One midrash on the opening verse of Parshat Tazria sees in it an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be human. The parsha begins:

The Lord spoke to Moshe, saying: When a woman conceives and bears a male child… (Leviticus 12:1–2)

The midrash in Vayikra Rabbah, the classical Midrash on Sefer Vayikra from the Talmudic period, opens its discussion of this verse with a verse from Tehillim (Psalms):

You hedge me before and behind; You lay Your hand upon me. (Psalms 139:5)

On the plain (peshat) level, this verse from Tehillim is somewhat obscure. It may suggest either that God surrounds and constrains human beings in all directions, or that God shapes the human being like a potter forming clay.

The rabbinic tradition takes advantage of the verse’s obscurity and expands on both possibilities. One view holds that the first human, Adam, originally filled the entire world, and only after he sinned did God “place His hand”........

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