פרשת תזריע - מצורע תש"ב - נגעים

נגע צרעת היא. The Torah repeats this same expression twice in successive verses, and also the expression צרעת היא is repeated both in verse 8 and verse 11. Sometimes, as here and as in verse 22, the word נגע is added. The reason may be that this affliction, in common with other afflictions, is something that develops in stages. Just as the affliction intensifies gradually in its early stages, so it gradually becomes weaker on the way to healing. When it is already a long-standing affliction it is referred to as צרעת יושנת, whereas when it is in its opening stages it is called simply נגע. When it is a fully fledged affliction it is called נגע צרעת. When it is in the process of waning it is already referred to as נרפא הצרעת, an affliction which has healed. When it has healed completely it is referred to as נרפא הנתק. Seeing that this type of affliction is perceived as a warning signal from G’d to the individual experiencing it, i.e. he is reminded to get rid of negative characteristics, the Talmud refers to it as מזבח כפרה “an altar serving as atonement.” The period of isolation serves to remind the afflicted person to review what he may have been guilty of. This concept has been spelled out in Job 36,10 as ויגל אותם למוסר ויאמר כי ישובון מאון, “He opens their understanding by discipline, and orders them back from mischief.”

והבגד כי יהיה בו נגע צרעת, when it is quite clear that this is not the kind of stain familiar to science and responsive to removing by chemical detergents. Discolouration of a garment in colours other than the ones that are work related due to the vocation of the wearer, are usually caused deliberately by the owner. What occurred here is due to some sin the owner was guilty of.
At any rate, our tradition has taught that the only discolouration of garments or cloths that are considered from a halachic point of view are garments which themselves are white and not coloured. Any coloured garment is not subject to this legislation at all, is not within the parameter of what is called נגע צרעת. The phenomenon of white garments or exterior walls of houses which are normally whitewashed breaking out in different colours is by itself a warning to the owner to examine his lifestyle and what he might have done wrong to rate such a warning.
Our sages in Kidushin 20 tell about how seriously a violation of a rule which is only peripheral to the Sh’mittah legislation is viewed. [the basic rules of sh’mittah relate to working the soil during that year. What I described here as “peripheral,” i.e. in Talmudic parlance as אבקה של שמטה, is the dealing in produce grown in violation of the sh’mittah laws. Ed.] The Talmud explains that violating the “peripheral” aspects of that legislation my result in the guilty party becoming impoverished. The process is gradual so that the guilty party had ample opportunity to ask himself why G’d had singled him out for this kind of punishment.
The same is true of the נגע צרעת legislation. Proof of the fact that this affliction is due to a well meaning Creator, One Who is concerned with the welfare of His Jewish subjects, is the fact that if the symptoms we know as נגע צרעת surface on the garments of gentile or houses of gentiles, these are not declared as ritually impure. Seeing that the gentiles as a rule do not have life in the hereafter to look forward to, G’d is not at such pains to warn them not to risk losing something they doe not to look forward to in any event. When a Jew is in danger of losing his claim to eternal life this is a far more serious matter, and G’d goes out of His way to afford the person potentially endangering his claim to eternal life an opportunity to repent and change his lifestyle before it is too late. In referring to this concept, Solomon in Proverbs 10,25 describes the צדיק, the Just, as the foundation of the universe. The whole idea of man having been created in G’d’s image, and G’d’s desire for man to become as much like Him as it is possible for a creature to become, lies at the source of this concern by G’d not to let man waste his opportunity to live up to his destiny.
Once man becomes aware of G’d’s concern for him he will have little difficulty in making his own will correspond to the revealed will of His Maker. He will begin to realise that by “listening” to the urgings of his body-dominated desires he risks losing his eternal life and the death of his body would also signal the death of his life force נפש, just as that of all the animals. >br> Even though we see many people defy G’d in their lifestyles, we can be sure in the words of G’d in Exodus 23,7 כי לא אצדיק רשע, “that I will not allow the wicked to appear as if he were a just person for ever.” [the author, in continuing this sermon, describes all the gentiles and most of the Jews of his time, as so oblivious to all this that they may be compared as existing in a permanent state of spiritual coma. Ed.] Nonetheless, if G’d chose the Jewish people as His special people it is because He entertains the fond hope that out of this nation there will emerge a nucleus of people who are aware of their destiny. When the Jewish people are predominantly in the state of spiritual coma the author just described, the symptoms described in our portion will not appear as it would be a waste of time to hope that the people thus afflicted would see in these symptoms a message from their G’d.

