Thursday, 16 April 2026

Tzetl: Shabbos Tazriya-Metzora & Rosh Chodesh Iyar

5:33pm - Candle Lighting, Friday
6:29pm - Havdalah, Saturday
(Melbourne Australia)
Eruv Status: TBA cosv.org.au/eruv/
Good Shabbos!


Laws and Customs

Today is the second of the two Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") days for the month of "Iyar" (when a month has 30 days, both the last day of the month and the first day of the following month serve as the following month's Rosh Chodesh).

Special portions are added to the daily prayers: Hallel (Psalms 113-118) is recited -- in its "partial" form -- following the Shacharit morning prayer, and the Yaaleh V'yavo prayer is added to the Amidah and to Grace After Meals; the additional Musaf prayer is said (when Rosh Chodesh is Shabbat, special additions are made to the Shabbat Musaf). Tachnun (confession of sins) and similar prayers are omitted.

Many have the custom to mark Rosh Chodesh with a festive meal and reduced work activity. The latter custom is prevalent amongst women, who have a special affinity with Rosh Chodesh -- the month being the feminine aspect of the Jewish Calendar.

PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
Leviticus 12:1–15:33
The name of the Parshah, “Tazria,” means “conceives” and it is found in Leviticus 12:2. The name of the Parshah, “Metzora,” is often translated as “leper” and it is found in Leviticus 14:2.

The Parshah of Tazria continues the discussion of the laws of tumah v’taharah, ritual impurity and purity.

A woman giving birth should undergo a process of purification, which includes immersing in a mikvah (a naturally gathered pool of water) and bringing offerings to the Holy Temple. All male infants are to be circumcised on the eighth day of life.

Tzaraat (often mistranslated as leprosy) is a supra-natural plague, which can afflict people as well as garments or homes. If white or pink patches appear on a person’s skin (dark red or green in garments), a kohen is summoned. Judging by various signs, such as an increase in size of the afflicted area after a seven-day quarantine, the kohen pronounces it tamei (impure) or tahor (pure).

A person afflicted with tzaraat must dwell alone outside of the camp (or city) until he is healed. The afflicted area in a garment or home must be removed; if the tzaraat recurs, the entire garment or home must be destroyed.

As outlined at the start of the portion of Metzora, when the metzora (“leper”) heals, he or she is purified by the kohen with a special procedure involving two birds, spring water in an earthen vessel, a piece of cedar wood, a scarlet thread and a bundle of hyssop.

When a home is afflicted with tzaraat, in a process lasting as long as nineteen days, a kohen determines if the house can be purified, or whether it must be demolished.

Ritual impurity is also engendered through a seminal or other discharge in a man, and menstruation or other discharge of blood in a woman, necessitating purification through immersion in a mikvah.


HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
Nutshell for Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Haftorah
When Rosh Chodesh — the “head of the month,” the one or two semi-festive days marking the beginning of each Jewish month — falls on Shabbat, as is the case this week, a special haftorah is read instead of the above one. This haftorah concludes with the assurance that during the Messianic Era all Jews will once again come to the Holy Temple to worship on every (Shabbat and) Rosh Chodesh.
Isaiah 66:1-24
The prophet Isaiah relays G‑d's message: one of encouragement to the poor on those of a contrite spirit, and reproach to the sinners who offer insincere sacrifices, thinking they can atone for their immoral lifestyles. The prophet continues to prophesy about the Future Redemption and the ingathering of all exiled Jews, comparing the process to childbirth, "Who heard anything like this? Who saw anything like these? Is a land born in one day? Is a nation born at once, that Zion both experienced birth pangs and bore her children? For so says the Lord, '...Like a man whose mother consoles him, so will I console you, and in Jerusalem, you shall be consoled. And you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall bloom like grass...'"

These rewards, however, are reserved for those "tremble before G‑d's word." Those who oppressed Israel, however, will then be justly punished for their deeds.


SAGES ON THE PARSHAH

Jewishness is not a matter of historical consciousness, outlook, ethics, or even behavior; it is a state of being. This is the deeper significance of the debate between Ishmael and Isaac. When the Jew is circumcised on the eighth day of life, he is completely unaware of the significance of what has occurred. But this "non-experience" is precisely what circumcision means. With circumcision the Jew says: I define my relationship with G‑d not by what I think, feel or do, but by the fact of my Jewishness—a fact which equally applies to an infant of eight days and a sage of eighty years.

(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)

On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised (12:3)



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