Leviticus 15:1-2
15:1 God spoke to Moses, instructing him to convey His words to Aaron, saying,
2 “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘The following are the laws governing ritual defilement from discharges originating in the reproductive organs. If any man has a discharge of a specific type of non-seminal fluid from the orifice of his reproductive organ—this fluid being similar in consistency to the liquid that exudes from barley dough and similar in color to the white of an egg that was incubated so long that it will no longer hatch—his discharge is itself ritually defiled and renders anyone who touches it ritually defiled.
Non-Seminal Discharge vs. Seminal Discharge
ConsistencyColorwaterywhite of a spoiled eggviscouswhite of a sound eggFigure 2. Differences between Defiling non-Seminal and Seminal Discharges
Chasidic Insights
The physical correlate of the yechidah, the aspect of the soul most removed from our normative consciousness. It is specifically from the perspective of this level of the soul that tzara’at is clearly seen as a tool for spiritual refinement. From the perspective of the lower levels of the soul, which define our normative consciousness and whose physical correlates are our clothing and bodies, tzara’at appears more as the severe form of ritual impurity it is. From this perspective, the experiential side of tzara’at and its potential as a tool for spiritual refinement are entirely separate, and therefore these aspects of it are treated in separate sections of the Torah. Tzara’at of homes is covered in one contiguous section because in it the experiential aspect of this condition is most openly seen in the context of its beneficial purpose.
