MetzoraVayikra (leviticus)

Purification from Tzara’at
GOD spoke to Moses, saying,

“The following is the law regarding the procedure that must be followed in order to rid the person afflicted with tzara’at of his defilement. The process of his purification must take place during the day. Once the symptoms of tzara’at have disappeared, he must be brought to the priest who is designated to examine him, but only after

the priest has gone outside the camp, since the afflicted person had been banished from the camp and may not reenter it until he is pronounced rid of this defilement. The priest must examine him, and if the tzara’at-lesion has healed in the afflicted person,

the priest must order someone to take for the person who is to be purified two birds that are (a) alive and not suffering from a fatal disease and (b) of a species that does not render one spiritually defiled, plus an unpeeled cedar stick at least a cubit [48 cm or 19 inches] long, a strip of scarlet wool, and some hyssop.

The priest must order someone to slaughter one bird such that its blood drip into an earthenware vessel and onto spring water that has been placed in that vessel.

As for the live bird, the priest must take it, along with the bundle comprising the cedar stick, the strip of scarlet wool, and the hyssop, and dip the bundle, along with the live bird, into the blood of the slaughtered bird that previously dripped onto the spring water.

He must then dash some of the solution of blood and spring water adhering to the bundle and the bird seven times upon the back of the hand of the person being purified from tzara’at, and he will thereby begin to purify him. The priest must then send away the live bird into the open field. This bird is permitted for consumption if it is subsequently caught.

Shaving and Sacrifices for Purification
On the seventh day, he must again shave off all his hair, but this time only that which is similar to the hair on his head, his beard, and his eyebrows – i.e., he must shave off all his hair from the places on the body where there is usually a visible, dense growth of hair. He must then again immerse his garments and immerse his flesh in the water of a mikveh, and thus be purified to an even greater degree, although still not yet completely.

On the eighth day, he must take two unblemished male lambs in their first year and one unblemished female lamb in its first year, in order to sacrifice them – one as a guilt-offering, one as an ascent-offering, and one as a sin-offering, respectively – as will be described presently. All three of these offerings require accompanying grain-offerings and wine-libations, even though, as you will be taught later, guilt-offerings and sin-offerings are not generally accompanied by grain-offerings and wine-libations. Therefore, in addition to the three animals, the person being purified must take three separate tenths of an ephah of fine flour, each mixed with a quarter of a hin of olive oil as a grain-offering to accompany each animal sacrifice, plus three separate quarter-hins of wine for the libations accompanying each animal sacrifice. In addition, he must take one log of olive oil for the purification rites, as will be presently described.

Even though this guilt-offering is unique in that it must be positioned at the entrance to the Courtyard before being slaughtered, the priest must still slaughter the lamb in the place where one slaughters the sin-offering and the ascent-offering, just like all guilt offerings, i.e., within the holy place, the Courtyard, north of the Outer Altar. Furthermore, despite the fact that the purification rites require special applications of this offering’s blood, as will be described presently, its blood still must be applied to the Altar and its fat burned up upon the Altar, for regarding these aspects of the priest’s service, the guilt-offering – including this one – is like the sin-offering. Nonetheless, just as the blood of other guilt-offerings is applied to the lower half of the Altar by dashing it at the two diagonally opposite corners – unlike the blood of sin-offerings, which is applied to the protrusions of the Altar – so is the case with this guilt-offering. It is a sacrifice of superior holiness like all other guilt-offerings; its blood is therefore applied to the Altar in the same way as that of all other guilt-offerings.

Applying the Blood and the Oil
After the lamb is slaughtered, the priest must take some of the blood of the guilt-offering, and the priest must apply it with his finger onto the middle of the ridge of the antihelix of the right ear of the person being purified, on the lower section of his right thumb, and on the lower section of his right big toe.

As opposed to the guilt-offering and the sin-offering, only parts of which are burned up on the Altar, the priest must bring the entire ascent-offering, just like its accompanying grain-offering, up to the top of the Altar in order to burn it up there. The priests must eat their portions of the guilt- and sin-offerings. The priest will thus effect complete atonement for him, and he will be completely purified.

