אל בני ישראל, “to the Children of Israel;” the addition of these words is a reminder that the conditions described forthwith apply only to Israelites. Gentiles, even if they display these symptoms cannot confer ritual impurity on Israelites by means of them.איש, an adult male, not a minor; [if that word had not been repeated. Ed.] איש, the repetition of the word converts this line into something more inclusive, hence the halachah rules that minors are also included.

מבשרו “from his flesh;” this restrictive clause teaches that as long as this issue is still in contact with its origin, i.e. connected to the person from which it came forth, it does not confer ritual impurity on those who come into contact with it. (Sifra) The word בשרו is a simile for the private parts of the person from which the issue emanates. We find this word used in the same sense also in Leviticus 16,4: ומכנסי בד יהיו על בשרו, he shall wear linen trousers on his flesh (to cover his private parts). Another example of the word בשר referring to private parts is found in verse 19 of our chapter: זובה בבשרה, “an emission from her flesh,” i.e. vagina

רר בשרו את זובו, “his flesh ran with his issue;” the word את here is to be understood as מן, i.e. “from;” we have an example of this use of the word את when Moses tells Pharaoh he is going too pray for the plague to stop when he leaves the boundaries of the city, i.e. כצאתי את העיר (Exodus 9,29)

ואיש אשר יגע, “and a man who touches;” he contaminates his clothing at the time he touches his bed, his clothing will become contaminated. When he separates from the bed, seeing that his status of ritual contamination is relatively mild, i.e. ראשון לטומאה, one step removed from the impurity’s origin, his clothing had not become contaminated also.

במשכבו, “his bed;” according to Rashi we learn from this that the ritual impurity of his bed is more severe than if he had touched the source of the impurity, the emission itself. If someone had touched him, he would become impure only in the second degree, requiring only to wait for sunset in order to regain his purity. Sitting on the bed of the person who had had this involuntary emission of semen is worse than his body touching the source of the emission. A person who touched only the body of the person having suffered this emission, only needs to immerse his clothing in a ritual bath, in order to regain his ritual purity. (Compare verse 8)

כל אשר יגע בו הזב וגו, “anything that the person who had the emission touches, etc.” this is not really the place where this verse should have been written. It should have been written after verse 13: וכי יטהר הזב מזובו, “when the person concerned has become purified again from this contamination;” i.e. before the seven days he has to count have expired. The reason why it was written here and not there, is since the Torah had already been in the middle of dealing with this status of a person who touches ritually pure things while himself being ritually contaminated, the Torah saw fit to stick to that subject matter.

וידיו לא שטף במים, “without first having rinsed his hands with water;” on this line Rabbi Elazar ben Aroch commented that the act of purifying one’s hands by washing them with water is a biblical commandment. [It is not just a Rabbinical decree. Ed.] Actually, the line “rinsed with water,” is an elegant way of saying that immersion in a ritual bath is necessary. We find this confirmed in Psalms 26,6 where David says: ארחץ בנקיון כפי, ”I wash my hands in innocence;” [he does not refer to tap water, but to a ritual bath. Ed.]

וכלי חרש אשר יגע בו, “and any earthen vessel which the person afflicted with involuntary issue touches will have to be broken;” in this verse the Torah uses the pronoun בו, implying touch from the outside, whereas in Leviticus 6,21 where the Torah wrote about holy things within an earthen vessel it stated that that vessel must be broken, as it cannot be used for a profane purpose anymore, some of the holy stuff having been absorbed by it, the same pronoun is used, instead of בתוכו, “inside it.” From this we derive, seeing that we have stated that the zav contaminates only an airspace, that if here the Torah used the word בו, it must mean that even indirect touching confers ritual impurity here. This impurity is called tumat hesset, and in practice it means even indirect contact such as sitting on top of several blankets confers this impurity even to the lowest blanket in that stack, or even shaking something so that it will come into contact with the source of the impurity. (Sifra)

לטהרתו, “after his process of purification has begun when the emission has stopped and seven days had elapsed.

ורחץ בשרו במים חיים, “and he shall bathe his flesh in running water, [emanating from the earth, i.e. a spring; Ed.] The person suffering from such involuntary seminal emissions cannot merely immerse himself in a ritual bath, but requires “living water,” as opposed to stagnant water, such as a collection of rain water. On the other hand, his vessels, as well as a person suffering from the skin disease tzoraat, do not require spring water for their purification.

יקח לו, “he (the priest) will take on his behalf;” the word לו here means that these birds must be owned, i.e. paid for, by the person on whose behalf the birds will be offered as a sacrifice.

ואיש כי תצא ממנו שכבת זרע, “and if a flow of seminal emission originated from a man;” the word איש in this verse exempts a minor from this legislation, as long as that minor is not yet nine years of age and one day.

כי תצא ממנו, as long as this semen has not left his body it does not confer ritual impurity. Seeing that this sounds somewhat superfluous, the Rabbis interpreted this to mean that both a priest with gonorrhea and an ordinary priest who experience an erection should take hold of their member to prevent the emission until he has swallowed the truma which he was eating so that it will not become contaminated. (Sifra)

ורחץ במים, “he may even immerse himself in a ritual bath;” [does not require spring water. Ed.]

את כל בשרו, the bath must contain enough water to cover his entire body at one time when he immerses himself in it. According to halachah this is 3 cubits high, 1 cubit wide and 1 cubit deep, or approx. 530000 cubic centimeters.

