Negaim, Chapter 14, Mishnah 11. We are in the middle of the process by which the metzora is brought to full purity, and this mishnah takes us to the log of oil that accompanies his korbanos on the eighth day.
One point of method before we begin. Rebbi Yehuda HaNasi, who arranged the mishnayos, takes for granted that whoever learns them already knows the parshiyos thoroughly. The material in front of us, the korbanos of the metzora and the stages of his purification, is set out in the opening of parshas Metzora, and the mishnah simply builds on it without repeating it.
The pesukim behind the mishnah
The relevant pesukim stand at the head of the parshah, in Vayikra, perek yud daled. Pasuk yud opens with the eighth day, "u'vayom hashmini", and lists the animals: "yikach shnei kevasim temimim", two male lambs free of any blemish, and "vekavsah achas bas shenasah temimah", one female lamb in its first year, likewise unblemished. Of the two males, one will be brought as the asham and the second as the olah, while the female serves as the chatas. Next in the pasuk comes the flour offering, "u'shloshah esronim soles", three tenths of an ephah of fine flour, "belulah vashemen", mixed with oil, a minchah that the mishnayos of our perek do not discuss. And then, listed on its own, "velog echad shamen", a single log of oil. It is that log which our mishnah comes to teach about.
The following pasuk, yud alef, describes the presentation: "vehe'emid hakohen hamitaher", the kohen who is conducting the purification stations "es ha'ish hamitaher ve'osam", the man being purified along with his offerings, "lifnei Hashem pesach Ohel Moed", before Hashem at the doorway of the Ohel Moed. The pasuk goes on that the kohen takes one of the male lambs, "vehikriv oso le'asham", designating it as the asham while it is still alive, and together with "log hashemen" he performs a tenufah with the two of them, "lifnei Hashem".
The tenufah of the log
Our mishnah says nothing about this waving. The Bartenura does mention that the asham was waved, but he says nothing of the log of oil being lifted along with it. It is Hilchos Mechusrei Kaparah where the Rambam records that both the asham and its log were waved together, and he locates the act a little away from Sha'ar Nikanor. The Ra'avad takes issue and maintains that it was performed at Sha'ar Nikanor itself. Some meforshim understand that the kohen and the metzora held the offerings and waved them as one. A plain reading of the pesukim supports the Rambam's view that the kohen acted alone, for the entire passage has the kohen as its subject: he stands the man there, he designates the animal as an asham, and he performs the tenufah. The Rambam further rules that even if the asham and the log were lifted one after the other rather than at once, the requirement has been met bedi'eved.
An aside on learning the Rambam
When we first began these mishnayos, I dedicated our learning le'ilui nishmaso of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zatzal, rosh yeshiva in Har Etzion, with whom I learned in the Gush more than forty years ago. He once remarked that there are two Rishonim to whom one turns for the plain sense of a Gemara, Rashi and the Rambam. Rashi of course, but also the Rambam, because the very way he formulates a halachah in the Yad often reveals how he understood the sugya. That is exactly what happens here: the Rambam's presentation opens up the whole perek for us.
The Rambam's sequence
In Hilchos Mechusrei Kaparah, perek daled, in the middle of halachah beis, the Rambam first describes the placing of the blood of the asham on the metzora, on the tenuch ozen, the bohen yad, the bohen regel and the head. Then he adds something the mishnah never tells us: "ve'achar kach yakriv chataso ve'olaso", afterwards he brings the metzora's chatas and olah. The blood of the asham must come first; only once that stage is complete do the chatas and the olah follow.
The Rambam goes on that provided the blood has already been applied to the behonos, the kohen scoops from the log of oil and pours it out "lechoch kapo shel chaveiro hasmalis", into the hollow of the left palm of another kohen, and if instead he poured it into the hollow of his own hand, that too is valid. Observe that the left hand is specified here, a detail our mishnah leaves open. He then dips his right etzba, the index finger (etzba is the term for the index finger), into the oil lying in the palm, and makes seven sprinklings facing the Beis Kodesh HaKodashim, with a fresh dip of the finger before each and every hazayah. And should he have sprinkled without directing himself accurately toward the Beis Kodesh HaKodashim, the sprinklings hold nonetheless.