And the garment if there be in it a pock of tsaraat: This is not natural at all and it does not happen in the world; and so [too] pocks of houses. But since Israel are complete for God, the spirit of God is always upon them, to keep their bodies and clothing and houses in good appearance. And when sin and iniquity happen to one of them, his skin or his clothing or his home becomes ugly, to show that God has departed from him. And hence the verse states (Leviticus 14:34), "and I shall put a pock of tsaraat in the house in the land of your possession" - as it is a plague of God in that house. And behold, it is only practiced in the land that is the inheritance of the Lord, as it states (Leviticus 14:34), "When you come to the land of Canaan, that I give to you as a possession." And the reason for this is not because it is an obligation on the soil [of the land], but [rather] because this matter will only come in the chosen land that the glorious God will dwell within. And in Torat Kohanim (Sifra, Metsora 5:3), they also expounded that a house only becomes impure after the conquest and division of the land and [when] each and every one knows what is his. And the reason [for this] is that [only] then did their minds become settled about them - to know the Lord - and that the [Divine] presence should dwell among them. And so do I think with the pocks of clothing, that it is only practiced in the land, and [that] it was not necessary to [specifically] exclude outside the land from them, as they would never occur there. And because of this, they are also only practiced on white clothes, and not with colored ones - as maybe the dye released that ugliness in that place according to its nature, and it is not 'the finger of God.' And therefore, clothes that become colored by the Heavens, can become impure, like the words of Rabbi Shimon (Mishnah Negaim 11:3). And according to its simple understanding, it is because of this that Scripture goes back in each and every verse [to mention], "the garment or the skin or the warp or the woof," because the matter is a miracle. And our rabbis have homilies about them and they are all in Torat Kohanim.

בדד ישב HE SHALL ABIDE SOLITARY — This means that people who are unclean from other causes than that of leprosy shall not abide with him (Pesachim 67a; cf. Sifra). Our Rabbis said: Why is he (the leper) treated differently from other unclean persons that he should abide solitary? They replied: Because he, by slanderous statements, (cf. Numbers 12:10) parted man and wife, or a man from his friend, he must be parted from everybody (Arakhin 16b).

הרות‎ט CLEAN — This term excludes an unclean bird (of a species that may not be eaten) (cf. Chullin 140a). Because the plagues of leprosy come as a punishment for slander, which is done by chattering, therefore birds are compulsory for his (the leper’s) purification, because these chatter, as it were, continuously with a twittering sound (Arakhin 16b).

And when the plague of leprosy is in a garment, whether it be a woolen garment, or a linen garment; or in the warp, or in the woof, whether they be of linen, or of wool; or in a skin, or in any thing made of skin. If the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin, it is the plague of leprosy, and shall be shown unto the priest. And the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up that which hath the plague seven days. And he shall look on the plague on the seventh day: if the plague be spread in the garment, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in the skin, whatever service skin is used for, the plague is a malignant leprosy: it is unclean.

And the garment if there be in it a pock of tsaraat: This is not natural at all and it does not happen in the world; and so [too] pocks of houses. But since Israel are complete for God, the spirit of God is always upon them, to keep their bodies and clothing and houses in good appearance. And when sin and iniquity happen to one of them, his skin or his clothing or his home becomes ugly, to show that God has departed from him. And hence the verse states (Leviticus 14:34), "and I shall put a pock of tsaraat in the house in the land of your possession" - as it is a plague of God in that house. And behold, it is only practiced in the land that is the inheritance of the Lord, as it states (Leviticus 14:34), "When you come to the land of Canaan, that I give to you as a possession." And the reason for this is not because it is an obligation on the soil [of the land], but [rather] because this matter will only come in the chosen land that the glorious God will dwell within. And in Torat Kohanim (Sifra, Metsora 5:3), they also expounded that a house only becomes impure after the conquest and division of the land and [when] each and every one knows what is his. And the reason [for this] is that [only] then did their minds become settled about them - to know the Lord - and that the [Divine] presence should dwell among them. And so do I think with the pocks of clothing, that it is only practiced in the land, and [that] it was not necessary to [specifically] exclude outside the land from them, as they would never occur there. And because of this, they are also only practiced on white clothes, and not with colored ones - as maybe the dye released that ugliness in that place according to its nature, and it is not 'the finger of God.' And therefore, clothes that become colored by the Heavens, can become impure, like the words of Rabbi Shimon (Mishnah Negaim 11:3). And according to its simple understanding, it is because of this that Scripture goes back in each and every verse [to mention], "the garment or the skin or the warp or the woof," because the matter is a miracle. And our rabbis have homilies about them and they are all in Torat Kohanim.

in the warp or in the woof The meanings of these two words are known. Probably warp [Hebrew: sheti] comes from the word “buttocks” [Hebrew: shet] [Isaiah 20:4] which contains its basic meaning. Evidence of this etymology appears in the phrase “when the foundations are destroyed” [Psalms 11:3]. woof [Hebrew: ‘erev] so called because it is interwoven [Hebrew: yit‘arev] with the warp.

If the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin, it is the plague of leprosy, and shall be shown unto the priest.

greenish [Hebrew: yeraqraq] from “vegetable” [Hebrew: yereq], which is likewise green in appearance. The suffix indicates a weaker color (as in “blackish” [Hebrew: sheḥarḥoret] [Song of Songs 1:6]) although some say the reverse.

This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of wool or linen, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean.

the law of the plague of ṣara‘at of a garment of wool Four consecutive nouns in the construct case! There is even, in Scripture, an instance of five: “men of valor for the work of the service of the house of God” [I Chronicles 9:13] — all dependent upon God, Who supports all who become dependent.

This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest.

והובא אל הכהן, to a site near the boundary of the encampment where the priest can come to inspect the afflicted person easily without having to subject himself to special effort.

he will be brought connotes the same here as it does above [13:2; 13:9], since, once the affliction of ṣara‘at has gone away, he might not want to bring the obligatory sacrifice.

let him be brought willingly or unwillingly. Whoever notices any one of these symptoms may compel him to appear.