The opening of the portion of Metzora states:
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: This shall be the law of the Metzora - person afflicted with tzara'at, on the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the kohen. The kohen shall go outside the camp, and the kohen shall look, and behold, the lesion of tzara'at has healed in the afflicted person. Then the kohen shall order, and the person to be cleansed shall take two live, clean birds, a cedar stick, a strip of crimson [wool], and hyssop. The kohen shall order, and one shall slaughter the one bird into an earthenware vessel, over spring water. [As for] the live bird, he shall take it, and then the cedar stick, the strip of crimson [wool], and the hyssop, and, along with the live bird, he shall dip them into the blood of the slaughtered bird, over the spring water. He shall then sprinkle seven times upon the person being cleansed from tzara'ath, and he shall cleanse him. He shall then send away the live bird into the [open] field.
Printed edition of Rashi
In the printed edition of Rashi the opening commentary begins by quoting the words: ‘This shall be the law of the Metzora - person afflicted with tzara’at etc.’ It then comments: 'This teaches us that one afflicted with tzara’at is not pronounced clean at night.'[1]
This comment is found in the Talmud:[2] 'And for purifying the leper, it (daytime) is derived as it is written:[3] “This shall be the law of the leper on the day of his cleansing.”'
Rabbi Shabbethai Bass (1641–1718), author of Siftei Chachamim and Rabbi Chaim ben Attar (1696-1743) in his commentary Ohr Hachaim explain that the main source for the law that the purification process must be during the daytime is from the superfluous words: ‘on the day of his cleansing.’
While Rashi brings the teaching found in the Talmud, the way it is brought appears enigmatic: Rashi omits to quote in the published edition the remainder of the verse that seems to contain the most important words from where this law is derived: ‘On the day of his cleansing,’ alluding to it merely with ‘etc.’
A further question may be asked about the text of the Talmud. The Talmud quotes the whole section of the verse: ‘This shall be the law of the leper on the day of his cleansing.’ If the main source of the teaching is from the words ‘on the day of his cleansing,’ why does the Talmud quote also the opening words: ‘This shall be the law of the leper?’
Manuscripts - On the day of his cleansing
The question on the printed version of Rashi is more pronounced in light of the manuscript versions of Rashi on this verse. In the majority of the Oxford manuscripts, the comment of Rashi that the purification must be performed during the daytime is mentioned after quoting just the words: ‘On the day of his cleansing’ (b’yom taharato). This includes CCC MS 165,[4] MS. Canon. Or. 81 (1396),[5] MS. Canonici Or. 35 (1401-1425),[6] MS. Oppenheim 34 (1201-1225)[7] and MS. Oppenheim 35 (1408).[8]
In MS. Canon. Or. 81 (1396),[9] in between the words ‘This shall be the law of the leper (Zot tihyeh torat ha-Metzora)’ and ‘on the day of his cleansing (b’yom taharato)’ it interrupts the quotation of the verse and brings an additional commentary, not found in other Oxford manuscripts or the published edition. It comments on the word Metzora: ‘gives out a bad name (motsee shem) to another.’ This is taken from the Midrash[10] and the Talmud. After this comment it proceeds to quote: ‘On the day of his cleansing (b’yom taharato)’ and comments: ‘This teaches us that one afflicted with tzara’at is not pronounced clean at night.’
Complete verse
In MS. Oppenheim Add. 4° 188 (1301-1400),[11] it quotes ‘This shall be the law of the leper (Zot tihye torat ha-Metzora),’ followed by a raised comma, and then quotes separately: ‘On the day of his cleansing (b’yom taharato),’ before proceeding with the commentary. As this manuscript has the headings for the Torah portions at the end of the portions, as opposed to the beginning, it would seem that this manuscript follows the text of the Talmud that quotes the whole section of the verse and not just the words: ‘on the day of his cleansing (b’yom taharato).’
