[Avodah] Shemini and Tazria-Metzora-- from R. Yisrael Salanter

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

llevine at stevens.edu

Quoting RYS
> Why does parashat Tazria immediately follow parashat Shmini?

I have a similar approach.

Background
In social studies we were taught the 3 necessities were
    food 
    clothing and 
    shelter.

Add one more - one's own body

Shmini from ch. 11 discusses food

Then with a digression for birthing the Torah goes to
    Body blemishes
    Clothing 
    Housing - IOW shelter

The pattern is from inside out.

Life Coaches might tell you that INFLUENCE starts from within and
spreads outward

Here the issues of tuma start from within - food
then
    [Zera]
    Body
    Clothing
    Housing

It is about tum'ah/taharah that is internal and spreading externally by
stages. It radiates from within outward.

This sequence is about one's spheres of influence, concentric spheres.

AISI this does not take away from RYS's point at all. Aderabba, I find
it rather complementary.

How? It's about seeing patterns in how the text progresses. One pattern
is Outisde the mouth vs. Inside. That is RYS's observation. We also
see the Torah progressing from internal to external, back to fluxes
[niddah, zav]

These patterns are part of the message on a literary level as opposed
to a simple word level IOW forests instead of trees.

KT
RRW
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