9
votes
Accepted
How is צָרַעַת (skin disease) like snow?
According to the first Mishna in Nega'im, the brightest color of Tzara'ath is the white of snow.
מַרְאוֹת נְגָעִים שְׁנַיִם שֶׁהֵן אַרְבָּעָה. בַּהֶרֶת עַזָּה כַשֶּׁלֶג, שְׁנִיָּה לָהּ כְּסִיד ...
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8
votes
How painful is tzara'at
I can't tell you how much pain a metzora would suffer, but a couple of Mefarshim indicate that they did experience some amount of pain.
Abarbanel to Vayikra 13:1 explains why Tzara'as is called a ...
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8
votes
Why is a full haircut part of the Metzora's purification process?
The Sefer Hachinuch in mitzva 174 writes:
משרשי המצוה. קצת מן הטעם שאמרנו למעלה (מצוה קעג) במים כדי שיראה האדם כאלו היום נברא והיום מתחיל שערו לצמח ויחדש מעשיו לטוב,
A partial explanation of the root ...
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7
votes
Accepted
Why didn't people conceal Tzaraat?
According to Sefer HaChinuch (Positive Commandment 169) there is an obligation incumbent upon someone afflicted with suspected tzara'at to show it to a kohen:
שמצוה היא עלינו שכל מי שיהיה מצרע ...
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7
votes
Accepted
Real green hair?
Yarok here means yellow, as DoubleAA wrote in the comments. As for your question, what is the difference between Yarok and Tzahov, see Rashi on the passuk who says Tzahov is similar to gold. So now we ...
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5
votes
Accepted
Leviticus 13:4 Quarantined where?
The Shadal states that he is quarantined in his own house.
More interestingly, however, he quotes the Rash as saying that the translation of that verse is not "the kohen quarantines the one with the ...
- 507
5
votes
Accepted
Why is the title "אדם" considered important?
The Zohar says it in Tazria 3:48a:
תָּאנָא בְּכַמָּה דַּרְגִּין אִתְקְרֵי בַּר נָשׁ: אָדָם, גֶּבֶר, אֱנוֹשׁ, אִישׁ. גָּדוֹל שֶׁבְּכֻלָּם אָדָם
It demonstrates this from the fact that the word ...
- 6,487
5
votes
Gechazi's accursed descendants
Interesting theory as to the potential translation into psoriasis, but it seems unlikely based on Rav Hirsch's challenges to those who compared tza'raas to leprosy:
Tzaraat is not 'leprosy' as we ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Why can a baby get Tzaraas?
Negaim i.e Tzaraas skin disease - takes effect against our will whether we sin or not even without prior warning (despite the fact that sometimes one is warned as questioner assumes)Yalkut Shimoni ...
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4
votes
Nigei Batim / Tzara'as of houses with a house and another level (aliya)
This halacha is brought in the Mishnah Negaim 13:3 in which it says that the upper floor is reinforced and kept standing:
בַּיִת שֶׁנִּרְאָה בוֹ נֶגַע, הָיְתָה עֲלִיָּה עַל גַּבָּיו, נוֹתֵן אֶת ...
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4
votes
Making tamei tahor and tahor tamei - Negaim
Chazal do note this, but they put their observation into the mouth of Korach: see Yerushalmi Sanhedrin, where Korach points out a series of inconsistencies in halachah, including the paradox of whole-...
- 2,361
3
votes
Do Kohanim check Tzaraas on covered parts of the body?
I'd like to propose two reasons why it should be permissible.
First. The Kohen uncovers a Sotah's hair (Bamidbar 5:18). We see from here that a Kohen may uncover a woman in places she normally ...
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3
votes
Priests and leprosy
Note that the meforshim (Rav Hirsh, Rav Sorotzkin, Ramban, Rambam, etc.) point out that tzara'at is not a natural disease and cannot be treated as a normal disease. That is, it is not similar to ...
- 42.9k
3
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between a house imparting impurity from the inside and to one entering it? (Nega'im 13:4)
Isn't a house imparting impurity from inside it doing so to one entering it?
Not always. There's a Mishna later on (13:9) the describes that while you become impure upon entry, the clothes you are ...
- 42.8k
3
votes
Why would the Torah give us mitzvot that will never actually happen?
Rav SR Hirsch addresses this question in one of his essays (which you can find online at https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/ben_sorar_moreh.pdf). He explains that these mitzvos have important ...
3
votes
Accepted
Why would the Torah give us mitzvot that will never actually happen?