Next, the Rambam continues, the kohen approaches the metzora and applies oil to the very spots that received the blood: the ridge of the ear, the right thumb and the right big toe, "al mekom dam ha'asham". Whatever oil is still lying in his palm, "vehanosar min hashemen shebekapo", he sets upon the head of the one undergoing taharah. Worth noticing is the Rambam's wording, hamistaher, with the reflexive tav, whereas the Torah writes hamitaher. Should he fail to place it there, "lo kiper", no atonement has been achieved, exactly as our mishnah teaches. And once the avodah of the log has been finished, whatever remains of it is shared out among the kohanim.
The mishnah itself
Now to the mishnah itself. We are at a stage where the asham's blood has already been applied to the ear, thumb, toe and head. The kohen now "notel mi'log hashemen", takes from that log of oil which the Torah spoke of but which the mishnah has been silent about until this point, "veyotzek lechoch kapo shel chaveiro", pouring it into the cupped palm of another kohen. Which hand is not specified by the mishnah, though the Rambam, as we saw, names the left. The mishnah adds that pouring into the hollow of his own palm also suffices, "yatza". Perhaps the Rambam's ruling can be grounded right here: a kohen doing this by himself necessarily pours out of his right hand into his left, and there is no reason to assume the arrangement changes when a second kohen holds the oil; his left palm is used as well.
The Rav explains where the log was until now: it had been brought up together with the asham to the place of the shechitah in the north, and it stood ready there, since that is where the tenufah of the oil together with the living asham had taken place. By this point the asham has of course been slaughtered, for its blood was already needed for the metzora's purification. Its blood was received in the mizrak and thrown on the mizbe'ach by one kohen, while another kohen received a portion of the blood in his hand and performed the placing of the blood on the metzora's ear, thumb, toe and head.
On "kapo shel chaveiro" the Rav explains the source: the pasuk says "veyatzak al kaf hakohen", he pours onto the palm of the kohen, which implies that the kohen performing the sprinklings poured into the palm of a different kohen. That is the lechatchilah. If he poured into his own palm, he is yotzei bedi'eved.
The seven sprinklings
The mishnah continues: "taval vehizah sheva pe'amim", he dipped and made seven sprinklings in the direction of the Beis Kodesh HaKodashim. The Rav points to the Torah's words, "sheva pe'amim lifnei Hashem", sprinkling seven times in Hashem's presence. He is careful to spell out what this does not involve: the kohen did not carry the oil inside the Heichal to sprinkle it toward the paroches, the way it is done on Yom Kippur and with those chata'os whose blood enters within. He remained in the azarah at a distance from the Heichal, faced toward the Beis Kodesh HaKodashim, and sprinkled the oil onto the azarah floor. And as the Rambam rules, even if his direction was not precisely westward, he is yotzei.
"Al kol hazayah tevilah", every sprinkling required its own dipping. The Rav explains: each time he was about to sprinkle he dipped his finger in the oil afresh. He was not to dip once, taking up a generous amount of oil sufficient for two or three sprinklings. The words "sheva pe'amim" refer not only to the sprinklings but to the dippings as well. Hence seven dippings corresponding to seven sprinklings.
The oil on the metzora
"Ba lo eitzel hametzora", the kohen comes over to the metzora, and "makom shenosein es hadam, sham hu nosein es hashemen": every spot that received the blood now receives the oil, the source being the words "al mekom dam ha'asham", upon the site of the asham's blood. Then "vehanosar min hashemen", the oil left over, "shel kaf hakohen", from the palm that was used, whether it belongs to him or to his colleague, is placed "al rosh hamitaher lechaper", upon the head of the one being purified, so that atonement is brought about for him.
Is the oil on the head indispensable?
The mishnah closes with a dispute between Tanna'im. According to Rebbi Akiva, "ve'im lo nasan, lo kiper": leaving the head without oil means that the kaparah has not come about, and this is the view we follow. Rebbi Yochanan ben Nuri argues otherwise. In his opinion the oil for the head is nothing more than "sheyarei mitzvah", the tail end of the mitzvah, so that whether it was applied or omitted, "kiper", the atonement stands. Yet even he adds that "ma'alin alav", it is reckoned against the man, "ke'ilu lo kiper".
What are sheyarei mitzvah? They are the leftover parts of an avodah. Consider Yom Kippur: when the Kohen Gadol has completed the sprinklings on the golden mizbe'ach, the blood that is left over is carried out into the azarah and poured onto the yesod at the southwestern corner of the large copper mizbe'ach. As a rule the leftover blood of a chatas is meant to be poured out in that fashion, but if it was not, the korban remains valid after the fact. Rebbi Yochanan ben Nuri places the oil for the head in the same category: applied or not, the kaparah has taken effect. Nevertheless it is reckoned against him, and the Rav clarifies that this reckoning is before Heaven. He has fulfilled his obligation, yet Heaven records that he did not carry out the mitzvah in its finest manner, min hamuvchar.
