Negaim, Chapter 5, Mishnah 3. This mishnah carries forward the subject of the tumah of negaim found on ohr habasar, a person's skin, most of which is able to contract this tumah. To be susceptible, the nega has to be a baheres kagris: a white mark whose area equals a gris, and a gris amounts to nine adashim (lentils). The Mishnah states this outright in Perek Vov, that a gris is tesha adashim.
It is worth recalling the framework. The four white shades and their admixtures listed in the first perek of the mesechta do not themselves make a person tamei. They only establish that the spot is of a shade that is susceptible to tzara'as. The actual simanei tumah number three, and all three must appear within a white spot the size of a gris:
- Se'ar lavan: a pair of hairs that had been black and which the discoloration turned white.
- Michyah: a square of healthy, living flesh sitting in the middle of the nega.
- Pisyon: when a week of hesger runs out, or when the second such week runs out, no additional siman is present, yet the nega has expanded across the person's skin.
A word about the word baheres. In the opening mishnah of the mesechta, baheres denotes specifically the brightest of the white shades. Here, and generally in these mishnayos, baheres serves as a shorthand for any of the susceptible white shades and their admixtures.
The first case: hachlatah through se'ar lavan
The Mishnah begins: "Hechlito b'se'ar lavan." At the very first examination the kohen pronounced this man a metzora muchlat, having discovered inside the baheres two hairs that had been black and which the nega had turned white. Afterward, "halach se'ar lavan": those two white hairs vanished. The man calls the kohen back, and this time the kohen sees "v'chazar se'ar lavan": white hair is present once again.
And it is not only the return of the original siman that keeps him where he was. The Mishnah adds "v'chein b'michyah uv'pisyon." Suppose the white hair left and never came back, but in its place the kohen now finds a michyah, a different siman of tumah altogether. Or suppose that at the end of a week there is no white hair and no michyah, but there is pisyon: the nega has grown in size.
When are these possible? "Bitchilah, uv'sof shavua rishon, b'sof shavua sheini, o le'achar haptur." At the initial examination; or once the first week of hesger runs out, when the kohen arrives and sees that the original pair of white hairs is missing but a second pair has grown in, or a michyah, or pisyon; or once the second week runs out; or even later still, after the kohen had already pronounced him tahor and his korbanos had been offered, and only then did white hair reappear, or a michyah surface in that same baheres, or that baheres expand. Take note that pisyon cannot function at the initial examination, since it counts only when a week of hesger closes or when the second week closes.
In every one of these situations the ruling is "harei hu k'mo shehayah": this unfortunate man stands exactly where he stood before. He remains a metzora muchlat, and he must wait for the affliction to abate and undergo the entire process of purification once more.
The second case: hachlatah through michyah
The identical pattern now governs the second siman. "Hechlito b'michyah": when the kohen examined him initially he saw no white hair, but he did find a michyah. Michyah, no less than se'ar lavan, renders a person tamei at once, so the kohen declares him muchlat immediately. This is not hesger, the temporary quarantine during which the kohen waits out a week before deciding, but genuine hachlatah, which banishes him chutz lamachaneh, beyond the camp, as a metzora muchlat.
Then "v'halchah hamichyah": the living flesh vanished. And at the next inspection, "v'chazrah hamichyah": the michyah is there once more. Alternatively, "v'chein b'se'ar lavan": no michyah remains, but two hairs that had been black now show white. Or else, once a week of hesger runs out, or once the second such week runs out, neither michyah nor white hair is present, yet the nega has covered more of the man's skin.
Here as well every stage is included: bitchilah, once the first week of hesger closes, once the second closes, and le'achar haptur. Should any one of these simanim turn up on that very baheres, "harei hu k'mo shehayah": he reverts to the status of a full metzora muchlat.
The third case: hachlatah through pisyon
"Hechlito b'pisyon." Bear in mind that spreading accomplishes nothing at the initial examination. Even if the nega is visibly expanding right in front of the kohen at that first visit, it carries no weight. Pisyon begins to operate only once a week of hesger has run its course. So this man was placed in hesger, the kohen came back a week later and saw that the baheres had grown, and on that basis pronounced him muchlat.
Now the same reversals: "halach hapisyon v'chazar hapisyon." During the days separating the two weeks the spread pulled back and the spot returned to the measure it had before; then, when the kohen arrives after the second week, the spreading has resumed and the nega is larger again. Alternatively, "v'chein b'se'ar lavan": the growth receded so that the spot once again measures just a gris, but a se'ar lavan has now emerged. The Mishnah supplies the times: "b'sof shavua rishon, b'sof shavua sheini, le'achar haptur": when the first week closes, when the second closes, or even after the kohen had pronounced him tahor. In each instance, "harei hu k'mo shehayah": his status as a metzora returns.
Why michyah is omitted in the case of pisyon
Observe that in this third instance the Mishnah leaves out the clause about michyah. The Rav poses precisely this question: why is the situation in which the spreading withdrew and a michyah then developed absent from this list? His answer is that a michyah arriving in such circumstances could at times leave the man tahor, namely when its presence cuts the nega down below the minimum measure.
The Tosfos Yom Tov clarifies what is meant, and in doing so he addresses a difficulty from an earlier mishnah. We learned there that a baheres of nine adashim may contain a michyah the size of one adash, and the baheres is still considered a full gris; the michyah must sit within a baheres kagris, and even though the white area now measures only eight adashim, the michyah is still a valid siman when it is centered. So how could a michyah ever reduce the nega below the shiur?
The Tosfos Yom Tov explains that the Rav has in mind a michyah of unusual size, one that surfaces after the spreading has withdrawn. Recall michyah's requirements: it has to be square and intact, and it has to be centered, meaning that white must border it on every side by at least the width of shtei se'aros, two hairs. Once the nega has contracted, a michyah can be large enough that no such two-hair frame of white remains around it, and then it is no siman whatsoever and the man is tahor.
That is why the Mishnah leaves michyah out specifically in the case of pisyon. But the same limitation could apply in the earlier cases as well, if the michyah that appeared there were similarly oversized; the Mishnah simply teaches the point in one place and it carries over to the others. And where the michyah is a small one, the halachah here is just like the rest of the Mishnah: the metzora is muchlat once again.