Our ancestors’ decision to time this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Metzorah, for the Shabbos before Passover can appear perplexing. On the eve of our great national festival of liberation, why ought we to read about various forms of ritual impurity? The scripture’s dictates here read as arcane, minute, and for some modern people, raise concerns about how women and the disabled are treated. Vayikra’s compendium of laws, the basis for the elaboration of halakha, does not elevate us emotionally in the same manner as other parts of the Torah. The rabbis,........