Tazria- Conditional Statements and Flow Charts

"Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aaron, saying: If a person will have on the skin of his flesh a s'eit, or a sepachat, or a baheret, and it will become a tzara'at affliction on the skin of his flesh; he shall be brought to Aaron the Kohen, or to one of his sons the Kohanim. The Kohen shall look at the affliction on the skin of his flesh: If hair in the affliction has turned white, and the affliction's appearance is deeper than the skin of his flesh-it is a tzara'at affliction; the Kohen shall look at it and make him impure.
If it is a white baheret on the skin of his flesh and its appearance is not deeper than the skin, and the hair has not turned white, then the Kohen shall close off the affliction for a seven-day period. The Kohen shall look at it on the seventh day, and behold!- the affliction remained in its appearance, and the affliction did not spread on the skin, then the Kohen shall close him off a second time for a seven-day period. The Kohen shall look at it again on the seventh day, and behold!- if the affliction has dimmed and the affliction has not spread on the skin, then the Kohen shall declare him pure, it is a mispachat; he shall immerse his garments and become pure. But if the mispachat should spread on the skin after it had been shown to the Kohen for its purification, it should be shown to the Kohen again. The Kohen shall look, and behold!- the mispachat has spread on the skin; the Kohen shall make him impure; it is tzara'at." ~Vayikra 13;1-8

In continuation of our study of understanding information and organization of information using graphic organizers, this week we'll look at two new ideas: 1) conditional statements and 2) flow charts.

Conditional Statements:
Conditional statements are statements in "If..., then..." form that give you a piece of information that is based on whether or not the other part is true. For example, "If it rains, I will need my umbrella." This statement tells me that I may or may not need an umbrella, and the way to determine if I do is based on whether or not it rains. If it rains, yes, I do; if it doesn't rain, no, I don't. Conditional statements are used in math to organize information, and often students will work with conditional statements to determine whether they are true or false. "If a shape has four sides, then it's a square." This statement could be true, but is not always true, since there are other shapes that also have four sides, and our statement is not specific enough about the shape. Sometimes, switching the first and second clauses can make a false statement true- "If a shape is a square, then it has four sides." We just took a statement that is not always true and made it into one that is always true, since a square does always have four sides. Rearranging the order of clauses and adding or removing negatives in clauses of conditional statements can be a whole exercise on its own, and is typically studied in conjunction with beginning algebra concepts. For our purposes this week, we just need to understand what a conditional statement is.

Flow Charts:
Flow charts are an organizational tool that can be used to make sense of a process or "flow" of information. You start at one point and determine what that information leads you into. Often, there are two or more options that come out of one point and the flow chart helps you separate what happens in case 1 of this situation from what happens in case 2 of this situation. The flow chart offers a visual representation of the process in the situation with which you are working.

Parsha Connection:
In this week's parsha, we are told about the process that the Kohen must go through to determine whether or not a person has tzara'at. Using a flow chart to map out the conditional statements that are given, we can create a visual aid for understanding when a person is diagnosed with tzara'at (impure) and when they are ok (pure).

We begin by charting the initial situation along with any possible first step outcomes from the situation.

Next, we take each of those outcomes and see if a final decision is made or if there is a follow-up step that occurs as part of the outcome. In our case, if the person is determined to be either pure or impure then that path has ended; if a determination has not yet been made, then the path will continue.

Now we take the follow-up step and chart the possible outcomes from that step.

From here, we continue, as before, and look to see if a final decision was made and each path has ended, or if follow-up steps are required based on the outcomes. We chart each path until all paths end at either a pure or impure status.

This is just one situation that lends itself to being graphed in a flow chart in this week's parsha. Try your hand at flow charts by mapping out another situation.