Keilim, Chapter 1, Mishnah 7. The closing mishnayot of this chapter climb a ladder of holiness, beginning with the sanctity of Eretz Yisrael and rising level by level toward the innermost part of the Beit Hamikdash. Our mishnah takes the next step on that ladder: within Eretz Yisrael itself there are places that carry a greater measure of holiness than the rest of the land, and they are the cities surrounded by a wall.
The mishnah opens: "Ayarot hamukafot chomah mekudashot mimenah", cities encircled by a wall are holier than the land in general. The walls in question are not any wall built at any time. The mishnah refers to cities that stood walled from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun, when Bnei Yisrael first entered the land and took possession of it.
What is the practical expression of this added holiness? "Shemeshalchin mitochan et hametzoraim", a person stricken with tzara'at is sent out of such a city. The Torah obligates us to remove the metzora from a walled city, and the source of this law lies in the way Bnei Yisrael were encamped in the midbar.
The Three Camps in the Midbar
The encampment in the wilderness was arranged in what we may picture as three concentric circles, each with its own degree of sanctity.
- At the very center lay the machaneh Shechinah, the zone of the Mishkan, where Hashem's Presence rested. Of the three, this ring bore the highest sanctity.
- Wrapped around it was the machaneh Leviyah, the area allotted to shevet Levi for their tents.
- Stretching beyond that was the machaneh Yisrael, home to the remaining tribes of the nation.
From the pesukim we learn that the metzora is not merely removed from the holiest area. He is sent outside all three camps entirely.
The Three Camps in Yerushalayim
When Bnei Yisrael eventually entered Eretz Yisrael and the Beit Hamikdash was built, the same three tiers of holiness reappeared in Yerushalayim, each one corresponding to a camp of the midbar.
- The Beit Hamikdash itself, together with the azarot around it, formed the core of sanctity, and it bore the very title machaneh Shechinah.
- Whatever lay outside that on Har Habayit, the balance of the mountain, held the status that shevet Levi's encampment had held in the wilderness.
- Yerushalayim beyond the mountain took the place of the machaneh Yisrael.
Since the metzora must be outside all three camps, he had no place anywhere within Yerushalayim.
When the nation crossed into Eretz Yisrael, Yehoshua bin Nun broadened this arrangement. Every city that stood behind a wall received, in this matter, the identical standing as Yerushalayim, so that a metzora could not remain in any such city and was expelled from it, and not from Yerushalayim alone.
A Corpse Within the City
The mishnah continues with a second law: "umsovevin letochan met ad sheyirtzu", a corpse may be carried about from place to place inside a walled city. This is permitted even though moving it around delays the burial and lengthens the time that the body remains within the city. Burial itself inside such a city requires authorization: it may take place only with the consent of the chachamim, the rabbis of that place.
Then the mishnah marks the boundary: "yatza, ein machzirin oto", once the body has been brought outside the city, there is no returning it. The reasoning is that tum'ah should not be added to a place of such sanctity. So long as the corpse is still inside the walls, it may be shifted from spot to spot for as long as the burial has yet to take place and the tovei ha'ir, the men entrusted with the affairs of the city, have not yet given their consent. But after it has left, this source of tum'ah stays outside, even should the townspeople want it interred among them.
So this mishnah teaches us that holiness in Eretz Yisrael is not uniform. The walled cities of Yehoshua's day inherited a share of the sanctity of the camps in the midbar, and with that sanctity came real obligations: the metzora is removed, and tum'ah, once removed, is not invited back in.