Halakhah zu Bamidbar 5:3

And that is that He commanded us to send away the impure from the camp. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "that they remove from camp anyone with tsaraat or a discharge" (Numbers 5:2). And this camp is the camp of the Divine Presence, outside of which are the compartments of the courtyard - as we explained at the beginning of the Order, Tahorot, in the Commentary on the Mishnah. And it is written in the Sifrei (Sifrei Bamidbar 1:1), "'That they remove from camp' - this is a prohibition for the impure not to enter the Temple while impure." And this command was already repeated with a different language, "If anyone among you has been rendered unclean by a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp" (Deuteronomy 23:11) - meaning the camp of the Divine Presence. And the language of the Mekhilta is, "'Instruct the Israelites that they remove from camp' is a positive commandment. From where [do we know that] it is a negative commandment? 'And they shall not defile the camp' (Numbers 5:3)." And in the Sifrei (Sifrei Devarim 255:4), "'He must leave the camp' - that is a positive commandment." (See Parashat Nasso; Mishneh Torah, Admission into the Sanctuary 3.)

The apparent incongruity in Rabad's position is explained by the late Rabbi Kook in his Mishpat Kohen, no. 96. Throughout the period in which the Temple stood, the Temple site was possessed of two distinct forms of sanctity: sanctity by virtue of the fact that it was the "encampment" of the Shekhinah, and a second sanctity associated with the "walls" of the Temple structure. Rabbi Bezalel Zolti, Torah She-be-'al Peh (5728), X, draws essentially the same distinction and asserts that historically these two different sanctifications occurred at two distinct times: the Temple structure was sanctified by King Solomon, whereas the site was sanctified as the "encampment" of the Shekhinah by King David many years before the Temple was actually built. Punishment of karet is prescribed for defilement of the Temple itself, i.e., the physical structure, as indicated in Numbers 19:20, "That person shall be cut off from the midst of the community for he has defiled the Temple of God." The second prohibition, carrying with it a lesser punishment, reads "And they shall not defile their encampment in the midst whereof I dwell" (Num. 5:3). The latter reference makes no mention of the sanctity of the "walls" but refers to the sanctity of the "encampment." Rabad's position, then, is that the sanctity of the "walls" lapsed with the destruction of the Temple, whereas the sanctity of the "encampment" continues and is in no way abrogated by the destruction of the Temple walls. Consequently, even according to Rabad, the prohibition "They shall not defile their encampment," forbidding a person who has become ritually impure to enter the Temple Mount, remains in force even in our day.

The commandment to send the impure out of the camp of the Divine Presence: To send away the impure from the camp of the Divine Presence, as it is stated (Numbers 5:2), "Command the Children of Israel, and they shall send from the camp anyone with an eruption or a discharge and anyone impure of a soul." And until where was the boundary of the camp of the Divine Presence was known to them in the wilderness. And so [too,] in the [future] generations, the Temple and the whole yard which is in front of it is called the camp of the Divine Presence (Zevachim 116b), and it is included in this commandment. And they said in Sifrei Bamidbar 1 that "and they shall send from the camp" is a warning (negative commandment) to the impure not to enter the Temple. And they said in Pesachim 68a, [that] "He shall exit to outside the camp" (Deuteronomy 23:11) is a positive commandment. And this commandment is [indeed] repeated in another place, "If there be among you a man who will not be pure of a nocturnal emission, he shall exit to outside the camp." And its explanation (Pesachim 68a) is [that it means] outside the camp of the Divine Presence. And, likewise, this itself is repeated, as it went back and stated (Numbers 5:3), "and send them out of the camp." And I have already written (Sefer HaChinukh 228) that the repetition of prohibitions within a [single] commandment indicates a little bit of the stringency of the commandment; as God wanted for the benefit of His creatures to warn them and go back and warn them about it. [It is like] the way of people that they warn each other many times about all things that have a great need. And if we have nonetheless found [important] bodies of the Torah stated by clues, everything is for a correct reason.

That an impure person not enter the entire Temple: That any impure person is prevented from entering the entire Temple - the likeness of which in the [future] generations is all of the yard from Nikanor Gate and inwards, which is the beginning of the yard of the Israelites - as it is stated (Numbers 5:3), "and they will not render your camps impure" - meaning to say the camp of the Divine Presence. And the proof of this being among the negative commandments is that which they, may their memory be blessed, said in the Gemara (Makkot 14b), "One who enters the Temple while impure [is liable for excision], as both the punishment and the warning are written [in the Torah.] The punishment is written (Numbers 19:13) 'the Tabernacle of God he has defiled and he shall be cut off.' The warning is written (Numbers 5:3) 'and they will not render your camps impure.'" And they also said in the Mekhilta (Sifrei Zuta on Bamidbar 5:3), "'Command the Children of Israel, and they shall send from the camp' - [that is] a positive commandment. From where do we derive [the] negative commandment? Since it is written, 'and they will not render your camps impure.'" And they said in Sifra (Sifra, Tazria Parashat Yoledet, Section 1 1), "Since it is stated (Leviticus 15:31), 'And you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanliness[...],' I might understand, whether from its midst or from its back," meaning to say that one who approaches the Temple from its back while he is impure would be liable for excision; "it is, therefore, written in respect to a yoledet (a woman after childbirth) (Leviticus 12:4), 'and into the sanctuary she shall not come,'" meaning to say the expression of coming is only about one who enters from the front. And there it is elucidated that the law of a yoledet and the other [cases of] impurity are the same regarding this.