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ונתתי נגע צרעת [WHEN YOU COME TO THE LAND …]I WILL PUT THE PLAGUE OF THE LEPROSY — This was an announcement to them that these plagues would come upon them (Sifra, Metzora, Section 5 4; Horayot 10a), because the Amorites concealed treasures of gold in the walls of their houses during the whole 40 years the Israelites were in the wilderness (in order that these might not possess them when they conquered Palestine,) and in consequence of the plague they would pull down the house and discover them (Leviticus Rabbah 17:6).

Scripture states with reference to plagues in houses, and ‘I’ shall put the plague of leprosy, in order to allude to the fact that it was G-d’s hand that did this, and not an act of nature at all, as I have explained.⁸⁰Above, 13:47. It states, When ye are come into the land of Canaan etc. in a house of the Land of your possession,⁸¹Verse 34 before us. because He is speaking to all Israel [since Moses and Aaron did not come into the Land]. Now it would have been proper that after the verse, And the Eternal spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,⁸²Verse 33. He should continue to state, “Speak ye unto the children of Israel.” But Scripture shortens the account since it is self-understood [that the command was to be given to the children of Israel who would enter the Land]. Or it may be that he spoke to them in the place of [i.e., as representing] all Israel, and hinted that the intention [of giving the commandment] now is merely to teach them all the laws of leprosy, and that they in turn should teach them to the priests, and Moses did not warn all Israel now [about these laws, as they did not apply until they came into the Land]. It was only those who came into the Land that he warned, Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently etc.,⁸³Deuteronomy 24:8. See ibid., 1:3 where it says that the Book of Deuteronomy was said in the fortieth year, i.e., to those about to enter the Land. for it was to them that he commanded at first to take heed in these ordinances.

כי תבאו…ונתתי נגע צרעת, When you come to the land…and I will give a plague of "leprosy," etc. How can one describe the plague of "leprosy" breaking out on one's house as good news so that the Torah describes it as a gift from G'd? Why did the Torah not merely write: "when the walls of your houses develop certain stains, etc." in the same way as the Torah described such a skin disease in 13,9? Vayikra Rabbah 17,6 was conscious of this and explained that the Canaanites who heard that the Israelites were approaching hid their valuables inside the walls of their houses. When the walls would display signs of "leprosy," the Jewish owner would investigate and discover the hidden treasure. This is homiletics, of course. Rabbi Levy explains in that same Midrash that when G'd wishes to reprove us He does not immediately inflict pain on our bodies, but He first afflicts our houses, and in the event this does not help He afflicts our clothing. Only if we fail to respond to these two warnings does G'd inflict the plague on our bodies, i.e. our skin. When viewed in this light the affliction on the house is indeed a "gift" i.e. a demonstration of G'd's loving concern for us.

ונתתי נגע צרעת, “I will place a tzoraat affliction, etc.” Rashi, -seizing on the word נתן meaning “giving,”- explains this verse as good news, saying that these symptoms alert the owner of the house to hidden treasure in that house buried by the previous owner. Other commentators believe that these symptoms both in houses and garments, alert the new owner that these items unbeknown to them used to be artifacts of idolatry and therefore had to be destroyed. Now that the owners had been alerted, they could fulfill the commandment to destroy the items in question.

This is an announcement. Otherwise, it should say: “When there will be.” Why does it say, “And I shall put”? You might ask: This [reason] is fine regarding the eruptions in houses, but what is the reason for the eruptions on clothing? The answer is: Because they did not know which garments were used for idolatry and the eruptions came in those garments, and they had to burn them (so I found). Some raise the difficulty: This [reason] is fine regarding a returning eruption, whose law is to tear down the house, however, with a non-returning eruption — what can we say [i.e., what is the reason for such eruptions]? Furthermore, some ask: The Gemora says (Erichin, 16a) that eruptions of the house come because of miserliness! It seems that one [question] is answered by the other. Certainly, the eruption of a house comes because of a transgression, but Hashem’s kindness makes it possible that sometimes goodness will come out of the punishment, which [in this case] is the hidden [treasures]. This is included in the language of the Sages: A goodness [resulting] from miserliness, and this is the announcement (Divrei Dovid).

When you will come. Why does the Torah specify regarding the eruptions in houses, “when you will come into the land of Canaan” more than any of the rest of the eruptions?

ונתתי, “I will give;” the Lord said to the Jewish people: see how different you are from the nations of the globe; when the former sin, I first punish them, as we know from Genesis 12,17: וינגע ה' את פרעה ואת ביתו “the Lord afflicted Pharaoh with a plague and his house" when I have occasion to strike anyone of you with a plague, I warn them by first sending a plague to the sinner’s house, and garment before striking his flesh. (Compare our verse here.) Why would I do this, seeing that the stones and the timber have not committed any sins against Me? I do this in order to give you a warning that worse is to come if you do not heed My warning. Before I sent Sancheriv to exile the ten tribes, I first let him conquer all the countries surrounding yours, so that you would take notice and mend your ways. Compare what the prophet Tzefaniah wrote in Tzefaniah 3,6: הכרתי גוים נשמו פנותם, החרבתי חוצותם מבלי עובר נצדו עריהם מבלי איש מאין יושב. “I wiped out nations, their corner towers are desolate; I turned their thoroughfares into ruins, with none passing by; their towns lie waste without people, without inhabitants.” This is how G–d sends warnings to His people of what might befall them unless they mend their ways by afflicting their possessions before afflicting them. [The prophet spells all this out in subsequent verses. Ed.] In verse 55 of our chapter, the afflicted house and subsequently the afflicted garments of a person, are cited as warnings of physical afflictions to follow if the warnings were ignored. If the warnings were heeded by the owner of those houses or garments mending their ways their flesh will not become affected. We know this from what is written in chapter 15 verse 2: איש כי יהיה בו זב וגו', “when any man has a discharge emanating from his sexual organ he is ritually contaminated.” This is also what Solomon had in mind when he wrote in Proverbs 19,29:נכונו ללצים שפטים, ומהלמות לגו כסילים, ”punishments are prepared for the scoffers, beatings for the backs of the fools.” G–d is quoted by Solomon as having said that He prepared these methods of disciplining Man already before He even created Man himself.

כי תבאו אל ארץ כנען, “When you will come to the lad of Canaan;” the Torah did not write: כי תבואו in connection with the legislation governing the plague of Tzoraat. The reason is that the rules about tzoraat already applied when the Israelites were still wandering in the desert. When speaking about tzoraat afflicting houses it did write these words of introduction, as that plague only occurs in the land of Israel. [Besides they only had tents there no houses built of stone. Ed.] A different explanation: the reason why when a plague breaks out on a house it must be destroyed, is that the earth of the land of Israel is holy, and its earth does not gladly suffer ritual contamination.

ונתתי נגע צרעת בבית ארץ אחוזתכם, “I will place a tzoraat in the house of the land of your possession.” Nachmanides writes that the verse is addressed to the entire people of Israel, and it should therefore have been told to the entire nation, i.e. we would have expected the Torah to continue in verse 33 with the words אל כל עדת ישראל, “to the whole community of Israel.” The Torah, for reasons we do not know, decided to abbreviate. Alternately, the point is that the Torah spoke to Moses and Aaron in their capacity as the representatives of the whole people. The reason why the Torah, at this time, informed only Moses and Aaron of the legislation pertaining to such afflictions, is that all the details would have to be taught to the priests. Moses thought it pointless to teach all these details now, and preferred to wait until the Israelites would be on the point of entering and conquering the land. In Deut. 24,8 Moses does indeed warn the Israelites to observe all the pertinent laws and to follow the instructions of the priests concerning them.

Why then did the Torah list the respective plagues on man, his clothing, and his house, in the reverse order of what Rabbi Levy would have us believe? I have explained this previously. At the time the legislation was revealed the Israelites had not yet entered the Holy Land and therefore G'd could not warn the guilty individual by smiting his house first. The reason the Torah introduced this paragraph with the words: "when you come to the land, etc." is to tell us that as of that time the order of afflictions would be reversed and G'd would first strike the house of the guilty person whom He wanted to warn to mend his social behaviour. You may still ask why the Torah does not list the "leprosy" on one's clothing before the "leprosy" on one's skin, seeing that everyone wore clothing at the time this legislation was revealed? G'd could have demonstrated His loving concern for the guilty by first smiting his clothing and the Torah describing this as the first example of such a נגע צרעת? It appears that the reason the Torah chose to position the legislation of "leprosy" on one's clothing in between the legislation of skin disorders and "leprous-like stains" on the walls of one's house, is because there are some common denominators between the stains on the house and on the clothing on one side, and between the stains on the clothing and on the skin on the other side. The minimum size of a נגע צרעת on one's skin and the size of such a נגע צרעת on one's clothing is identical, whereas the minimum size of that plague on a house to be considered as טמא is twice that of people or clothing. On the other hand, the plague on both clothing and houses is characterised by a greenish colour, whereas the skin disorder which afflicts man is of some kind of whitish shade.

The answer that seems closest to the truth to me is because the main reason [for tzora’as in houses] is stinginess, as the Sages said (Erachin 16a) based on (v. 35), “Whoever’s house it is, shall come” — “This is one who made the house exclusively for himself.” The reason Hashem gave him a house filled with all good things as an inheritance was to test him — would he give from the possessions of his house to others or not? For, “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, says Hashem” (Chaggai 2:8). Anything that a man gives to others is not his own; in actuality, he is giving from the Divine Table. Therefore it says, “When you will come into the land of Canaan that I will give to you for a possession.” It is not by the power of their sword that they will inherit the Land, but rather: “The right hand of Hashem is exalted” — and that is what will give them the inheritance from the nations. There is no place for stinginess, to think that “My strength and the might of my hand that has accumulated this wealth for me” … Therefore, it is only logical that he should give of his possessions to the poor of his people, and if he does not, “I shall put the eruption of tzora’as in the house of the land of your possession.” This means to say, in the house that you consider to be your possession, as if you acquired it with the might of your hand.

ונתתי נגע צרעת, “and I put the plague of tzoraat on a house in the land of your inheritance. According to some commentators, reading the plain text, this line has to be understood in conjunction with Deuteronomy 12,2: אבד תאבדון את כל המקומות אשר עבדו שם הגוים, “you must destroy utterly every place where the gentiles have worshipped (idols).” How are we to know in which locations the Canaanites once worshipped idols? Answer: the plague that shows up on your house is an indication that this was a house which served such a purpose. It alerts us to the need to fulfill that commandment.

Furthermore, we need to understand why the Torah did not complete the laws pertaining to the plague on people before introducing the legislation about a plague afflicting one's clothing. The reason cannot be that the Torah wanted to group together all the laws of ritual impurity resulting from such stains before describing the procedures leading to their purification. If that had been the Torah's intention why did it not also describe the impurity arising from a plague on houses before commencing with the laws of purification? I think it is quite obvious that the unusual positioning of the law of the plague on one's clothing right in the middle of the legislation concerning "leprous" skin, is proof that the Torah wanted to teach that G'd first afflicts man's garments before afflicting man himself. The Torah made plain by the positioning of the נגע בגדים that it too was caused by man's sinful conduct. When the Torah describes the purification rites after having spelled out the law about the respective ritual impurity the garments conferred on the sinful man who wears them, it is clear that had man responded to the call to repentance of the plague on his garments, he would not now also need to purify himself from the effects of the נגע צרעת on his skin.

Another reason the Torah did not first mention the affliction on man's garments is that had it done so we would have assumed that a plague on one's garments indicates guilt of a minor nature, whereas a plague on one's skin is indicative of a sin of a more serious nature, rather than that both plagues are a punishment for the same sin, the skin-disease being a punishment for lack of sensitivity to the message G'd sent to the wearer by afflicting his clothing.