HaChodesh maftir, Exodus 12:1–20, from the third.

The portion's most cited verses include Leviticus 12:3, the command to circumcise a male infant on the eighth day, and the vivid image in Leviticus 13:45–46 of the metzora who must rend their clothes, cover their lip, cry out "Impure! Impure!" (Tamei! Tamei!), and dwell alone outside the camp. Tazria is also widely associated in rabbinic teaching with lashon hara, making it a frequent springboard for discussions of ethical speech. Notably, tzaraat in this portion can affect not only skin but also garments, while the house/dwelling form of the affliction appears in the following portion, Metzora. The name "Tazria" means "She Bears Seed" (or "when a woman conceives"), taken from the portion's opening words about purification after childbirth.