Negaim, Chapter 14, Mishnah 1. The perakim until now have occupied themselves with the negaim themselves, on a person, on garments and on houses, and with the tumah that results. Perek Yud Daled turns to the other side of the story: the taharah of the metzora. Once the kohen has ruled that he is healed and pure, what is actually done with him? Our mishnah takes us step by step through the first stage, the ceremony of the two birds.
The Vessel and the Water
The mishnah opens with a question: "Keitzad metaherin es hametzora?" By what procedure is a metzora brought to his taharah? The answer begins with the first item needed: "Meivi peyali shel cheres chadashah." A peyali of new earthenware is brought. The Rav identifies a peyali with the mizrakim, small basins or bowls, and here the bowl has to be made of earthenware that is fresh and unused.
"Venosein letocho revi'is mayim chayim." Into it he places a revi'is of living water, spring water.
Why does the earthenware have to be new? The answer lies in its connection to the mayim chayim. The pasuk sets the two beside each other, "el kli cheres al mayim chayim," and from that pairing we darshen makish kli lemayim: the vessel is measured against the water. Since the water is water that has never served for any melachah, the vessel too must never have served for any melachah. Water taken straight from a spring or a river has never been used for anything, and the kli is required to be its equal in that respect.
And why specifically a revi'is? The Rav derives it from the words "al hamayim hachayim," which demand that the blood of the shechted bird remain visible in the living water. The chachamim assessed how much water still permits the blood to be noticed, and they set that quantity at a revi'is. The measure, then, is one that reaches us from the chachamim.
The Two Birds
"Umeivi shtei tziporim deror." He brings two tziporim deror. The Rav explains the name: they are called deror because they dwell in a house just as they dwell in the field, semi-domesticated creatures at home in both settings.
"Shochet es achas meihen al kli cheres ve'al mayim chayim." He slaughters one of them over the earthenware vessel and over the living water inside it, so that the blood falls into the spring water in the new kli.
"Chofer vekoverah lefanav." He digs and buries the slaughtered bird right there, in front of the metzora. The Rav gives the reason: the bird is assur behana'ah, forbidden to derive any benefit from, and therefore it must be buried and put beyond use.
The Bundle
"Notal eitz erez ve'eizov ushni tola'as vekorchan bishyarei halashon." He takes a piece of cedar wood, hyssop, and wool dyed crimson, and binds them together with what remains of the tongue of wool.
The Rav describes the picture. He lays the eitz erez and the eizov together with the shni tola'as, and the lashon, the tongue of crimson-dyed wool, extends out beyond the cedar and the hyssop. With that surplus length he winds around them, so that all three of them become a single agudah, one bound bundle.
"Vehikif lahem roshei agapayim verosh hazanav shel shniyah." And he brings alongside them the wing tips and the tip of the tail of the second bird, the living one. Hikif here is a term of drawing near and bringing together, as in the makifin of the mishnah where two containers are set beside one another so that terumah should not be taken shelo min hamukaf. Mukaf means adjacent, joined, touching. So the extremities of the living bird, the tips of its wings and the base of its tail, are brought up against the bundle. The head is not, for obvious reason: the bird is alive, and its head is not going to be plunged into the water.
"Taval." Now he immerses the entire assembly at once: cedar wood, hyssop, crimson wool and the surviving bird, all dipped together into the blood mixed with the water, the bird submerged as far up as its wings.
The Sprinkling
"Vehizah sheva pe'amim le'achar yado shel metzora." Taking up this soaked mixture, he sprinkles seven times on the back of the metzora's hand.
"Veyesh omrim al mitzcho." And there are those who say the sprinkling is placed on his forehead. Their reasoning is drawn from the parallel ceremony of the house afflicted with a negah, where the sprinkling is performed on the mashkof of the house from the outside, on the lintel, the horizontal beam above the doorway that stands at the top of the entrance. That beam is, so to speak, the forehead of the house. Hence the assumption of this opinion that with a person too the sprinkling belongs on the forehead.
The Rav rules, ein halachah keyesh omrim: the halachah does not follow that view. The sprinkling is on the back of the metzora's hand.
"Vechach hayah mazeh al hamashkof shebabayis mibachutz." And in the same manner he would sprinkle upon the lintel of the house that has a negah, from the outside. And that is the close of Mishnah Alef of Perek Yud Daled.