Parsha Inspired Menus - Tazria-Mesorah

We had a very interesting disucssion at Shabbat mincha last week about the public nature of having to proclaim to others that you have tzara'at. "As for the person with a leprous affection: the clothes shall be rent, the head shall be left bare, and the upper lip shall be covered over; and

that person shall call out, “Impure! Impure!”" (Vayikra 13:45) It is often understood that tzara'at is a spiritual affliction, perhaps caused by spreading of gossip. So, is the "impure" call-out meant ot embarass the afflicted, in hopes of stopping them from gossiping again? Is it rather a warning to others to not come close to them, which is often the distance from which gossip is spread? Is it a general energy or vibe of misbehavior that you're encouraging others to avoid?

There is much discussion in these parshiot about the details of what the tzara'at looks like and this week's #parshainspiredmenus draws off of two of these descriptions. The first caught the attention of our youngest son, who now routinely scours the parsha for ideas and is a great contributor to this project. He noted the following verse:

The priest shall examine the affection on the skin of the body: if hair in the affected patch has turned white and the affection appears to be deeper than the skin of the body, it is a leprous affection; when the priest sees it, he shall pronounce the person impure. (Vaykira 13:3)

Rashi and Ibn Ezra both come to explain "...and the affection appears to be deeper than the skin of the body." How could the priest know? He was looking at the skin. Rashi and Ibn Ezra give explanations, but they weren't working for me. I found a clearer understanding through Steinsaltz's explanation - the appearance of the mark is deeper than the skin of his flesh, although the mark is on the skin, its color or some other quality causes it to appear as though it

were sunk deep into the skin. Considering the layers, our son thought of the idea of a black and white cookie because the whit icing is usually laid down first and so it's UNDERNEATH the chocolate layer. He also admitted to just liking black and white cookies and thinking this was a good reason to have them. So, I will be buying black and white cookies (probably from Trader Joe's.)

The second menu item is drawn from the many times when a white hair is part of the diagnosis. This "white hair" made me think of angel hair pasta and then I found a simple dish that uses fresh tomatoes that are gently cooked and that seemed like a good mix of red irritation, white hairs, and all that is related to tzara'at. Consider this angel hair pasta recipe.

Shabbat Shalom & B'Tayavon!