This week we re reading Tazria-Metzorah (Leviticus 12:1-15:33) a double Torah portion chock-full of birth, blood, tum ah and taharah, leprosy and eruptive afflictions, nocturnal emissions, and purification rituals. This stuff is, I suspect, what makes many moderns squeamish about Leviticus..
The Talmud reveals that the affliction of tzara’at we learn about in our parasha came as punishment for speaking lashon hara (slander or libel) about another person.