Leviticus 15 ends a section about bodily impurities that began with the messiness of birth (Leviticus 12), continued with flesh-eating diseases (Leviticus 13-14) and now concludes with a discussion of regular and irregular genital discharges. These chapters seem to be anything other than attractive, yet a surprising Midrash (Leviticus Rabbah 19:14) urges readers to discover their God-given beauty.
The Midrash first admits that even the rabbis of the Talmudic age dreaded having to give sermons on the Sabbaths when these “ugly” chapters were read:
Shimʿon b. R. Yitzḥaq explained the verse “His head is finest gold, his locks are curled and black as a raven (keʿorev)” (Song of Songs 5:11) as referring to portions of the Torah. Even though they seem as if they are ugly (kheurot), as if they are too black to speak of in public – for example the laws of discharge and skin diseases…
Yet by ever so slightly playing with the Hebrew word for the ugly non-kosher bird, raven – ‘orev – so that reads as ‘arev – pleasant, the Midrash argues that what humans perceive as ugly is actually pleasant to God:
The Holy One blessed is He said: “They are pleasing (ʿarevot) to me.” This is what is said: “Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing (ʿarvah) to the Lord” (Malachi 2.15).
The Midrash demonstrates this from the chiastic arrangement of Leviticus 15 - A] irregular male discharges, B] regular male discharges, B’] regular female discharges, and A’] irregular female discharges - which instead of condensing the rules of male and female irregular discharges into a more compact text, unhurriedly, almost lovingly, lingers over the messy details:
You should know that this really is the case, since the biblical portion dealing with male and female gonorrheans were not said [by God] as one, rather this one by itself and that one by itself: “When any man has a discharge issuing from his member” (Leviticus 15:2); “When a woman has had a [irregular] discharge of blood” (Leviticus 15:25).
The message of this Midrash is crucial for Torah study, and for life. Even those things which appear ugly and devoid of beauty, in fact pulsate with divine splendor. We only need to know how to look.

Shai Secunda is a professor of Jewish studies at Bard College, and writes regularly for the Jewish Review of Books on Jewish scholarship and culture.

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