Mishnayos Negaim Perek 1 Mishnah 3

מארבעה מראות הללו מצטרפין – we have the reading [of מארבעה/from among four] and we don’t have the reading of ארבעה מראות/four appearances, for all the four appearances do not combine/join together, that a derivative/subcategory does not join together with its primary category, and two derivatives/subcategories do not combine/join together with each other. But the two primary categories do combine. From what is written (Leviticus 13:2): "והיה בעור בשרו"/“and it develops [into a scaly affection] on the skin of his body,” but it is not written: "והיו" /”and they will,” which implies that one can make סאת/a swelling and בהרת/a discoloration/bright white spot on the skin like one thing, that if there is one-half of a [Cilicean] bean of this one and one-half of a [Cilicean] bean of that one, they combine to becoming a complete bean. But Maimonides wrote, that all four of the appearances (i.e., including the subcategories or derivatives] combine. And the Tosefta [Tractate Negaim, Chapter 1, Halakha 4] supports him.

לפטור ולהחליט ולהסגיר (to absolve or to declare a person a leper or to lock up the leper pending the observation of the Kohen) – all of these things combine. And all of them are being explained.

להסגיר העומד בשבוע ראשון – as it is written (Leviticus 13:5): “On the seventh day the priest shall examine him, and if the affection has remained unchanged in color [and the disease has not spread on the skin,] the priest shall isolate the affected person for seven [additional] days.”

ולפטור את העומד בסוף שבוע שני – that which stands in its measure and did not spread and stood in its appearance, even though it did not go downward from the four appearances, he frees him at he end of the second week. But surely as it is written (Leviticus 13:6): “On the seventh day the priest shall examine him again: if the affection has faded [and not spread on the skin], the priest shall pronounce him pure,” that is not to say that he did not pronounce him pure unless [the affection] faded, but rather the Biblical verse teaches us that even if it changed from snow to lime, or from lime to snow, we don’t say that it is another plague and he returns and [the priest] isolates him as at the outset, but rather that he is as it stands, and he purifies him.

להחליט את שנולד לו מחיה ושער לבן בתחלה – that when he is brought to the Kohen at the beginning [of his being diagnosed with an affection] and he has upon him a discoloration like the Cilician bean or quick flesh like a squared lentil within the place of the discoloration, he declares him to be a leper immediately. And similarly, also for [the appearance of] white hair, for if it was black and he didn’t have sufficient time to shut him in until it had turned white, he declares him to be a leper immediately. But the spreading of a leprous spot (see Leviticus 13:7-8): “But if the rash should spread on the skin after he has presented himself to the priest and been pronounced pure, he shall present himself again to the priest. And if the priest sees that the rash has spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him impure; it is leprosy.”), even if it gradually spreads until he doesn’t shut him up [in isolation].

בסוף שבוע ראשון – that is to say, to declare him to be a leper like this at the end of the first week, for from the outset he didn’t have these signs [of affliction] and they locked him up/isolated him, but at the end of the first week, he (i.e., the Kohen) found in him a patch of un-discolored flesh [in the swelling] (see Leviticus 13:10) or white hair, and he definitely declares him to be a leper.

או בסוף שבוע השני – as for example, that at the end of the first week, it (i.e., the affection) remained unchanged and he did not have in either white hair or a patch of un-discolored flesh [in the swelling], [and the Kohen shut him in isolation a second time], and at the end of the second week, these signs appear, he (i.e., the Kohen) declares him to be a leper.

לאחר הפטור – meaning to say, that even after the clearance that was at the end of the second week, no signs of defilement appeared in him and they released/cleared him, but after a few days, they appeared, he (i.e., the Kohen) declares him to be a leper.

את שנולד לו פשיון בסוף שבוע ראשון או בסוף שבוע שני – as for example, a discoloration like the size of Cilician bean which does not have in it a patch of un-discolored flesh or white hair and he (i.e., the Kohen) shut him in isolation, if it spread at the end of the first week or it didn’t spread other than at the end of the second week, he (i.e., the Kohen) declares him to be a leper. But if it did not spread neither in the first week or in the second week, and he released/cleared him, but after a couple of days it spread, he (i.e., the Kohen) declares him to be a leper.

להחליט את ההופך כולו לבן מתוך הפטור – if after he was released/cleared and the Kohen purified him, the leprosy spread throughout his body, he is impure and irrevocably confirmed as a leper.

לפטור את ההופך כולו לבן מתוך החלט או מתוך הסגר – if after the Kohen declared him impure, or after it was necessary to be shut him in isolation prior to his being made impure, and the leprosy spread throughout his body, he releases him and he is pure, for the white eruption which causes the leper to be declared clean changes someone from pure to impure and from the impure to the pure. And it is called an impure leper under trial [pending the priest’s observation – see Leviticus 13:4).

אלו מראות נגעים – these four appearances that we mentioned, smooth or variegated.