We do not follow Rebbi Yochanan ben Nuri. Where no oil reached the metzora's head, he has not attained kaparah, since that concluding application is part of what atones for him. The Rambam does record one exception, and it is bound up with the next clause of our mishnah.
When the log is diminished
The mishnah continues with "chasar halog". The Rambam expresses it as nishpach, spilled. This needs clarification. Obviously the log grows smaller as the service proceeds, since oil is being sprinkled westward and applied to the metzora's body, so at every stage there is less than a full log. That natural diminishing is not what the mishnah means. The case is where some of the oil actually spilled out. At certain stages one may simply refill the log and continue, and at certain stages a completely new log must be brought, and the service resumes from the point that had been reached, as we will see, and there is a machlokes Tanna'im about where the dividing line falls.
"Chasar halog ad shelo yatzak, yemaleno": should the log lose oil before the yetzikah, meaning before the oil was poured into the palm, it is simply topped up. The Rav explains the reasoning. We do not treat the mere placing of the oil into the log, a klei shareis that holds precisely a log, which is a quarter of a hin, as the act that establishes its status such that a loss would disqualify it. It is the pouring into the palm which establishes it and renders it liable to become pasul if some is lost. Before that pouring, then, replacing what was lost is enough. "Misheyatzak, yavi acher betechilah, divrei Rebbi Akiva": from the moment the oil was poured into the palm, any spill obliges him to bring a fresh klei shareis containing a new log and to start the avodah over.
Rebbi Shimon draws the line elsewhere: "chasar halog ad shelo nasan, yemalenu." The Rav understands "ad shelo nasan" as before the seven matanos, the seven sprinklings toward the Beis Kodesh HaKodashim, were finished. In Rebbi Shimon's view, even once the oil has been poured into the palm, so long as those seven sprinklings are not yet complete, a shortfall may be made good by refilling. "Mishenasan, yavi acher betechilah": with the seven sprinklings behind him, the status of the log is fixed, and any spill calls for a new log, the avodah resuming from wherever it had reached. Rebbi Shimon, in other words, makes matan sheva the fixing act rather than the yetzikah, as Rebbi Akiva maintains. We do not rule this way.
The Rambam's rulings on a log that spilled
Turn now to the Rambam, Hilchos Mechusrei Kaparah, perek hey, halachah hey. The case: the oil was poured into his palm, the sprinklings were begun, and then the log was spilled, nishpach. If the spilling happened while the seven matanos were not yet finished, he brings a different log and starts the seven sprinklings from their beginning. That is a ruling along the lines of Rebbi Akiva and not of Rebbi Shimon, who at this point would have permitted a mere topping up.
Where the seven had been completed and only then did the log spill, since the yetzikah had already fixed the log's status, a replacement log is required and he resumes at the behonos, the ear, the thumb and the toe. And if he had already begun the behonos when the oil spilled, before finishing them, once again he takes a different log and does the behonos over from their start.
Now comes a fascinating ruling. Suppose the behonos were all finished, thumb and toe included, and the spilling occurred only afterwards, before the oil remaining in his palm had been put upon the head of the one being purified. In such a case no further log is needed at all, because the application to the head is not indispensable, and the Rambam proves it from the language of the pesukim, which call it what is left over of the oil, "vehanosar" and "miyoser hashemen".
This appears to contradict what the Rambam himself ruled earlier, following Rebbi Akiva, that if the oil was not placed on the head the metzora is not mechupar. And note that the Rambam took Rebbi Akiva at full strength: not merely that Heaven regards it as though no atonement occurred, but that the metzora genuinely is not purified. Yet here, where the oil spilled, he rules that the metzora is pure even though nothing was placed on his head.
This question is taken up by many Acharonim. The Kesef Mishneh brings it citing the Mahari Korkus, and the Perush HaRosh poses it independently, and the two arrive at the same resolution. In the Rambam's understanding, Rebbi Akiva treats the application to the head as indispensable only while the oil is actually sitting in the palm. Once the oil is gone, having spilled out, the requirement is no longer indispensable after the fact, and he is under no obligation to refill the log in order to place oil on the head. The difficulty in the Rambam thus falls away, and with that our mishnah is complete.