Tazria

"A woman who brings forth seed by giving birth to a male child, she shall be ritually unclean for seven days…" [12:2]

The inadequacy of the Jewish people at the time of the Exodus is underlined in Deut. 4:34 where G-d describes the Exodus as wrenching one people from the midst of the same people, something that made it legally difficult for G-d to justify taking the Israelites out of Egypt when He did. That redemption had been described only in female terms and that is why it did not endure in the end and the Temple was destroyed.
Not so the redemption of the future which will occur as a direct result of Israel's merits. First and foremost among those merits is Israel's preoccupation with Torah as described in Deut. 31:21 something that will never be forgotten even during a protracted period of exile.
The Torah continues: "she shall be ritually unclean for seven days," the mother contracts ritual impurity as a result of giving birth.
Here the Torah alludes to the way G-d initiates a process which culminates in the rehabilitation of Israel so that it will attain a spiritual level that qualifies for the description zachar (male). The days mentioned here are to be understood as seven years similar to Genesis 24:55 where Laban and his mother wanted Rebecca to delay her departure by "yamim" (days) i.e. a year.
The years which are viewed as the "chevleh mashiach" - the birth pangs of Messiah, last for seven years during which Israel will be refined spiritually in preparation of his arrival. He will make his appearance during the eighth year.
On he eight day, at the beginning of the eight day (year), the baby is to have its foreskin removed, i.e. the concept of a foreskin which acts as a barrier between man and G-d will be removed from the universe.
We read in Zachariah 13:2 that G-d will destroy the spirit of impurity form the earth. This will occur during the eight year. It is well known that conceptually the foreskin is identical with the forces of the klippah, the spiritually negative emanations.
When the Torah wrote the word unclean, describing the state of the mother, this is a simile for the afflictions experienced during the birth pangs of the Messiah.

Metzorah

"Examine the leper to determine that the leprous mark has healed. The priest shall then order…" [14:3-4]

As soon as G-d sees that the sin which was the cause of the plague (the exile under the dominion of the Gentiles) has been healed, "The priest shall then order…" G-d will issue directives for two birds to be taken, etc. These two birds represent the two Messiahs, the Mashiach ben Yoseph and the Mashiach ben David. The reason the Messiah is called a bird is that this is a description for souls in the higher regions.
The Zohar on Parshat Balak, (Numbers 24:17) quotes another example of the Messiah being called a 'bird': "From this cave there emerges a very great bird which will rule over the world and the kingdom will be handed over to him." All these expressions are euphemisms for celestial forces, as every student of the Kabbala is aware of.
We have found that the first Messiah will be from the tribe of Ephraim who will nevertheless die while revealing himself; he will be followed by the Messiah descended from David.
When the Torah speaks of G-d taking "two birds which are pure," these words are similies for the two kinds of Messiah.

An essay from Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter

This week we read both Tazria and Metzora. It is interesting to think about why the three previous portions speak about offerings in the Temple of animals and plants, and only now does the Torah begin to speak about man; how we become impure and the process of purification. The Midrash (Rabba, beginning of Tazria) explains: Just like the forming of man was only after all the other domestic animals, wild animals and birds of the creation, so too, the Torah teachings of man are explained only after the Torah teachings of the domestic animals, wild animals and birds.

Why was man created last? The Talmud (Sanhedrin 38a) gives a few reasons: Man was created last in order to enter a world already prepared for him [so that he could immediately enter into the mitzvah of Shabbos; or similarly, so that he could start his meal immediately, i.e. a demonstration that the world was created solely for him.] A second reason is that if man's behavior is inappropriate, it can be said to him: do not be so haughty; even a mosquito was created before you.

These two reasons express different and opposing traits of man. The first represents man as the pinnacle of the creation. The second uncovers the lowliness of man in this world. In the teachings of Kabala, these two opposing realities within man are expressed as follows: The first, man's greatness, refers to his Jewish divine soul; the second, his lowliness, refers to his physical body.

In Tanya (the primary textbook of Chabad Chassidus - chapters 2 & 29), it explains that the soul, which is literally 'a portion of G-d from above', is what makes man higher than the rest of creation. Even if we sin, this essential divinity remains with us always. On the other hand, our (physical) bodies bring us lower even than a mosquito. All of the other creations fulfill G-d's will automatically. Man however, having freedom of choice, is the only creation that can rebel. Because of this innate potential, he is considered the lowest. The Torah's system is to move from the less to the more complicated. It is easier for the Torah to control the animal kingdom than the human one.

Understanding the concept of these two elements, the Lubavitcher Rebbe adds a beautiful teaching:
It is impossible that this dramatic collision of forces does not serve a unique and spiritually high purpose. From the aspect of the 'physical body', man can fall lower than any of the other creations. However, specifically embedded in this possibility is the purpose of creation! It is G-d's will that the elevated G-dly soul should clothe itself in a lowly body, in order to sanctify and elevate it.

Man, 'adam,' who was formed from earth (in Hebrew: 'adama'), should reveal the unique advantage of his soul. Then it will be made clear that the word 'adama' is really from the word 'adomeh', which means "similar to". We become 'similar to' the supernal, we become like G-d when we elevate the physical. The Almighty desires that we make Him a dwelling place in these lowest worlds.

Shabbat Shalom!