פירוש על ויקרא 13:1

AND THE ETERNAL SPOKE UNTO MOSES AND UNTO AARON. Because it is according to the word of the priest that every strife and every plague shall be,⁴⁶Deuteronomy 21:5. The following is the law of plagues or leprosy, which is the subject of the coming sections: “All are qualified to inspect the leprosy-signs, but only a priest may pronounce them impure or pure” (Negaim 3:1). If the priest was unskilled in these laws, a learned person would tell him to say “pure” or “impure” (ibid.). — It should also be pointed out that while tzara’ath is generally translated as “leprosy” and as such represents a physical disarray in the body of the person, in Jewish tradition it also carries with it a moral and spiritual meaning as illumined further on by Ramban in Verse 47. therefore this communication came also to Aaron. Or it may mean that G-d spoke to Moses that he should tell it to Aaron, as our Rabbis have explained.⁴⁷Mechilta, at beginning. It does not state here, “speak unto the children of Israel,”⁴⁸As it says in the case of the offerings (above, 1:2, and elsewhere). because it is the priests [who have the duty] when they see the impure [with leprosy] to force them to be quarantined and be cleansed. Now in the section dealing with cleansing of the leper it says, And the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying: This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing,⁴⁹Further, 14:1-2. [and there it mentions neither “speak to the children of Israel,” nor to the priests], because there is no need to urge the Israelite to become cleansed [when his plague of leprosy is healed], nor to urge the priest to perform the rites of the offerings, as they do so willingly. In the section dealing with a person suffering from an issue it does say, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,⁵⁰Ibid., 15:2. because since the matter is of an intimate nature, unknown to others, He admonished them that they should each inform the priest of their sickness.⁵¹In view of the fact that decisions of purity and impurity in cases where a man or woman saw a flux was not dependent upon the pronouncement of the priest, unlike the law in cases of leprosy (see Note 46 above), Ramban’s words must be understood in the following sense: Since the priest has occasion to perform the Service in the Sanctuary, and even when he is outside it, he may eat terumah (the heave-offering), which he is forbidden to eat when impure, therefore the Israelite who is suffering from a flux and thus rendered impure must let the priest know of his condition, so that he should not be defiled on account of him. See my Hebrew commentary, Vol. II, p. 534 (beginning with the fifth edition).

אל משה ואל ואהרן, “to Moses and to Aaron;” Nachmanides writes that seeing the Torah had stated that Aaron would have a decisive voice in all matters pertaining to interpersonal strife or afflictions such as נגעים, be it on the skin, garments, or houses, G’d addressed him also in the following legislation. (Compare Deut. 21,5) The Torah does not continue here with the customary words: דבר אל בני ישראל, “say to the Children of Israel,” seeing that the priests after seeing the people afflicted will decide whether to declare them afflicted with the disease, whether to temporarily keep them under observation, etc. It is also up to the priest to decide when individuals will be considered as cured from the disease. There is no apparent reason to acquaint and warn the entire nation of the forthcoming legislation, seeing that if the services of the priest are required, and sacrifices are to be offered, the afflicted party will be only too happy to have reached that stage. The reason that in the paragraph dealing with the zav, the person who experiences a disease involving his sexual organs the Torah does address every Israelite, i.e. “speak to the Children of Israel and say to them, etc.,” (chapter 15) is that the nature of the disease is private, and the person suffering from it could conceal it, as opposed to people whose skin bears the marks of their disease. The general public had to be warned that if they suffered from the symptoms described that they had to turn to the priest to deal with the problem.

אל משה ואל אהרן, “to Moses and to Aaron.” The reason why Aaron has been mentioned here is that it is he, i.e. the priests, who decides if to declare the afflicted person as suffering from tzoraat or not. He decides who is ritually pure and who is not.