Purification from Tzara’at for a Poor Person
If he is poor and cannot afford these sacrifices, he can use fowl instead of lambs for the sin-offering and ascent-offering. Thus, he must take one male lamb as a guilt-offering, first to be waved as a wave-offering, to effect atonement for him, one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as an accompanying grain-offering for the guilt-offering, a quarter-hin of wine for its accompanying libation, a log of oil for the purification rites,

Applying the Blood and the Oil
The priest must then apply some of the remainder of the oil that is in his palm onto the middle of the ridge of the antihelix of the right ear of the person being purified, on the lower section of his right thumb, and on the lower section of his right big toe, on the same place where he just applied the blood of the guilt-offering. It does not matter if the blood is still there or if it had been wiped off in the meantime.

This is the law regarding someone suffering from a tzara’at-lesion but who cannot afford the full array of sacrifices when he is to be purified.”

Tzara’at on Houses
GOD spoke to Moses, instructing him to convey His words to Aaron, for him to say in turn to the Israelites in God’s name,

“When you enter Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, you will dispossess the nations who presently occupy the land and be able to inhabit the homes they inhabit now. Of these nations, the Amorites in particular are fully aware of My promise to Abraham that you will dispossess them. But since, in that very promise, I stated that their dispossession will be a punishment for their sins, they also cherish the hope that I will likewise someday punish you for your sins and exile you from the land, at which time they will be free to repossess it and move back into their homes. Thus, some of them have been stashing their gold in the walls of their houses ever since you left Egypt. Therefore, do not fret when I place a tzara’at-lesion upon a house in the land of your possession, for even if on that account you are forced to demolish your house, you will thereby reveal these hidden treasures and gain considerable wealth.

As stated, the priest must examine the house after the first week of quarantine. If the lesion did not spread during the first week of quarantine, the priest must quarantine the house for a second week, after which he must come and examine it again. If the lesion has disappeared or turned a lighter or darker shade of red or green, the affected area must be scraped and the priest must then pronounce the house rid of this defilement and proceed to purify it according to the process that will be described later. If, however, the lesion in the house spread during the second week, the affected stones must be removed, the area around them scraped, all that was removed deposited in a place designated for defilement outside the city, the wall re-plastered with unaffected stones, and the house quarantined for a third week. The seventh day of the second quarantine week also counts as the first day of the third quarantine week. If the tzara’at returns after this third week, this indicates conclusively that it is an onerous tzara’at-lesion in the house; the house is defiled.

All this is the law for every tzara’at-lesion, for a netek,

for a wool-white spot, for an egg-membrane-white or lime-white spot, and for a snow-white spot –

by which the priest is required to render decisions regarding on which day in the process of the sufferer’s diagnosis or purification process he can be pronounced defiled and on which day he can be pronounced rid of this defilement. This is the law of tzara’at.”

Defilement Contracted by Men via Abnormal Discharges
GOD spoke to Moses, instructing him to convey His words to Aaron, saying,

“Speak, the two of you, to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘The following laws are those governing ritual defilement from discharges originating in the reproductive organs. If any man has a discharge of a specific type of non-seminal fluid from the orifice of his reproductive organ – this fluid being similar in consistency to the liquid that exudes from barley dough and similar in color to the white of an egg that was incubated so long that it will no longer hatch – his discharge is itself ritually defiled and renders anyone who touches it ritually defiled.

Contracting Defilement via a Defiled Object
Anyone who touches an object that the man with the discharge reclined upon, or reclines on such an object even without touching it (for example, by reclining upon any number of ritually undefiled blankets that are spread over a bed upon which the man with the discharge reclined), becomes ritually defiled. In addition, any garments that this person is touching or otherwise wearing while this ritual impurity is being transmitted to him also become ritually defiled. He must therefore immerse his garments and immerse himself in the water of a mikveh, after which he will remain ritually defiled until nightfall, at which time he and his garments will become rid of this defilement.

