Leviticus 12-14

Leviticus 12 - purification after child-birth

I cannot think of any modern corollaries to most of this.

If a son is born, he is to be circumcised on the 8th day (we have that). But then the mother is unclean for another 33 days, for a total period of 40 days.

If a daughter is born, the mother is unclean for a total time of 80 days.

Meanwhile, she cannot touch hallowed objects or go into the sanctuary. Afterwards, she must do a sin offering.

A sin offering? Having a child is not a sin, so I suppose it ties back to being excluded from the sanctuary during purification time. Why the 40/80 day distinction if it's a son or a daughter? I have no idea.

Leviticus 13-14 - skin diseases

The text of Lev. 13 provides a long list of situations where skin diseases may or may not be spreading. Importantly, it is the priest that determines if its is leprosy or not. If so, the leper must live alone and his clothes may or may not be burned.

A humorous anecdote in all of it is that bald men are considered clean (v. 40-41)

Lev. 14 gives us a precise ritual of reintroducing a person who has been healed of leprosy. There actually are two rituals, one involving two birds (kill one, let the other free) followed by a sin offering. Leprosy, like childbirth, is not a sin, but this sin offering is required to rejoin the population.

The last portion of Lev. 14 provides us with what to do when the leprosy has invaded the walls of a home. The home is to be shut up for 7 days. If that does not work, then it is to be destroyed. Interestingly, if the home is cleansed, an offering of two birds is required. One bird is killed while the other is released. This is similar to the ritual of rejoining the population for people. Why do the bird ritual? I have no idea. Perhaps there is some spiritual effect of leprosy. This would not be out of the ordinary in the Bible as we see a spiritual connection to diseases frequently in the ministry of Christ.