Parsha Inspired Menus - Tazria-Metsorah

I'm getting this posted a little late this week. It wasn't even because it took me awhile to come up with ideas because I was done with the ideas by the end of Shabbat mincha last week! I just didn't get to write it out to share. Luckily, neither of these are particularly involved recipes, so they should still be easy to make.

With our double parsha this week, my plan is to do one food per parsha. Of course, the major

theme of Tazria is tzarat, this physical manifestation of a spiritually "un-wellness." Much time is spent discussing various skin ailments, including the color and texture, such as "When a person has on their skin a swelling, a rash, or a discoloration, and it develops into a scaly affection on their skin, it shall be reported to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests." Much thanks to our assistant rabbi for her suggestion of Coconut Chicken as the represntative of the scaly affection using the flaky coconut coating.

Drawing from Metsorah for the second #parshainspiredmenus item, I was noting some of the details around tzaraat appearing on a house and noticed that the text details the following interaction - after someone notices a suspicious coloration on the walls of a house, they call the priest to investigate. Rather than coming right away,

וְצִוָּ֨ה הַכֹּהֵ֜ן וּפִנּ֣וּ אֶת־הַבַּ֗יִת בְּטֶ֨רֶם יָבֹ֤א הַכֹּהֵן֙ לִרְא֣וֹת אֶת־הַנֶּ֔גַע וְלֹ֥א יִטְמָ֖א כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּבָּ֑יִת וְאַ֥חַר כֵּ֛ן יָבֹ֥א הַכֹּהֵ֖ן לִרְא֥וֹת אֶת־הַבָּֽיִת׃

The priest shall order the house cleared before the priest enters to examine the plague, so that nothing in the house may become impure; after that the priest shall enter to examine the house.

Once the priest comes, if it is, indeed, tzaraat, anything in the house becomes impure and must be destroyed. By proactively removing the items first, this saves the possessions from being declared impure and removes the financial and emotional burden of destroying all your possessions. We see this drive towards conservation, of sorts, even after the home is declared to have tzaarat.

On the seventh day the priest shall return. If he sees that the plague has spread on the walls of the house,

The house shall be scraped inside all around, and the coating that is scraped off shall be dumped outside the city in an impure place.

They shall take other stones and replace those stones with them, and take other coating and plaster the house.

They go through the effort of a piece by piece reconstruction, rather than quickly jumping to destory the home. I thought this indicated the importance of the level of care the priests are taking to be conscious of the human toll of this tzaraat diligence.

But how does one know if the house has tzaraat?

וְרָאָ֣ה אֶת־הַנֶּ֗גַע וְהִנֵּ֤ה הַנֶּ֙גַע֙ בְּקִירֹ֣ת הַבַּ֔יִת שְׁקַֽעֲרוּרֹת֙ יְרַקְרַקֹּ֔ת א֖וֹ אֲדַמְדַּמֹּ֑ת וּמַרְאֵיהֶ֥ן שָׁפָ֖ל מִן־הַקִּֽיר׃

If, when he examines the plague, the plague in the walls of the house is found to consist of greenish or reddish streaks that appear to go deep into the wall,

So, in honor of the greenish or reddish streaks on the wall, make a salad with red leaf and green leaf lettuce and anything else you want.

Shabbat Shalom & B'Tayavon!