Commento su Levitico 14:54

THIS IS THE LAW FOR ALL MANNER OF PLAGUE OF LEPROSY. This refers to leprosy of inflammation and the burnt part in the skin. Scripture mentioned them here first [although in the section on leprosy above they are not mentioned first]¹¹⁶Ibid., 13:18-28. because of their frequency. Then it mentioned and for a scall, which is also frequent. Then Scripture mentioned here, and for the leprosy of a garment, and for a house,¹¹⁷Verse 55. followed by, and for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot,¹¹⁸Verse 56. which are the first plagues with which Scripture opened this discussion: When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising etc.¹¹⁹Above, 13:2. Scripture always mentions the bahereth (bright spot) last, because it is the strongest and worst form of all the plagues.

זאת התורה, if someone wants to qualify to issue religious rulings concerning the subject of negai-im he must first of all be able to distinguish between two different types of such afflictions although they both belong to basically the same category. This is the meaning of Deuteronomy 17,8 בין נגע לנגע, “between one kind of nega and another kind of nega.”

זאת התורה לכל נגע הצרעת ולנתק, ולצרעת הבגד ולבית, ולשאת ולספחת ולבהרת, “This is the legislation for every tzoraat affliction and the netek; and afflictions on the garments and the house; and of the se-eth, the sapachat, and the baheret.” Even though the tradition handed down to us concerning all these laws is the reliable one, i.e. that the sequence in which G’d afflicts potential victims is that first He afflicts their houses to give them a chance to repent, followed by afflictions on the garments hoping that the sinners will mend their ways, and that only as a last resort does G’d afflict the bodies of the sinners concerned, the fact remains that in the written Torah the order is reversed, the Torah commencing the legislation with skin disorders, followed by similar disorders on the garments followed by the houses which display signs that the walls are afflicted.
The reason the Torah chose to write the sequence which we find before us rather than the sequence our sages have told us, is that the Torah’s ways are ways of pleasantness (Proverbs 3,17). Had the Torah followed the reverse pattern of reporting these kinds of afflictions we would have read of matters going from bad to worse; this would not have made for edifying reading. As it is, the Torah first lists the most severe afflictions, proceeding to describe afflictions which are progressively easier on the victim, i.e. that only his garments or the walls of his house undergoes an affliction.

זאת התורה לכל נגע הצרעת, “this is the law for allmanner of the plague known as tzoraat;” this verse once more summing up the subject as a Torah, is a reminder to the priest not to undertake pronouncing decisions about tzoraat until he has thoroughly familiarised himself with the subject as well as with the terminology used by the Torah.

לכל נגע הצרעת ולנתק. Even though both these afflictions are known as a skin affliction on the skin of a human being they are distinctly different from one another. The נתק is not judged by appearances but by the behaviour of the hair surrounding it, whereas the ordinary nega tzoraat is judged by changes in its colouration, etc.