Negaim 13:12 - 14:1

נכנס בית הכנסת – a leper that comes to enter into a synagogue.

עושים לו מחיצה גבוהה עשרה טפחים – for less than ten [handbreadths] is not considered a partition to protect.

ברוחב ארבע אמות – corresponding to the four cubits of prayer (see Tractate Berakhot 31b). Alternatively, because this is the measurement of the place of a person, as we stated in [Tractate] Eruvin, in the chapter מי שהוציאוהו /He who took forth beyond the Sabbath limits [folio 48a].

נכנס ראשון ויוצא אחרון – in order that those who are standing in the synagogue do not become defiled through his entrance and his departure, when he passes from the entrance until the partition, for we are concerned lest he stand a bit at the time that he passes, and all of those standing there will be defiled.

כל המציל בצמיד פתיל – as for example an earthenware vessel and all of those are considered in Tractate Kelim in Chapter 10: “Which are the vessels that are protected by a tightly fitting lid?”

כל המציל מכוסה אוהל המת – such as a pit and a cistern that don’t require a tightly fit lid but rather a covering, as is taught in Tractate Ahilot, Chapter 5 [The Oven] (Mishnah 6). And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yossi.

כיצד מטהרין. פיילי (a broad, flat bowl) – a bowl (out of which the sprinkling is done). (Amos 6:6): “They drink [straight] from the wine bowls [And anoint themselves with the choicest oils – But they are not concerned about the ruin of Joseph],” which we translate into Aramaic, that they drink from bowls of wine.

חדשה – as it is written (Leviticus 14:5): “[The priest shall order one of the birds of slaughtered] over fresh water in an earthen vessel.”/"[וצוה הכהן ושחט את-הצפור האחת] אל-כלי-חרש על-מים חיים. An analogy is made between a vessel to water. Just as water that no work had been done with it, even a vessel that no work had been done with it.

רביעית – because it is written (Leviticus 14:6): “[and dip them together with the live bird] in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water,” living water that the blood of the bird is recognized in them. And the Sages estimated/measured it as a quarter-log [of living water].

מים חיים – that always flows and doesn’t stop.

צפרים דרור (undomesticated birds/free birds) – that live in the house as they do in the field (see also Psalms 84:4 and Proverbs 26:2).

ןקוברה לפניו – because it is prohibited for deriving benefit.

ושני תולעת (scarlet-dyed yarn) – it is the language of scarlet colored wool. KARMAZI in the foreign language.

וכרכן בשיירי לשון (and bound them together with the ends of the strip of wool) – the cedar wood, hyssop and crimson stuff (i.e., wool), he would place them together, and the strip would go out and be a surplus over the cedar wood and hyssop, and he would bind them together so that all three of them would be in one band.

והקיף – the language of proximity and bringing close. Like [Tractate Betzah 32b, Chapter 4, Mishnah 5]: They bring two jars together, to give the heave-offering that is not from that which is surrounded, meaning to say that he would place adjacent to them the tips of the wings and the head of the tail of the living [second] bird, and immerse all of them together in blood and in water that is the earthenware vessel.

לאחר ידו – on the back of the hand of the leper.

ויש אומרים על מצחו – but the Halakha is not according to those who say [to sprinkle it on his forehead].

על השקוף – of the house that is plagued/leprous.