Rosner’s Torah Talk: Parashat Tazria with Rabbi Elie Weinstock

Our guest this week is Rabbi Elie Weinstock, Associate rabbi and Director of Outreach and Education at Kehilat Jeshurun in New York City. A Yeshiva University graduate, Rabbi Weinstock received his Rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and a masters in Jewish Philosophy from the Bernard Revel Graduate school. He is a past member of the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America, and he is currently a member of AIPAC’s National council and an officer of the New York Board of Rabbis and the Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA).

This week’s Torah Portion – Parashat Tazria (Leviticus 12:1-13:59) – features several laws of purity and impurity, including the rules concerning the process of a woman’s purification after childbirth and the rite of circumcision. Our discussion focuses on the difficulty of explaining ideas such as 'purity' and 'impurity' to today's Jews and on what we can learn from the laws of childbirth mentioned in the parashah when it comes to the continuation of the Jewish people and the establishment of Jewish families.