אדם כי יהיה בעור בשרו, generally, such phenomena occur when one did not purify oneself from the effects of having had sexual relations or direct contact with the seed of a menstruating woman.

שאת או ספחת או בהרת, different skin afflictions, the common denominator being that they are of different shades of white. We base ourselves on the oral tradition as spelled out in Nega-im 1,1. None of these phenomena correspond to the skin diseases we read about in medical text books. Such phenomena as are mentioned in these textbooks do not result in the afflicted person being considered ritually impure, nor are they subject to the priest deciding if indeed the symptoms require isolation of the afflicted person and when such symptoms can be declared as having disappeared. According to Berachot 5 the only skin afflictions which may be viewed as G’d’s reminder to improve our lifestyle are the four kinds mentioned in our chapter. While they are not classified as afflictions revealing G’d’s love for the person thus afflicted, they are however, described as מזבח כפרה, as “an altar serving as stepping stone to atonement for the character weakness that the afflicted person has to overcome.” G’d does not employ any other medically well known skin diseases as His instrument to call us to order for various sins committed. והובא, anyone who goes to a place to be attended to is not referred to as “coming,” בא, but as being brought, i.e. הובא. Compare Psalms 45,15. The passive mode of the transitive form והגישו אדוניו in Exodus 21,6 is ונגשו אל המשפט, “he his being brought to.”

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.”

ועמוק אין מראה מן העור, even though the sages (Shevuot 6) have said that everything which looks white is described a looking deep, recessed, as the sun appears as if deeper than the shadow, so that the wording of our verse appears to be incompatible with the statement of the sages, seeing that the skin itself is a form of something whitish the Torah means that the relationship of the normal skin to the whiteness of the tzoraat is comparable to the appearance of the shadow to the sun. [a spot of shadow on a bright day, is after all not “black” as is the darkness of the night. In fact, compared to the darkness of the night, it might be viewed as a weak “white.” Ed.]

וראהו הכהן, it is a decree by the Torah that only a priest is qualified to determine what is ritually pure and what is ritually impure in all matters pertaining to these skin afflictions. The prophet Maleachi 2,7 echoes this concept when he says that כי שפתי כהן ישמרו דת, “that the lips (pronouncements) of the priest will preserve the Jewish religion.” The priest is also required to counsel the afflicted person to examine his lifestyle so that he himself will become the key to his rehabilitation. At the same time the Priest will add his own prayer when asking G’d to heal the afflicted. Apart from his prayer his expertise will tell him when the stage has been reached when the affliction has waned so that the count toward rehabilitation and the presentation of offerings can begin.

והיה במקום השחין שאת לבנה, this spot is not being judged by the same criteria as listed earlier which were inflammations of skin on the flesh; similarly, inflammations caused by fire burning the skin. When ordinary שחין destroys the tissue on top of the skin it never grows back to look as it did originally. What grows on the afflicted area is tissue which resembles the original skin, so that no skin graft is needed. Original skin is medically irreplaceable. [opinions in those days.] When someone suffers from a נגע צרעת the skin, when healed, looks indistinguishable from the original.

נתק, a skin affliction in a part of the skin normally covered with hair is called a נתק. The word implies that the affliction uproots the hair follicles with the hair. This hair was not pulled out by human hands or by some kind of chemical or medication. The fact that some black hair remains in the skin proves that notwithstanding the other symptoms suggesting that the person suffering the affliction is ritually impure, the black hair’s presence saves him from such a determination by the priest.

כהות לבנות, below that which appears like the skin of an egg concerning which the sages taught us (Maimonides Tum’at Tzoraat 1,11

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.