posts so far for parashat Tazria

2012

1. Tazria sources, 2012 edition. Further expanded.

2. Rav Mordechai Gifter on Isha Ki Tazria -- The Ramban gives two explanations of isha ki tazria, one according to Aristotle and the other according to Galen. Are they both simultaneously true, on some plane? And does this solve all our problems of Torah seeming to contradict science?

3. Why does ואת עמלני refers to sons specifically?
 Rav Chaim Kanievsky explains, based on a gemara that רוצה לעשות כל בניו זכרים יבעול וישנה, which entails greater tircha. And this is related to the beginning of parashat Tazria, and the famous derasha about how to have male children.

4. YUTorah on parashat Tazria.

5. Chess in Rabbinic sources -- "Ibn Ezra wrote the following poetic riddle about the game of Chess. {J: ishkaki / shach-mat = Check Mate."


2011

1. Tazria sources -- further improved. For example, many more meforshei Rashi.
   .
2. YU Torah on parshat Tazria.
   .
3. Why no 'famous' derasha on Isha Ki Tazria? Maybe there is. Regardless, what about the law of conservation of derashot?
   .
4. Why does Rashi explain the pasuk of וּבְיוֹם הֵרָאוֹת בּוֹ בָּשָׂר חַי יִטְמָא out of order? Bartenura gives his answer; I give my own, that maybe it is not out of order, and if it is, it is a logical order.
   .
5. A Taz I can agree with --   About revisiting the midrashei halacha Rashi is merely citing, and whether we are skilled enough to do it.
   .
6. Why is וְכִבַּסְתֶּם translated as וּתְחַוְּרוּן?  Onkelos strays from his usual path. Is this a violation of the rule laid down by Rashi in parshat Tazria?

2010

1. Tazria sources -- expanded
   .
2. All about Chazal and contemporary science. First, How did Chazal know that 'drop exudes from the brain and develops into semen'? A better question, IMHO, is how the Pythagoreans knew. Before kvetching and reinterpreting to make Chazal know this with ruach hakodesh, why not check to see if ancient science, contemporary to Chazal, asserted precisely the same thing?
   .
3. Next, How did Chazal know that hemophilia is transmitted by the mother's DNA? With what I think is a good answer.

2009

1. Tazria sources -- links by aliyah and perek to an online Mikraos Gedolos, and links to many meforshim on the parshah and haftarah.
   .
2. The famous midrash of Isha Ki Tazria; who promotes and who rejects the midrash (at least as peshat); and thought about the motivations for this midrash.
   .
3. As an alternative to the advice in the aforementioned famous midrash, Chizkuni offers other reproductive advice on how to have male children, based on contemporary science. And how he reads this into, or out of, a pasuk in Shir HaShirim.

2008

• Dam Tohar
• and various unsuccessful and successful attempts to uproot this halachic entity declared by the Torah and Chazal.

2006

• Tekiat Shofar and Sisera's mother
• Where parshat Tazria factors in in that a midrash there states that a woman wails and cries out 100 times when giving birth, with possible parallels to the custom of 100 shofar blasts.

2004

• Isha Ki Tazria and Sex Selection Theory

• An updated account of the midrash that if a woman is tazria first (before the man), she has a boy (isha ki tazria veyalda zachar.) The original midrash operated under the assumption that she gave forth this seed on orgasm. But there is a debated theory that if a woman ovulates before coitus, she is more likely to have male offspring, but if coitus happens before ovulation, she is more likely to have female offspring, on the basis of endurance vs. speed of the two types of sperm. This is debated for humans, but is a known matter for several animal species. A link to some of the research, plus pictures of some of the animals for which this is true.

to be continued...