אשר יהיה עליו שכבת זרע, “(garments or skin) which have been splattered with semen of a human being;” even only partially; (Sifra) just as when this subject was discussed previously it referred to fresh, moist semen, so here too the Torah speaks of freshly emitted semen, not dried out semen.

אשר ישכב איש אותה שכבת זרע, “also the woman with whom a man had had carnal intercourse involving the ejaculation of semen;” the wording of this line teaches that any ejaculation into thin air is not considered as carnal intercourse for this law.

ורחצו במים, they have both to immerse themselves in a ritual bath; just as when this subject of “washing” i.e. immersing oneself in a ritual bath did not include washing out one’s private parts, the woman’s vagina, so here too, only the surfaces of the skin have to be in contact with the water of the ritual bath, but all the skin has to be made accessible to that water, [cleaning fingernails and toenails, for instance. Ed.]

שבעת ימים תהיה בנדתה, “she will remain in her state of ritual impurity for a full seven days;” if she immerses herself before evening the immersion is not valid. (Talmud Pessachim, folio 90)

ורחץ במים, “he will have to immerse himself in a ritual bath and he remains ritually impure until nightfall.” It goes without saying that his partner in intercourse in a state of menstruation will have to do no less than the male. [The Torah here does not speak of the parties involved having deliberately ignored her state of menstruation, an act which is punished by death through heavenly intervention (Leviticus 20,18 for both.) Here the scenario is that during intercourse the woman suddenly sees some blood not having expected to do so. [No violation of the Torah’s law had been intended by either party. Ed.]

ואם על המשכב הוא, “if he is on the bed (of his partner) with most of his body.” (Sifra) Some commentators understand the word הוא in this verse as referring to the person who has contracted the disease of involuntary seminal emission. According to them, we must understand the verse as follows: “if that blood which was on the couch or on any chair on which the woman in question has sat after having experienced the symptoms has now been touched or even if he touched the vessel or chair on which she had sat, he will remain ritually impure until nightfall after he has immersed himself in a ritual bath. Let us quote a practical example, using verse 17. We read there: וכל בגד אשר יהיה עליו שכבת זרע, “and every garment on which has come moist human semen, (Jewish) etc.,” you might well ask why this verse has been written at all. If someone who has only come into contact with the garment that had been stained with semen by its wearer has thereby become ritually impure, how much more so will someone who has been lying with the body from which this blood was emitted does not have to undergo purification rites? Answer: Jewish law does not permit a judge to impose a penalty based only on logic; unless the penalty has been spelled out in the Torah it cannot be imposed (as the guilty party will plead ignorance of the law.) We find the same thing Numbers 19,14: וכל הבא אל האהל וכל אשר באהל יטמא, “anyone entering such tent (containing a corpse) will become ritually defiled.” The beginning of the verse refers to someone whose body has partially entered the covered airspace within which the corpse lies. The second part speaks of someone whose entire body is within that airspace. It is no more than logical that the second party will not have to do less than the first party in order to purify himself. Nonetheless, because of the rule we just mentioned, the Torah had to spell this out.

ישכב איש אותה, “a man will lie with her;” this excludes a woman suffering from the skin disease tzoraat; she does not confer her specific impurity to her partner, as the word אותה, implies a limitation, i.e. “only her, someone in her state.” (Chafetz Chayim)

ואשה כי יזוב זוב, “if a woman have an emission of her blood for many days, (not connected to her menstrual cycle);” this includes when such a flow was the result of some accident, a power completely beyond her control.

דמה, “her blood;” not the blood related to any pregnancy or fetus.

ימים רבים, “many days;” an unusual expression as in halachah as few as three days are considered as the minimum for the expression: “many days.” Seeing that this woman had to be physically separated from her husband such a separation is already considered as psychologically painful as if it had been “many” days, literally.(Tanchuma on this portion, section 6).

על נדתה, as if the Torah had written: עם נדתה, “with her state of menstrual impurity.” Another example of the use of the word על in the sense of עם, is found in Leviticus 25, 31: על שדה הארץ יחשב, “it is considered as belonging with the field of the land.”

וכל הנוגע בם, “and anyone touching them;” even if touching them only indirectly, as for instance by holding on to the same rope.

וספרה לה, “then she shall count for herself, etc.” she does not recite a blessing over her counting such as we do when we count the omer as she cannot be sure that she will complete the count, for instance if the bleeding recurs before seven days of counting have elapsed. She would then have uttered the name of the Lord in vain, a major sin.

והביאה אותם אל הכהן, “and she will bring them (the two birds) to the priest;” whence do I know that this woman is permitted to immerse herself in a ritual bath before the evening, even? The clue are the words: ”to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting;” how could she have done this on this day if she had not first immersed herself in a ritual bath? She would still have been ritually impure? Having immersed herself in a ritual bath before sunset enabled her to bring the birds to the priest still on the same day. (Sifra)

והזהרתם, “you shall issue the warning to the Children of Israel;” these words are the warning not to violate the law;

ולא ימותו, “so that they will not die (on account of the sin)” these words are the announcement of the potential penalty for violation.

בטומאתם, “on account of their ritual contamination;” (IbnEzra)

עם טמאה, “with a ritually impure woman, be she afflicted with emissions of blood at unusual times, or while she counts the days before purification.