A second manuscript that seems to follow the text of the Talmud is MS. Michael 384 (1399),[12] that quotes ‘This shall be the law of the leper (Zot tihye torat ha-Metzora)’ in large lettering and then ‘On the day of his cleansing (b’yom taharato)’ in small letters, before preceding with the comment. Since the name of the Torah portion in the end of the portion in this manuscript is just ‘Torat ha-Metzora’ – without ‘Zot tihyeh’ – it would seem that when in the opening of the portion it quotes the whole section, albeit in two sizes of lettering, it is in fact following the quotation from the Talmud that also quotes the whole section of the verse.
This raises further the question on the published edition of Rashi that quotes ‘Zot Tihyeh Torat haMetzora’ followed by etc., as it does not seem to follow any of the manuscript versions: not the majority of the manuscripts that derive the teaching only from ‘on the day of his cleansing (b’yom taharato),’ and not the whole section of the text, as found in the Talmud, that includes also ‘on the day of his cleansing (b’yom taharato).’
Motsee shem ra – bringing forth a bad name
A further question we would like to raise is that in MS. Canon. Or. 81 (1396),[13] on the word Metzora, Rashi comments: ‘gives out a bad name (motsee shem ra) to another.’[14] This is taken from the Midrash:[15]
Another interpretation: “This shall be the law for a leper” - this is what is written:[16] “Who is the man who desires life?" There is a story of a peddler who would go around to towns that were close to Tzippori. He would shout out and say, “Who wants to buy the potion of life?” They would all cling to him. Rabbi Yannai was sitting and interpreting texts in his reception room and heard him shouting out, “Who wants to buy the potion of life?” Rabbi Yannai said, “Come down to here, sell it to me.” He said back to him, “You do not need it and those like you do not need it.” Nonetheless, he made the effort to come and go down to him. He took out a book of Psalms and showed him the verse, “Who is the man who desires life?” The peddler said, “What is written after it – ‘guard your tongue from evil... Turn away from evil and do good.’”[17] Rabbi Yannai said, “Shlomo also shouted out and said[18], ‘He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles.’” Rabbi Yannai said “All of my days I was reading this verse and I did not know how to interpret it until this peddler came and made it understood – ‘Who is the man who desires life?’” Therefore, Moses warns Israel and says to them, “This shall be the law for a leper (Metzora)” - the law of the one that gives out a bad name (motsee shem) to another.
The question we would like to pose is why is this comment of Rashi omitted in the majority of the Oxford manuscripts and also not found in the printed version of Rashi?
Extra words
Rabbi Chaim ben Attar (1696-1743) in his commentary Ohr Hachaim raises the question about the superfluity of the verse: ‘This shall be the law of the Metzora on the day of his cleansing.’ He answers that the purpose of the verse is to highlight that the name of a person who contracts tzara’at is called a Metzora, as the Talmud and the Midrash comments - a contraction of the words motsee shem ra - speaking evil about another. As this interpretation is not found in the majority of Rashi manuscripts and certainly not in the published edition, it would appear that Rashi rejects this commentary in the plain understanding of the text. The question about the superfluity of the text however remains. This would be then what Rashi is addressing in his commentary by quoting more than just the words: on the day of his cleansing’ from this verse. Similarly, this may be the reason why the Talmud quotes a whole section of this verse beyond just the words: on the day of his cleansing.
It would seem that the source of Rashi and the Talmud that the purification for the Metzora must be during daytime would not be just from the words ‘on the day of his cleansing’ but relying also on the proceeding words: ‘This shall be the law for a leper (Zot tihye torat ha-Metzora),’ before ‘on the day of his cleansing (b’yom taharato).’
Day only or day and night?
The reason why ‘on the day of his cleansing’ would not be sufficient to derive that the cleansing must only take place during the daytime is since in many cases the Torah understands day to mean a twenty four hour period that includes also the evening.[19] This is the case in Genesis:[20] ‘And there was evening and there was morning, a first day;’ in Exodus:[21] ‘Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labour;’ in Numbers:[22] ‘For every first-born is Mine: at the day that I smote every first-born in the land of Egypt.’[23] In all the above cases, day means also night. The use of the additional preceding words ‘This shall be the law of the metzora’ is to clarify that the word ‘on the day (b’yom)’ is, in this case, specifically referring to the daytime and not night.