Based on this, it goes without saying that anyone who directly touches the flesh of the man with the discharge becomes ritually defiled, and, in addition, any garments he is touching or otherwise wearing while this ritual impurity is being transmitted to him also become ritually defiled. He must therefore immerse his garments and immerse himself in the water of a mikveh, after which he and his garments will remain defiled until nightfall, at which time he and his garments will become rid of this defilement.

Whoever touches any such part of the saddle that was ‘under’ the man with the discharge – i.e., that he leaned upon but did not sit upon – becomes ritually defiled, but his garments do not become defiled. Thus, he is only required to immerse himself in a mikveh and wait until nightfall in order to become rid of this defilement; he does not have to immerse his garments. The law regarding the saliva of the man with the discharge also applies to the discharge itself, the man’s vital seed, his urine, and objects on which he has reclined, sat, or ridden. Whoever carries them becomes ritually defiled, as do any garments this person is touching or otherwise wearing while this ritual impurity is being transmitted to him. He must therefore immerse his garments and immerse himself in the water of a mikveh, after which he and his garments will remain defiled until nightfall, at which time he and his garments will become rid of this defilement.

Defilement Contracted via Menstruation
Just as men contract ritual defilement from both normal and abnormal discharges from their reproductive organ (i.e., seminal and non-seminal discharges, respectively), women also contract ritual defilement from both normal and abnormal discharges from their reproductive organ (i.e., menstrual blood and non-menstrual blood, respectively). But whereas for men, normal and abnormal discharges are differentiated by the color and consistency of the discharge, for women, normal and abnormal discharges are distinguished solely by the date on which they occur. If a woman has a uterine discharge, and her discharge, based on the day it begins, is deemed to be menstrual blood, she becomes ritually defiled, as will be described presently. In order not to ritually defile other people or implements, she must refrain from touching them or letting them touch her. She must remain in her state of separation from contact for exactly seven days, regardless of how long her flow actually lasts. If her discharge has ceased by the end of the seventh day of her menstruation period, she may immerse herself after nightfall and thus become rid of this defilement. During her period of separation, whoever touches her will become ritually defiled and must immerse themselves in a mikveh, after which they will remain defiled until nightfall, at which time they will become rid of this defilement.

Even if he reclines or sits indirectly on an object that she reclined upon or sat upon, he still becomes ritually defiled to the same degree as if he had touched that object. Also, with regard to any part of a saddle other than the seat (e.g., the pommel or the cantle), if she leans on it without sitting on it and then someone touches it, only he himself becomes ritually defiled, not his garments. Thus, he is only required to immerse himself in a mikveh and wait until nightfall in order to become rid of this defilement; he does not have to immerse his garments.

Thus, throughout the duration of her discharge, any object intended for reclining upon that she reclines upon will be treated – with regard to becoming defiled and defiling other entities – the same way as an object intended for reclining upon is treated during her period of menstrual separation. Similarly, any object intended for sitting upon that she sits upon will thereby become defiled in the same way such an object becomes defiled during her period of menstrual defilement.

On the eighth day, she must take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest after coming with them to the entrance to the Courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.

The priest must sacrifice them, one as a sin-offering and the other as an ascent-offering, and thus the priest will effect atonement for her, before GOD, from the defilement of her discharge. She may then consume sacrificial meat and enter the Tabernacle precincts.’

Tell the court: ‘You must thus separate the Israelites from their defilement, so that they not die on account of their defilement as part of the punishment of excision for defiling My Sanctuary, which is in their midst, by entering it while ritually defiled.

Conclusion; Defilement Contracted by Men via Abnormal Discharges
The following is a summary of the law pertaining to a man who has an abnormal discharge; this type of ritual defilement includes several cases, which we will now list in order of increasing severity. The first is that of a man who has a single abnormal discharge. The defilement contracted by a man who has a single abnormal discharge is the same as that of a man who has a seminal discharge: This single discharge causes him to become defiled only for the rest of that day, during which he may immerse himself in a mikveh, after which he remains defiled until nightfall, at which time he becomes totally rid of this defilement. (The laws pertaining to a man who has two or more abnormal discharges were given above.)