레위기 13:46의 주석

בדד ישב HE SHALL ABIDE SOLITARY — This means that people who are unclean from other causes than that of leprosy shall not abide with him (Pesachim 67a; cf. Sifra). Our Rabbis said: Why is he (the leper) treated differently from other unclean persons that he should abide solitary? They replied: Because he, by slanderous statements, (cf. Numbers 12:10) parted man and wife, or a man from his friend, he must be parted from everybody (Arakhin 16b).

כל ימי אשר הנגע בו, all the days that the plague is within him, etc. This means that as long as his sin is still part of him he remains in the state of ritual impurity. The emphasis expressed by the words טמא הוא after the word יטמא is a reminder of Jeremiah 2,19 where the prophet exclaims: תיסרך רעתך, "your discipline has been the result of your wickedness." In other words it was not G'd who inflicted these misfortunes on the sinner but the sins he committed. Jeremiah expresses a similar thought in Lamentations 3,39: "Of what shall a living man complain?! Each one of his own sins." Yalkut Shimoni item 1040 on this verse is worth studying. You may want to read what I have written on Genesis 4,4 אם תיטיב שאת.

בדד ישב, “he shall remain in isolation.” The reason for this isolation is that this disease is very contagious and even indirect contact with the afflicted person will harm those associating with him. Nachmanides writes that neither the symptoms described by the Torah as afflicting garments, nor those afflicting houses, are natural phenomena, found in any civilisation. As long as the Jewish people conduct themselves according to the laws of the Torah they will remain protected by the spirit of Hashem, so that none of the diseases described in our portion would ever befall them. In the event that an individual would experience any of the symptoms we have discussed here, this would be a warning by the Shechinah that he had been guilty of a misdemeanour, designed to make him do penance before he would become subject to a severe penalty for his transgression. Seeing that the Torah introduced the subject as if it were a divine gift, i.e. ונתתי נגע צרעת בבית ארץ אחוזתכם, “I will give a nega tzoraat on one of the houses that constitute a hereditary possession in the land you have acquired as a permanent possession,” (Leviticus 14,34) it is clear that the whole subject reflects G’d’s concern not to allow us to become sin-ridden. By striking our house instead of our body, G’d issued a warning signal to us to mend our ways. The entire legislation is applicable only in a land that has become ours as an inheritance given to us by G’d. The same applies to the legislation concerning such symptoms appearing on our clothing. If these symptoms were to appear on our clothing in any country other than the Holy Land, this is meaningless in terms of Jewish law, and any means at any time may be employed to remove such symptoms. No one has ever been heard of being afflicted with these symptoms either in Babylon, or any other country Jews were exiled to. [Besides, miraculous involvement by G’d in this manner is predicated on only a few individuals not observing Torah. Just as the Sotah rites were discontinued when marital infidelity became common place, even though there was a Temple and High Priest, and just as the yibbum legislation (levirate marriage) was observed in the negative aspect of it, chalitza, once it could not be presumed that the brother-in-law would perform the rite in order to secure his deceased brother’s continuity on this earth, so the laws described here were intended for a near perfect Jewish society only. Ed.] While in effect, the laws concerning the symptoms on garments applied only on white garments, seeing that the stains on coloured garments looking like the symptoms described here might be attributed to having been caused during dying the garment or the threads the garments were made of.

By his slanderous tongue, he separated. For this reason he is called a metzoro — מוציא רע — one who slanders.

בדד ישב, “he is to dwell in solitude.” The reason is that this is a disease which is catching, and by remaining where he used to live he would infect his neighbours. He is also not permitted to carry on marital relations with his wife. He would find it difficult to perform his duty.

בדד ישב, “he must dwell in isolation;” he must not have marital relations, as doing this would cause rot. (Talmud, Moed Katan, folio 7)

מחוץ למחנה WITHOUT THE CAMP — outside the three camps (see Rashi on Leviticus 4:12; cf. Sifra, Tazria Parashat Nega'im, Chapter 13 14 and Pesachim 67a).

Beyond the three encampments. Meaning: From that which is written: “He shall dwell alone,” which implies that even other impure persons, [such as] a zov (one with a discharge) or impure person due to [defilement by] a corpse, should not sit with him. If so, perforce, “beyond the encampment” means beyond the three encampments, for an impure person from a corpse is permitted to be in the Levite camp but prohibited from the camp of the Shechinoh, and the zov is prohibited in the Levite camp but permitted in the Israelite camp, as it is written (Bamidbar 5:3): “and they not cause impurity in their camps (מחניהם),” and it does not say “מחנם.” This implies you should give one camp to this one and one camp to that one; one camp for the impure person due to [defilement by a] a corpse, and one camp for the zov. I will write more about this, God willing.

מחוץ למחנה מושבו, “his residence must be beyond the boundaries of the camp.” His residence itself is ritually impure;” the disease from which he suffers is contagious to people who conduct social intercourse with him. This is the source for the statement in the Sifra here that if a ritually unclean person sits under a tree and a ritually clean person stands in front of him (under the branches), the previously ritually clean person has become ritually contaminated. If the situation is reversed, the ritually pure person remains ritually pure.

That is that He commanded us to administer the laws of the impurity of a garment that has tsaraat, such that it be impure. And this commandment includes all the types of impurity of tsaraat of a garment - how they are impure and how they generate impurity, which ones need quarantine or tearing or burning or washing and purification - and the other things that appear in Scripture or through the tradition about it. (See Parashat Tazria; Mishneh Torah, Defilement by Leprosy 12.)