Tazria - The Prophetic Hebrew Typo
In the Torah portion of Tazria, we learn about a peculiar verse. This verse is grammatically incorrect, and because of this, it has some very interesting implications about the Messiah and his life.
Tazria (תזריע), the name of this week’s Torah portion, means "she will conceive." The first verse of this Torah portion refers to the conception of a son. Here it is, Leviticus 12:1-2:
“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: “When a woman gives birth and bears a male child ...”’”
At face value, the verse talks about any Jewish woman giving birth to any boy, but at a deeper level, the text points towards the coming of Messiah. It alludes to a specific woman giving birth to a specific baby boy.
The first hints we see of this deeper level are mentioned by Rabbi Chayim ben Attar. A literal translation of the Hebrew verse sounds like this in English: "When a woman will conceive and she gave birth to a male child ..." In Or HaChayim, his commentary on the Torah, Rabbi Attar asks why the Torah uses the future tense, "she will conceive" and then switches to the past tense, "she gave birth." This is all the more unusual because, a few verses later, when discussing the birth of a daughter, the Torah uses the correct future tense: "And she will give birth to a female" (Leviticus 12:5). Rabbi Attar comments, "The Torah does not switch verb tenses unnecessarily without trying to draw our attention to some additional meaning."'
Furthermore, Rabbi Attar found it curious that the Torah says, "and she gave birth to a male" instead of saying, "and if she gives birth to a male." The Torah speaks as if the birth of a son and not a daughter is something that is destined to happen, but there is no certainty that a woman will give birth to a son instead of a daughter.
Why does the Torah state the matter as if it had already occurred? These strange wordings inspired Rabbi Attar to look deeper. He states that the woman in the passage corresponds to Israel, i.e., the Jewish people. The conception of the child refers to Israel's service to God through the guarding and keeping of the commandments and the study of the Torah. The birth of the child refers to the coming of Messiah and the Messianic Era.
Rabbi Attar says that the woman in the verse points towards the Jewish people, just like the many other passages in the Bible which refer to Israel as a wife. For example, in Isaiah 54:5, the Lord says to Israel, "Your husband is your Maker", and in verse 6 He refers to her as "a wife of one's youth." Hosea relates the relationship between God and the Jewish people to that of a man married to a woman, as it says in Hosea 2:21-22[19-20], that the Lord says to Israel, "I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in loving kindness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the LORD." These passages and many others gave Rabbi Attar the confidence to understand that the woman in Leviticus 12:2 was an allusion to the nation of Israel. Rabbi Attar relates that her husband is the LORD, and her son is the Messiah. Revelations 12:5 alludes to Leviticus 12:2 when it speaks of Israel giving birth to the Messiah: "And she gave birth to a son, a male child."
Why does Leviticus 12:2 mention the conception of the child? The conception isn’t relevant to the laws about the ritual state of a woman after she gives birth. It would have been sufficient for the Torah to say, "When a woman will give birth to a male child," just as it says regarding the birth of a daughter: "If she will give birth to a female" (Leviticus 12:5).
Rabbi Attar explains that the Torah mentioned the conception of the child to hint about the entrance of the divine soul into the human body. ln Psalms 139:5 it says, "Thou fashioned me afterwards and before.” The sages explain that this verse refers to Adam, to every human being, and to the Messiah. It says in Genesis Rabbah 8:1:
Rabbi Shim'on ben Lakish taught, "Adam was the last thing made during the work of the last day of creation and the first thing made before the work of the first day ... When it says [in Genesis 1:2] And the Spirit of God hovered over the waters," this refers to the soul of Adam [as you read in Isaiah 11:2], "And the Spirit of the LORD will rest upon him."
God created Adam's body "afterwards”, on the sixth day of creation, but He created Adam's spirit "before", at the beginning of the first day of creation when the Spirit of the LORD hovered over the waters.
Adam's spiritual soul did not enter Adam's physical being until the LORD formed his body from the earth on the sixth day. So too, the LORD formed the divine spirit of every human being before creation, but the spirit does not enter the human being until the moment of conception in the mother's body. Likewise with the Messiah, as it says in Genesis Rabbah 2:4:
“And the Spirit of God hovered." This alludes to the spirit of Messiah, as you read [in Isaiah 11:2], "And the Spirit of the LORD will rest upon him."
