This week’s Torah reading of Tazri’a-M’tsora (Leviticus 12-15) is largely concerned with laws of purity and impurity relating to the disease of tsara’at, usually rendered as leprosy. Not only can this ailment infect people, but it can also afflict clothing and houses, in certain cases causing all vessels within a structure to contract ritual impurity. When a house appears infected, Scripture requires the owners to remove everything therein, and then ask a priest to inspect it, who will then either declare it pure or impure. Martha Himmelfarb examines the reasons for this step, and its significance for understanding the nature of Jewish law:

While the Biden White House is committed to restoring the 2015 agreement to restrain the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, Tehran’s behavior since the deal was concluded should be sufficient to demonstrate that it had no intention of keeping to its terms, argues Elliott Abrams: