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14 ‎[1] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[2] **This shall be the law of the leper on the day, **at the time, **of his purification, **his healing: **He shall be brought to the priest. **The leper must return to the priest, as he has the exclusive authority to deal with leprosy.
‎[3] **The priest shall go outside the camp, **and the leper shall come before him for examination. 1 ****And the priest shall examine, and behold, the mark of leprosy has been healed from the leper, **that is, it disappeared or signs of purification appeared (see 13:13, 37).
‎[4] **The priest shall command, and one, **that is, any person, **shall take for the one being purified two living, pure birds. **When the Torah mentions an unspecified bird, the reference is to a sparrow or to another small, chirping bird. 2 **And cedar wood, **which by tradition is a wooden beam that is not particularly large, 3 **and scarlet wool **, **and hyssop. **
‎[5] **The priest shall command, and one shall slaughter the one bird **of the two, **in an earthenware vessel, **so that its blood will be poured **over spring water **that is already in the vessel.
‎[6] **The living bird, he shall take it, and **separately **the cedar wood, and the scarlet wool, and the hyssop **bound together, 5 **and he shall dip them and the living bird, **by the ends of its limbs and its tail, adjacent to its body. 6 In this manner, the bird’s wings remain out of the blood, so that they will not adhere to its body, thereby enabling it to fly over the field at a later point. He shall dip them **in the blood of the slaughtered bird **that is **over **the **spring water. **
‎[7] **He shall sprinkle **from this mixture of the blood of the slaughtered bird and the spring water into which the aforementioned items were dipped, **on the one being purified from the leprosy seven times, and **he **shall **then be able to **pronounce him pure **, 7 **and shall dispatch the living bird over the field, **set it free, concluding its role in this ritual. This completes the first stage of the leper’s purification, which is performed in the field, outside the camp.
‎[8] In the next stage,
**the one being purified shall wash, **immerse, **his garments, **as they too were rendered ritually impure by his wearing them, **shave all his hair, bathe, **immerse 8 **in water, and be purified; and then he shall enter the camp, and shall dwell outside his tent seven days. **Although he is now inside the Israelite camp, or the city, he remains somewhat in isolation, as he may not enter his house and must remain apart from his wife. 9 According to rabbinic tradition, he renders people and vessels impure through contact. 10
‎[9] **It shall be on the seventh day; he shall **again **shave all his hair, his head and his beard and his eyebrows; all his hair he shall shave **from his entire body, or alternatively, only from hairy places. 11 There is an opinion that by Torah law he is required to shave only those parts of his body where the hair is visible, and by rabbinic law he must shave all his hair. 12 **And he shall wash his garments **a second time, **bathe his flesh in water, and be purified. **
‎[10] Although the leper is ritually purified, his status is that of one who lacks atonement; he must bring the requisite offerings in order to be rendered fit to enter the Temple and partake of consecrated food. Therefore,
**on the eighth day he shall take two unblemished **male **lambs, and one unblemished ewe in its first year, and three-tenths of an ephah of high-quality flour mixed with oil as a meal offering. **In current measures, three-tenths of an ephah equals more than 7 L; and there is an opinion that it equals 12.8 L. **And one log of oil, **which according to the conventional opinion is about 0.33 L, and according to the other opinion, approximately 0.6 L.
‎[11] **The priest who purifies shall position the man who is being purified and them, **the lambs, **before the Lord, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. **
‎[12] **The priest shall take one of the lambs and present it as a guilt offering, and **likewise he shall present **the log of oil **brought by the one who is being purified, **and wave them, **the living sheep with the *log *, **as a wave offering before the Lord. **If he waved each separately, he fulfills his obligation. 13
‎[13] **He shall slaughter the lamb in the **same **place where one slaughters the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place, **on the north side of the altar (1:11, 6:18), and unlike offerings of lesser sanctity, it may not be slaughtered anywhere else in the Tabernacle courtyard. **Since like the sin offering, the guilt offering is for the priest, **they are similar with regard to all matters involving the service of the priest, 14 or in that both are given solely to the priest. 15 This is an indication that **it is a sacred sacrament, **an offering of the most sacred order.
‎[14] **The priest shall take from the blood of the **slaughtered **guilt offering, and the priest shall place **some of the blood **on the tip **16 **of the right ear of the one being purified, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. **
‎[15] **The priest shall take **with his right hand **from the log of oil **brought by the one undergoing purification, **and pour it on the **cupped **left palm of the priest, **either a different priest or on his own palm. 17
‎[16] **The priest shall dip his right finger from, **into, **the oil that is **accumulated **on his left palm, and he shall sprinkle from the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord, **toward the Sanctuary.
‎[17] **And from the rest of the oil that is **inevitably left **on his palm, the priest shall place **some **on the tip of the right ear of the one being purified, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the guilt offering, **which he previously placed on those spots.
‎[18] Even after placing the three drops on the parts of the leper’s body, oil will remain on the priest’s palm.
**The remainder of the oil that is on the priest’s palm, he, **the priest, **shall place, **that is, spread, **on the head of the one being purified; and the priest shall **thereby **atone for him before the Lord. **
‎[19] **The priest shall perform **the service of the ewe of **the sin offering **that was brought by the one undergoing purification **and atone for the one being purified from his impurity; and then he shall slaughter **the sheep of **the burnt offering. **
‎[20] **The priest shall offer up the burnt offering and the meal offering, **consisting of the three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour that was brought by the purifying leper, **on the altar; and the priest shall atone for him **through these rites, **and he shall become pure. **
‎[21] **If **the leper **is impoverished, and his means do not suffice **for all the above offerings, **he shall take one lamb as a guilt offering for waving, to atone for him **as would the offering of a wealthy individual, **and **only **one-tenth, **not three-tenths, **of an ephah of high-quality flour mixed with oil as a meal offering, and a log of oil. **
‎[22] **And **instead of bringing the ewe of the sin offering and the sheep of the burnt offering, the poor leper shall bring **two turtledoves or two young pigeons, for which his means suffice, **that he can afford; **one **of them **shall be a sin offering and **the other **one a burnt offering. **
‎[23] **He shall bring them, **the sheep and the two birds, **on the eighth day of his purification to the priest, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, before the Lord. **
‎[24] **The priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. **
‎[25] **He shall slaughter the lamb of the guilt offering, and the priest shall take from the blood of the guilt offering, and place it on the tip of the right ear of the one being purified, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. **
‎[26] **The priest shall pour from the oil on the left palm of the priest. **
‎[27] **The priest shall sprinkle with his right finger from the oil that is on his left palm seven times before the Lord. **
‎[28] **The priest shall place from the oil that is on his palm on the tip of the right ear of the one being purified, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the guilt offering. **
‎[29] **The remainder of the oil that is on the priest’s palm he shall place on the head of the one being purified, to atone for him before the Lord. **
‎[30] **He shall offer one of the turtledoves or **one **of the young pigeons, from that which his means suffice. **Turtledoves are birds that exist in the wild and are at times easy to acquire without payment. In contrast, pigeons were more plentiful in the Land of Israel; however, their acquisition often involved payment or greater exertion.
‎[31] The priest shall sacrifice
**that for which his means suffice, one as a sin offering and one as a burnt offering, with, **in addition to, **the meal offering; the priest shall **thereby **atone for the one being purified before the Lord. **
‎[32] **This is the law of one in whom there is a mark of leprosy, whose means do not suffice in his purification. **
‎[33] **The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: **
‎[34] **When you come to the land of Canaan, which I give to you as a portion, if I shall place a mark of leprosy on a house, **that is, on one of the houses, **in the land of your ancestral portion. **Although the various forms of leprosy are somewhat similar in that they involve the appearance of a mark and are all included in the general framework of the laws of leprosy, it is obvious that a mark on one’s skin is very different from a spot found on a garment or on stones. 19
‎[35] **He to whom the house belongs shall come and tell to the priest, saying: Something like a mark seems to me to be on the house. **He cannot attest to the fact that it is leprosy, as he is not authorized to make that determination. Until a priest diagnoses the plague, the owner of the house can only assert his suspicion that there is leprosy in his house. 20
‎[36] The directive in this verse does not relate to treatment of the leprosy; rather, it relates to another aspect of this matter.
**The priest shall command and they shall empty the house **of any vessels, **before the priest shall come to see the mark, so **that **all that is in the house shall not become impure; and afterward the priest shall come to see the house. **
‎[37] **He, **the priest, **shall examine the mark **after entering the house, **and behold, the mark is **, or appears to be, **recessed [ *sheka’arurot *] in the walls of the house, **similar to the shape of a bowl [ *ke’ara *], giving the impression of **deep green or deep reddish **recesses, **and their appearance is lower than the wall. **Due to their color, they appear to be sunken relative to the wall, although that is not the case.
‎[38] **The priest shall exit the house **and proceed **to the entrance of the house, and he shall quarantine the house, **he shall issue an instruction to seal the house 21 for **seven days **.
‎[39] **The priest shall return on the seventh day, and shall examine **it; **and behold, the mark has spread on the walls of the house. **The mark that was on one wall has now relocated to other walls, or it has become enlarged.
‎[40] **The priest shall command, and they shall remove the stones on which there is a mark. **The stone house described in the verse was apparently not compactly constructed; therefore, it was possible to remove an individual stone from the wall. **And they shall dispose of them, **as they are ritually impure, **in an impure place outside the city. **Although not all places outside the city are impure, there were certain areas designated for the disposal of impure objects, perhaps in places where there were garbage heaps or graves, locations not frequented by those carrying ritually pure items. 22
‎[41] **And **as for **the house, **in which there are holes, **he shall scrape **and remove the layer of plaster 23 **from inside all around **. According to the *Sifra *, **cited by Rashi, he would scrape only the plaster immediately around the mark. 24 **And they shall pour out the plaster that they scraped outside the city in an impure place. **
‎[42] **They shall take other stones, and they shall bring them in the place of the stones **that they removed from the wall; **and he shall take other plaster, and **then **he shall plaster the house, **at which point it may once again serve as a residence.
‎[43] **If **these actions are ineffective, and **the mark returns and erupts in the house, after removing the stones, and after scraping the house and after plastering **it,
‎[44] **the priest shall come and examine; and **if **behold, the mark has spread **again either in the same place or elsewhere **in the house, it is a malignant leprosy, **a leprosy accompanied by a curse (see 13:51), **in the house, **which does not affect only those particular stones, but the entire house, and **it is impure. **
‎[45] **He, **that is, anyone, **shall demolish the **entire **house, its stones, and its timber, and all the plaster of the house; and he shall take it, **all these, **outside the city to an impure place. **
‎[46] Special laws of impurity apply to a leprous house:
**One who comes into the house all the days that it is quarantined shall be impure until the evening. **
‎[47] **One who **remains and **sleeps in the house shall wash his garments **that he is wearing; **and one who eats in the house, **even if he did not sleep there but remained there long enough to eat, 25 **shall wash his garments. **These laws of ritual impurity apply to this house during the quarantine period, at which point it is uncertain whether the house will be purified.
‎[48] Until this point, the reference has been to a case where the leprosy returned after the removal of the stones and the scraping of the plaster. The Torah now proceeds to address the alternative case.
**If the priest shall come and examine, and behold, the mark did not spread in the house after the plastering of the house, the priest shall pronounce the house pure, because the mark was healed. **
‎[49] **He shall take, to cleanse, **purify, **the house, two birds, cedar wood, scarlet wool, and hyssop. **
‎[50] **He shall slaughter one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over spring water. **
‎[51] **He shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet wool, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and in the spring water, and he shall sprinkle on the house seven times. **This entire process parallels the purification process of a leprous individual; however, in this case, one sprinkles on the leprous house rather than on a leprous person.
‎[52] **He shall **thereby **cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the spring water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet wool. **
‎[53] **He shall dispatch the living bird outside the city out on the field; and he shall atone for the house, **eliminate its punishment, **and it shall be purified. **
‎[54] **This is the law for any leprous mark, **which appears primarily on the skin, **and for a scall, **leprosy of the head or the beard;
‎[55] **and for leprosy of the garment, and of the house; **
‎[56] **and **for the following marks specifically: **for the spot, and for the scab, and for the bright spot. **
‎[57] **To teach on which day it is impure, **when one must declare the afflicted house impure, **and on which day it is pure; this is the law of leprosy. **
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-steinsaltz-tanakh/products/steinsaltz-tanakh
License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center