The conception of the male child in Leviticus 12:5 is an allusion to the conception of the Spirit of Messiah, the son of the nation of Israel. To word it another way, the birth of the male child points towards the realization of Messiah, when he rises up to redeem Israel.
The word tazria (תזריע) means "she will conceive." This word is closely related to the Hebrew word for "seed" (zerah, זרע), and it is not the normal word the Torah uses to refer to the conception of a child. Usually, Biblical Hebrew uses the verb harah (הרה) to describe a woman conceiving a child. For example Genesis 4:1 says, "The man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived (harah)." So, why does Leviticus 12:2 use the unusual term tazria?
The Talmud explains, “If a woman brings the conception [i.e., seed] first she bears a male child, but if the man brings the conception first, she bears a female. This is what the Torah means when it says, ‘When a woman will conceive and she gave birth to a male child.’” This sounds absurd in light of modern medicine, but the Talmud is not a reliable source for medical advice.
Rabbi Attar builds upon the Talmud’s comment to emphasize the role of Israel in bringing forth the Messiah. The Messiah comes forth not only from God, but also from Israel's participation in the divine relationship. In other words, if the nation repents and follows God’s ways, they can hasten the redemption.
Rabbi Attar relates that the Messiah is referred to as "a male child" not just because the Messiah is male but also because the Bible attributes the Messianic Era to a masculine form. Or haTorah says in Yalkut Moshiach that the final redemption is referred to as "male" to impart its element of strength, because after the Messiah redeems the world, an exile will never happen again:
“The community of Israel is called the ‘woman’ and the Almighty is called the ‘man,’ as it is written [in Hosea 2:18(16)], ‘In that day you will call me “My Husband.”’ Likewise, in the case of a man and a woman, the Talmud says that when ‘the woman brings the seed first she bears a male child.’ Metaphorically speaking, it is the same in the relationship between the community of Israel and the Almighty. When the woman ‘brings the seed first,’ meaning that Israel creates an initiative from below which evokes a response from Above rather than the other way around, then the love that is born from this union is a ‘male child’—an intense and enduring love.”
Another, more obvious explanation for the use of the word tazria is that this word points towards the original promise of the Messiah. Genesis 3 talks about the seed of the woman who will arise and crush the head of the serpent. God promised Abraham that he would give him a "seed" to inherit the land of Canaan and through whom all nations would be blessed. The Apostle Paul taught that the Messiah is the Seed of Abraham. Many prophecies refer to the Messiah as the "Seed of David", For example, Psalms 18:50, which says, "The LORD gives great deliverance to His king, and shows loving kindness to His messiah, to David and his seed forever." Maybe the Torah uses the unusual word tazria to hint towards the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, and the Seed of David.
Yet another explanation to this passage is to see an allusion to the miraculous conception of Messiah in the womb of a virgin. As Isaiah 7:14 says, "Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son."
As mentioned above, Psalms 139:5 says, "You fashioned me afterwards and before." which corresponds with the words, "When a woman will conceive and she gave birth to a male child." Ateret Yeshuah gives a cryptic explanation, saying that the "afterwards" mentioned by King David refers to the expression, "when a woman will conceive," and the "before" refers to the expression, "she gave birth to a male child." It then states that these two ideas point towards the two Messiahs:
“It is known that Messiah son of Joseph is ultimately to be killed, and only Messiah son of David will bring life to him as it says [in Psalm 21:5(4)], "He asked life of You, You gave it to him, length of days forever and ever" ... the words, "When a woman conceives" alludes to Messiah son of David, and cryptically to the kingdom. This is the secret meaning of the woman. The words, "she gave birth to a male child" allude to Messiah son of Joseph to indicate that Messiah of the house of David will bring Messiah son of Joseph back to life.”
According to this allegorical interpretation, Leviticus 12:2 contains a hint about the first coming and the second coming of Messiah, the first by Messiah son of Joseph, and the second by Messiah son of David.
In the Torah portion of Tazria, we study the peculiar wording of the first verse in this Torah portion, and we catch a small glimpse of the Messiah.
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