In a shiur by Rav Zvi Sobolofsky on YUTorah called "Inyanei Sfeikos 12," Rav Sobolofsky discusses the
"בית המנוגע" (house of leprosy) and notes that while even though this is ...
- 12k
3
votes
Accepted
When does טומאת הסגר begin?
You asked: From what point is the closed-up person, garment, or house m'tame?
Short snswer: When the Cohen makes a verbal declaration to that effect.
Details and sources:
The Rambam on the Mishna ...
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2
votes
Paradox in Tzarat
Rav Ozer Alport addresses this question in his weekly parsha sheet.
"The Shaarei Simcha answers that people who are well-known for their evil ways will have a difficult time trying to ensnare ...
- 41.1k
2
votes
Accepted
Why are doubtful nega'im (generally) pure? (Nega'im 5:1)
In short, the rational is the rules of Chazaka. My answer is based on the Rash Negayim 4.11.
See Nazir 65b
MISHNA: Any case of uncertainty with regard to leprous sores is initially deemed pure until ...
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2
votes
Is the punishment for loshan hara death or tzaraas?
I think the answer can come from a fundamental appreciation of the genre of the Talmudic derasha. The purpose was homiletic, to exhort the masses and inspire them, rather than to be a valid kal ...
- 20.4k
2
votes
Are there opinions that argue that tzaraas = leprosy?
In Fred Rosner's Medicine in the Bible & the Talmud, which is in large part a re-working of Julius Preuss's Biblisch-Talmudische Medizin, he includes an introductory essay by Alexander Suessman ...
- 6,482
2
votes
Accepted
Can one remove the impurity of Tzara’at on a garment by dying it?
This halacha is discussed later on in the perek - Negaim 11:12 according to the interpretation of the Ra”v, Tiferes Yisroel and others:
בֶּגֶד הַמֻּסְגָּר שֶׁנִּתְעָרֵב בַּאֲחֵרִים, כֻּלָּן טְהוֹרִים....
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1
vote
Can one say to the Kohen, "A nega appeared on my body"?
Tosefot Yom Tov ad loc. writes that logically it should apply to all kinds of nega'im, as the reasons for not being definitive regarding house-tzara'at apply equally well to other forms of tzara'at.
...
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1
vote
What does R. Meir hold about the case in Nega'im 6:2?
It seems that the Yachin asks and answers your question:
1. ובמשנה ב' לא פליג ר"מ. Rabbi Meir agrees in mishna 2
התם מדמחיה כעדשה סי' טומאה הוא
א"כ כשפושה לתוכה. נראה שנתרפא הסי' ...
- 22.7k
1
vote
Accepted
What does R. Meir hold about the case in Nega'im 6:2?
The Tosfos Yom Tov ask this very question וקשיא לי א"כ לפלוג ר"מ בהא כדקא פליג בסיפא
דמטמא משום פסיון he has 2 answers:
. ושמא י"ל דסתמא כרבנן וה"ל סתם ואח"כ מחלוקת This Mishna (2) follows Rabanan ...
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1
vote
R. Akiva's opinion regarding tzara'at that expands and contracts (Nega'im 4:7-8)
According to the Bartenura, in Mishna 8 the baheret only "moved from West to Est" without changing size. The change of place can be seen as if the first Nega disappeared and a second, new ...
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1
vote
Asymmetry of R. Meir's times to inspect tzara'at (Nega'im 2:2)
See the nusach of the Rabenu Shimshon following the Torat Kohanim.
אימתי רואין בשלש שעות ובארבע ובחמש ובשש ובשבע ובשמנה ובתשע
דברי ר"מ
Can be this makes sense.
The Melechet Shelomo says that ...
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1
vote
How is צָרַעַת (skin disease) like snow?
While I'm giving Danny the space to still improve his answer, and agree with his position (see Mendelssohn's Biur here for some discussion of this, and see also Targum Shiv'im here as to whether or ...
- 20.9k
1
vote
Accepted
Razor used by Leviyim, Nezirim and Lepers
The gemara you reported in Nazir 40a taught that Leviim, Nazir and Metsora have a mitsva to shave with a blade(1). This is a Mitsvat asse, the Mitsvat asse pushes out the mitsvat lo taasse, the ...
- 22.7k
1
vote
Why would the Torah give us mitzvot that will never actually happen?
From the point of view of Yediyat Hashem, even if we don't ever perform them, just knowing that this is what Hashem would want in this case tells us something about Him.
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