Negaim 7:5 - 8:1

ונקצצה טהורה – as it is written (Leviticus 13:46): “He shall be impure as long as the disease is on him,” but not the days that the bright white spot on his skin was on him and it was cut off.

קצצה מתכוין – in the Tosefta (Tractate Negaim, Chapter 3, Halakha 5 ) it is proven that where he cut off all of the bright white spot on the skin and cut off from the flesh that was around it with it, no one disagrees that he doesn’t have eternal purity. For the Rabbis fined him after he had intended to uproot it/tear it out. But where he cut it and left a remainder from it, whatever the amount, everyone does not argue that he has purity through an eruption (i.e., the white eruption which causes the leper to be declared clean), since he left a remnant from it, they did not fine him all that much. What they do disagree about is when he cut off the bright white spot in the skin in an exactly defined manner, like it is, no less and no more.

ר' אליעזר אומר לכשיולד לו נגע אחר ויטהר ממנו וחכמים אומרים עד שתפרח בכולו – And the Halakha is according to the Sages (i.e., until it spreads all over him). Here we do not have the reading of the words of the Sages (as we had in the previous Mishnah): "או עד שתתמעט בהרת מכגריס"/or until his bright white spot on the skin will diminish to less than the size of a split [Cilician] bean, that specifically concerning tearing/plucking out, the signs/tokens of defilement of the first clause [of the Mishnah]: "ונשארה הבהרת"/but the bright white spot in the skin remained. There it belongs to teach [in the Mishnah]: “until it diminishes to less than the size of a split [Cilician] bean,” but here, the entire bright white spot in the skin was cut off.

ואם היתה בראש הערלה ימול – we are not dealing with circumcision at its appropriate time (i.e., eight-days old for a baby boy), for this is a simple matter, now that on Shabbat the prohibition [which if one violates it leads to the punishment] of stoning is suspended; leprosy, which is a mere prohibition, not all the more so, but even circumcision that is not [performed] at its appropriate time, does not supersede the Sabbath, but supersedes the leprosy, for the positive commandment of circumcision comes and supersedes the negative commandment of leprosy, and in this we hold throughout the entire Torah. Every place that you find a positive commandment and a negative commandment, if you are able to fulfill both of them, it is good. But if not, the positive commandment should come and supersede the negative commandment.

הפורח מן הטמא טהור (a leprosy that blossoms after a person has been declared unclean, is clean) -an unclean person that was declared a certified leper with one of the plagues, and afterwards it blossomed throughout his body (i.e., that it all turned white), is pure.

חזרו בו ראשי אברים (the tips of the limbs reappeared with it) – if after the “blossoming”/eruption (i.e., the white eruption which causes the leper to be declared clean) even the tips of the limbs reappeared alone.

טמא – as it is written (Leviticus 13:14): “But as soon as un-discolored flesh appears in it, he shall be impure.”/"וביום הראות בו בשר חי יטמא" , and it should appear like a lentil.

עד שתתמעט בהרתו מכגריס – that he gave rise/brought forth the entire plague and nothing remains of it like the size of a split bean.

מטהור טמא – something pure that the leprosy blossomed throughout his body. As for example that he had declared him to be a certified leper with white hair or quick flesh and the white hair fell out or the quick flesh was covered, and he was released; alternatively, he (i.e., the Kohen) locked him up/isolated him with a bright white spot on the skin the size of a split [Cilician] bean but it remained unchanged for two weeks and he was released, in all of these, if after his release it blossomed throughout his body, he is impure.

עד שתחזור לכמות שהיתה – that if there remained from the blossoming whatever the amount near/adjacent to the starting point of leprosy, he is unclean because of spreading, for as it is taught in the Mishnah adjacent (see Mishnah 2 of this eighth chapter of Tractate Negaim) that if the quick flesh went away and afterwards it (i.e., the bright white spot) blossomed over all of his body, he is pure, and it is also taught in the Mishnah (i.e., see Mishnah 3 of this eighth chapter of Tractate Negaim) concerning the bright white spot on the skin/בהרת and in it is white hair which blossomed throughout his body, even though the white hair is in its place, he is pure, and it implies, that all the more so, if it (i.e., the white hair) is not in its place, he is pure, for there (i.e., Mishnah 3 of this chapter) we are speaking that the Kohen did not yet release him when it blossomed throughout his body, but here (in our Mishnah) we are speaking when he (i.e., the Kohen) released him and afterwards it blossomed throughout his body.