This
The word ‘this’ in the Torah is to determine something specific, as in[24] ‘This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months,’ which refers to not just the month on Nissan but, as Rashi comments,[25] that G-d showed Moses the moon in the first stage of its renewal, and said to him: “The time when the moon renews itself thus, shall be unto you the beginning of the month.”
Shall be
Similarly, the words ‘shall be (tihye)’ implies a particular specification, as the Talmud states:[26]
Rav Pappa said: The laws of a leper are different, as it is written concerning them an expression of ‘being,’ as the verse states: “This shall be the law of the leper,”[27] which indicates that it should be ‘as it is,’ i.e. the purification process of a leper must be performed in accordance with the precise order prescribed in the Torah.
Accordingly, the additional words ‘This shall be the law of the Metzora,’ immediately preceding ‘on the day of his cleansing,’ is intended to imply that ‘on the day of his cleansing, is in our case meant to mean specifically day and not night.
In conclusion: the lengthier quotation of the verse in the Talmud and Rashi is fundamental to the law about the limitation of daytime for the purification of the Metzora and thus explains the versions of the Rashi manuscripts and the printed edition that ignores the versions that have only the shorter quotation of the verse. The reason for this is due to the necessity of the preceding words to derive the law for the word day on its own refers in most cases to the twenty four hour period. It is for this reason that the printed edition goes so far as to only allude to the words ‘on the day of his cleansing’ with just, etc., to be make explicitly clear that the earlier words ‘this (zot)’ and ‘shall be (tihye)’ signifies that in this case day means daytime, as opposed to the period of a twenty four hour day.
This also explains the reason for the majority of the manuscripts and the printed edition of Rashi that omit the midrashic teaching on the word Metzora – alluding to ‘motsee shem ra,’ as this would interrupt the quotation of the additional necessary words in the verse that needs to be quoted to serve together as the basis for the law that the purification should be during the daytime. In addition, it would contradict the premise about the superfluity of the words that is necessary to understand how the law about the specification of day is derived from these additional words.
[1] Torat Kohanim 14:3, Megillah 21a.
[2] Megillah 21a.
[3] Leviticus 14:2.
[4] Fol. 87.
[5] Fol. 107.
[6] Fol. 134.
[7] Fol. 66.
[8] Fol. 65.
[9] Fol. 107.
[10] Leviticus Rabba 16:2: Another interpretation: "This shall be the law for a leper" - this is what is written (Psalms 36:13), "Who is the man who desires life?" There is a story of a peddler who would go around to towns that were close to Tzippori. He would shout out and say, "Who wants to buy the [potion] of life?" They would [all] cling to him. Rabbi Yannai was sitting and interpreting [texts] in his reception room [and] heard him shouting out, "Who wants to buy the [potion] of life?" [Rabbi Yannai] said, "Come down to here, sell [it] to me." He said [back] to him, "You do not need it and those like you do not [need it]." [Nonetheless,] he made the effort to come and go down to him. He took out a book of Psalms and showed him the verse, "Who is the man who desires life?" [The peddler said,] "What is written after it - 'guard your tongue from evil [...] Turn away from evil and do good' (Psalms 34:14-15)." Rabbi Yannai said, "Shlomo also shouted out and said (Proverbs 21:23), 'He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles.'" Rabbi Yannai said "All of my days I was reading this verse and I did not know how to interpret it until this peddler came and made it understood - 'Who is the man who desires life?'" Therefore, Moshe warns Israel and says to them, "This shall be the law for a leper (metzora)" - the law of the one that gives out a bad name (motsee shem) [to another].
[11] Fol. 122.
[12] Fol. 82.
[13] Fol. 107.
[14] The word shem is added to the text; it initially just had motsee ra.
[15] Leviticus Rabba 16:2.
[16] Psalms 36:13.
[17] Psalms 34:14-15.
[18] Proverbs 21:23.
[19] This explanation is from Likkutei Sichot 12:79.
[20] Genesis 1:5.
[21] Exodus 23:12.
[22] Numbers 3:13.
[23] The plague of the firstborn took place at midnight (Exodus 12:29).
[24] Exodus 12:2.
[25] Exodus 12:2.
[26] Talmud Menachot 5a.
[27] Leviticus 14:2.