Negaim 1:4 - 1:5

מראות נגעים שלשים וששה – and we don’t have the reading: "מראות נגעים ששה עשר" /”The appearances of plagues are sixteen. But there were thirty six, four appearances that are smooth and four appearances that are variegated of the skin of his body, and corresponding to them, with שחין/inflammation (or boil, skin-disease) and מכוה/a burnt spot on the skin, for the inflammation and the burnt spot are one, and Scripture did not divide them other than to tell you that they do not combine, and corresponding to them with the נתקים/bald (blanched) spot on the head or in the beard, and corresponding to them with קרחת/a leprous affection on the back of the head (making it bald) and גבחת/a leprous affection on the front of the head (making it bald), and ירקרק/pale-colored/greenish andאדמדם /reddish leprosy (see Leviticus 13:42), that are the plagues of houses, these are thirty-six.

עקביא בן מחללאל אומר שבעים ושתים – these thirty-six at the outset when he (i.e., the potential leper) is brought to the Kohen, and thirty-six others corresponding to the end of the first week or the end of the second week of isolation or the end of the third week for plagues upon houses to distinguish between appearances [of plagues] ab initio to an appearance at the end, these are seventy-two. Maimonides explained them thusly, and he is sound/upright. But what is difficult to me about this is that he counts eight appearances of bald (blanched) spots on the head or in the beard, but we hold that bald (blanched spots on the head or in the beard defile in all appearances [of plagues] and they lack special appearances like the rest of the plagues.

ששבוע שני שלו חל בשבת – for two isolations, are thirteen days. For the seventh day of the first week counts for this week and the other [week], as it is written (Leviticus 13:5): "והסגירו [הכהן] שבעת ימים שנית"/ “the priest shall isolate him for another seven days.”, which teaches that the seventh day counts for him from the number from before it and from after it. And similarly, the three weeks of plagues on houses are not other than nineteen days, for the first and seventh [days] of the middle week count before them and after them.

חל להיות בתוך השבת – that on the Sabbath days falls the seventh day, we don’t see him (i.e., examine him) on the Sabbath, because it appears like adjudication is taking place on the Sabbath day, but we delay it until after the Sabbath. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Akiba.

היה בו שער לבן – on the Sabbath day. And if he (i.e., the Kohen) had seen him, he would have declared him to be a leper, but after the Sabbath, the white hair disappeared, and this is ruling leniently. But even though that he (i.e., the Kohen) declared him to be a leper on the Sabbath day, when it (i.e., the white hair) left him after the Sabbath, he would have declared him pure, nevertheless, he would have to bring a sacrifice, according to the law of a מצורע מוחלט/confirmed leper – who has been declared conclusively ritually impure by a Kohen (A confirmed leper must grow his hair long and rend his garments) who became healed, but now is exempt.

היו לבנות – alternatively, if his hair was white on the Sabbath day that he would have been designated to have been declared a confirmed leper, and on the morrow (i.e., Sunday), [his hair] blackened, this is ruling leniently.

אחת לבנה ואחת שחורה והשחירו שניהן – he just refers to it by the way/without specific reason, for here one cannot be lenient, and whether it was white [and turned black] or had been black all along, he is ritually pure. But subsidiary to this/on account of, [as] the concluding clause [of the Mishnah] is stringent (see Mishnah 6), it (i.e., the Mishnah) took this term as it teaches, "ולהבינו"/and they became white – in both [clauses].

ארוכות – his hair was [long] on the Sabbath day in order to cut it with scissors, that is the measure of defilement. On the morrow, they will be shortened, which is to be lenient.

אחת ארוכה ואחת קצרה – he just refers to it by the way/without specific reason, for either way (i.e., whether is hair is short or long) is a pure. But on account of the concluding clause [of the Mishnah] that is to be stringent (see Mishnah 6), it (i.e., the Mishnah) took the phrase and taught: "והאריכו"/and they became longer, in both [clauses].

נסמך השחין (if the inflammation/boil was attached) – to two hairs, after the Sabbath, but on the Sabbath he did not have a boil/inflammation on it, for had he (i.e., the Kohen) seen it on the Sabbath, he would declare him to be a leper on account of the white hairs that are within the bright white spot on the skin/בהרת, and now after the Sabbath when the boil comes and is attached to the two of them (i.e., hairs) or to one of them, is not a sign of defilement.

הקיף השחין וכו' – or that the boil surrounded the two white hairs.

או לאחת מהן או חלקן השחין – that the boil comes of the raw flesh of the boil or the burnt spot on the skin or the raw flesh of the burnt spot on the skin or the white scurf/בוהק between each hair. All of these on Shabbat are not there but after Shabbat came (i.e., appeared), this is a leniency.

היתה בו מחיה (if there was in it raw flesh) – on the Sabbath, which is a sign of defilement, and it went away after the Sabbath. Alternatively, it was quadrilateral on the Sabbath, and he was worthy of being declared a leper, but after Shabbat it became round or long, that now it is not a sign of defilement. Alternatively, an eruption was surrounded with raw flesh in the middle of the bright white spot on the skin/בהרת, like a kind of a fortress of a city that sits in the middle of the city, and through this, he was worthy of being declared a leper, but after Shabbat, it was made from the side. Alternatively, it was gathered/collected like a lentil in one place, but after Shabbat, it scattered.

ובא השחין ונכנס לתוכו – meaning to say, that on Shabbat there was no boil there, but the raw flesh was a sign of defilement, and the boil came and entered into it.

הקיפה או חלקה או מיעטה – meaning to say, or that the boil didn’t come on the entire plague but only on a part of the raw flesh, and became diminished from being like a lentil.

השחין ומחית השחין המכוה ומחית המכוה והבהק (the boil, the raw flesh of the boil, the burning and the raw flesh of the burning and the white scurf/tetter) – all of these exist for being diminished, for the boil was lessened or the raw flesh of the boil, that is, that a membrane was made like the shell of the garlic. Or the burnt spot on the skin or the raw flesh of the burnt spot on the skin. All of these that on the Sabbath were not there, but after the Sabbath came. And similarly, the white scurf/בוהק, that on the Sabbath were from the four appearances [of plagues] and on the morrow (i.e., Sunday), it became white scurf and the raw flesh lessened, for boils and white scurf lessen the raw flesh, as is taught in Torat Kohanim (i.e., Sifra, the Midrash Halakha on Leviticus): “living flesh,” (see Leviticus 13:14: “But as soon as un-discolored flesh appears in it, he shall be impure”/"וביום הראות בו בשר חי יטמא"), but not boils; “living flesh,” but not white scurf.

היה לו פסיון (if he had the spreading of a leprous spot) – on Shabbat.

והלך לו הפסיון – after Shabbat, for what spread on Shabbat was gathered in on the morrow (i.e., Sunday).

או שהלכה האום (or that the original leprosy- substance had disappeared) – the essence of the plague is called the אום/original leprosy, the original leprosy had disappeared and there remained the leprous spot, or that the original leprosy substance had become reduced , and there isn’t between them like the size of a Cilician bean.

השחין ומחית השחין – meaning to say, alternatively, on Shabbat it spread but did not stop on Shabbat between the original leprosy substance and the leprous spot neither the boils nor the raw flesh of the boils nor the burnt spot on the skin nor the raw flesh of the skin nor the white scurf, but after the Sabbath, one of these stopped, this is its leniency.