Leviticus 15 deals with bodily discharges—a topic the Targum Jonathan handles with surprising clinical specificity. The Hebrew Bible says a person with an issue becomes unclean. The Targum adds that the discharge must be observed "three times" before the person is declared impure, and it describes the impurity's appearance: "the colour of white, inflaming."
The most repeated addition is the measurement: forty seahs of water. The Hebrew Bible says simply to "wash in water." The Targum specifies the exact volume—forty seahs, roughly equivalent to a full immersion pool—every single time purification is required. This measurement appears over a dozen times in this chapter alone, standardizing what the Hebrew leaves open.
For menstrual impurity, the Targum provides a color chart with no parallel in the Hebrew: blood could be "red or dark, yellow as saffron, or water of clay, or as red wine mixed with two parts of water." Five distinct colors, each sufficient to trigger the seven-day separation period. This level of diagnostic detail shows the Targum functioning as a medical text alongside its role as translation.
The chapter separates ritual impurity from sin—touching a contaminated bed or chair is not immoral, just ritually disqualifying. But the Targum adds a moral dimension at the conclusion: Israel must "make them to be separate from their wives at the time of their seclusion, and to give not occasion that they die for their uncleanness in defiling My tabernacle, where the glory of My Shekinah (the Divine Presence) dwelleth among them."
The Shekinah reference is the Targum's signature move. The Hebrew says "My dwelling place which is among them." The Targum says the Glory of God's Presence lives there. Impurity is not about hygiene. It is about proximity to God.