Negaim, Chapter 8, Mishnah 8. This chapter deals with pricha, whiteness that spreads until it covers a man's whole body: when it issues from a nega that was already muchlat and tamei it is metaher, and when it issues from a nega that stood tahor it is metamei. Until now the mishnayos dealt with a man who already had a history with the kohen, whether a hachlatah, or a taharah that followed the blackening of the white hairs or the disappearance of the michyah. Our mishnah takes up an entirely different situation: a man who presents himself to the kohen for the very first time, before any hesger and before any hachlatah, already covered from head to foot in white.
The Opening Ruling
"Haba kulo lavan yaskir." One who comes before the kohen already entirely white is placed in hesger. He is not turned away, nor is he immediately declared muchlat.
"Nolad lo se'ar lavan, yachlit." If during that period two white hairs appear in the white area, the kohen declares him muchlat. Although this is a baheres gedolah covering the entire body rather than the small baheres of the earlier chapters, the siman of se'ar lavan functions here exactly as it does there.
What Undoes the Se'ar Lavan
The mishnah now lists the developments that dissolve the hachlatah, in a list nearly identical to the one we learned in the first perek concerning what separates between the white hairs and the baheres:
- "Hishchiru shteihen o achas meihen": both hairs turned black again, or even one of them.
- "Hitztzaru shteihen o achas meihen": both were shortened, or even one of them, below the length at which a hair can be caught and cut by a scissors.
- "Nismach lahen hashchin": a shchin, a boil, which is a separate category of tumah and cannot host a baheres, arose adjacent to the hairs and interposes between them and the white, whether by both of the hairs or by one of them.
- "Hikif hashchin es shteihen o es achas meihen": the shchin encircled both or one of them.
- "Chilkan hashchin": the shchin divided between them.
- The same applies to "michyas hashchin", to the michvah, a burn, and to "michyas hamichvah", and to bohak.
Shchin and michvah are closely parallel conditions; they differ only in their cause, the michvah being produced by actual heat and the shchin by a wound, infection or the like. Each of these, together with the living flesh within them and with bohak, interposes between the hairs and the white, and thereby removes the siman tumah.
Michyah and Se'ar Lavan Afterwards
Michyah and Se'ar Lavan Afterwards
What can develop during that hesger? Two things only. Should a patch of living flesh surface somewhere in that great white field, or should white hairs sprout in it, the verdict is "tamei." And if the week passes with neither of these two simanim showing itself, the verdict is "tahor." Observe what is absent from the list: pisyon. Spreading has no place in his case, for he arrived at the kohen with the white already reaching from head to foot, leaving the nega nowhere further to go. Michyah and se'ar lavan are therefore the only simanim by which he can be declared tamei.
Rashei Evarim That Reappear
Rashei Evarim That Reappear
The mishnah then turns to a further development that can occur in any of the situations just described, "vechulan": suppose the rashei evarim, the extremities of the limbs, later emerge from under the whiteness. The man's standing is unaffected; he remains "kemo shehayu", exactly in the status he held before they were uncovered.
The Rav lays this out clearly. One who comes entirely white at the outset may end up in any of three positions: he may require hesger, or hachlatah (where white hairs or michyah were found), or a petur, when two weeks passed with no change and no siman of tumah, since pisyon is impossible for him. In every one of these, if afterwards the rashei evarim are uncovered and show as flesh, "harei hein kemo shehayu, tehorim", because the flesh at the tips of the limbs is not reckoned as michyah.
The Rav's three illustrations:
- He came entirely white, was held in hesger for two weeks, no siman of tumah developed, and the kohen declared him tahor. Afterwards the rashei evarim were uncovered. This is rashei evarim returning "mitoch hapetur", and he is tahor.
- The kohen declared him muchlat on account of se'ar lavan, the hairs then turned black, and afterwards the rashei evarim were uncovered. This is rashei evarim returning "mitoch hechleito", and he is tahor.
- At the end of the first week or the end of the second week, with no hachlatah having taken place, the rashei evarim were uncovered. This is rashei evarim returning "mitoch hesger", and here too he is tahor.
Having laid out these three cases, the Rav notes that this is the way the mishnah presents itself when read in light of the Toras Kohanim, and he then adds that the Rambam understood the mishnah differently: "lo peirash kein." Evidently, in the Rambam's view, rashei evarim that come to light in the case of hesger are capable of rendering the man tamei, a point that calls for study in the Rambam's own words.
Spreading Over the Uncovered Limbs
"Parchah bemiktzaso, tamei." After the rashei evarim have been uncovered as healthy flesh, the white spread over part of them. He is tamei, "sheharei pasah hanega", because this is a genuine pisyon.
"Parchah be'chulo, harei hu tahor." If the whiteness then went on to cover him completely, he is tahor. The Rav explains the sequence: the first partial spreading rendered him tamei, so the subsequent covering of the whole body is a pricha issuing from a state of tumah, "dehava lei porei'ach min hatamei", which is metaher.
Everything here depends on that sequence of events. Had matters unfolded otherwise, namely that the rashei evarim were uncovered and the whiteness then engulfed his entire body all at once, "bevas achas", he would be tamei, and tamei on account of pisyon. The reason rests on a principle already familiar to us: exposed rashei evarim are me'akeiv the pricha. So long as those extremities stand revealed, the white spreading over them cannot constitute a valid covering of the body at all; it is nothing more than the nega enlarging itself. The Rav therefore concludes that the ruling of the reisha, where a spread over part of the uncovered limbs makes him tamei, applies with equal force where the spread takes in all of him: in such a case too, he is tamei.
The distinction, then, is one of timing. Rashei evarim that stand exposed at the outset block the pricha and leave the man tamei; rashei evarim that emerge only after the pricha has already covered the entire body do not undo it. And the taharah of our mishnah's final clause is reached only along the path described: partial spreading that renders him tamei and effectively muchlat, followed by a full covering of the body, which is pricha mitoch tumah, and is metaher.