Negaim 10:9 - 10:10

וניתק כל ראשו – that the bald, blanched spot spread throughout the head, whether that he was certified as a leper with golden hair, whether he was certified as a leper through spreading.

טהור – that in all of it, spreading all over purifies (see Tractate Negaim, Chapter 7, Mishnah 5 and Chapter 8, Mishnayot 1 and 2). And from where do we learn that spreading throughout purifies in the head, as it is written (Leviticus 13:40): "ואיש כי ימרט ראשו קרח הוא טהור הוא"/ “If a man loses the hair of his head and becomes bald, he is pure.” Regarding the beard, from where do we learn [that the same is the case]? The inference teaches us: "ואיש"/if a man – to include the beard. But if the bald, blanched spot comes throughout at the outset, he is not pure, that just as if it turns all white at the beginning, he is not pure with regard to the bright white spot on the skin.

אין מעכבין זה את זה – if there was a bald, blanched spot on his head like the size of a split [Cilician] bean and afterwards all of his head became torn loose, even though the beard was not torn loose, he is pure. And similarly, when there is white spreading all over in the beard, but it doesn’t spread all white in the head, he is pure, for they do not hinder one another.

ודין הוא – that they do hinder.

שיש דבר אחד מפסיק ביניהן – that the hair of the head and of the beard that they do not become defiled with the bright white spot on the skin that intervenes between the skin of the face to the rest of the body. But the skin of the face and the rest of the body do hinder each other, for all that is appropriate to be defiled through the plague of the bright white spot on the skin hinders the eruption of the bright white spot on the skin which causes the leper to be declared clean.

אין מצטרפין זה עם זה – in the place that the head and the beard join together. If a half of a split [Cilician] bean was to originate in this one (i.e., the head) and a half of a split [Cilician] bean was to originate in that one, they do not combine.

ואין פושין מזה לזה – if there is a bald, blanched spot the size of a split [Cilician] bean on the head near/adjacent to the beard, and at the end of the first week or at the end of the second week or after the release, it spread on the beard, it is not considered spreading.

מן הפרק של לחי – [from the joint of the] upper [jawbone]. He pulls/stretches a thread from ear to ear, all that is from the thread and above is the head, and all that is from the thread and below is the beard.

פיקה של גרגרת (thyroid cartilage/Adam’s apple) – the top of the thyroid cartilage begins to protrude and go downward, and the flesh that surrounds the thyroid cartridge from outside is called פיקה /protruding cartilage.

הקרחת והגבחת ( a leprous affection on the back of the head – making it bald -from the crown sliding backwards; leprous affection on the front of the head making it bald- from the crown sliding down forward to where the hair begins) – both of them are in the head, but from where the slanting of the skull and backward is called קדקוד/the skull, opposite his face is called גבחת/the front of the head, as it is taught in the Mishnah nearby (i.e., in this Mishnah. And they are not like bald, blanched spots in the head, for the bald, blanched spots return and grow hair, but the leprous affection on the back of the head and the leprous affection on the front of the head do not return/come back and grow hair.

מיטמאות בשני שבועות – as it is written (Leviticus 13:43): "כמראה צרעת עור בשר"/ “like the leprosy of body skin in appearance, just as the body skin is in two weeks, so too here (i.e., with baldness of the back or front of the head) in two weeks.

ובמחיה ובסיון – as it is written (Leviticus 13:42): “[But if a white affection streaked with red appears on the bald part in the front or at the back of the head,] it is a scaly eruption that is spreading over the bald part in the front [or at the back of the head].”/"צרעת פורחת היא בקרחתו" . [The word] צרעת/affection – teaches that it defiles through quick flesh; [the word]פורחת /spreading, teaches that it defiles through spreading; [the word] "היא"/that it, teaches that it does not defile with white hair.

נשם (a medicine which produces depilation) – it is a drug that the person who consumes it does not grow hair, and the person who smeared it does not grow hair.

מכה שאינה ראויה לגדל שער – as for example a large would where the flesh becomes a rough, scabby surface/a scar.

פיקה של צואר (protruding cartilage of the neck) – this is the first vertebrae of the neck.

ואין פושות מזו לזו – from the leprous affection on the back of the head to the leprous affection on the front of the head or from the leprous affection on the front of the head to the leprous affection on the back of the head.

אם יש שער – that interrupts between them between the leprous affection on the back of the head and the leprous affection on the front of the head. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.