Leprosy?
‘… Any Kohen Who Is Not Expert …’
(Shavuos 6a)
Our sugya discusses tzara’as, including halachos so severe that when Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya wanted to tell Rabbi Akiva to learn the Torah assiduously and profoundly, he said, “Cease your [Agadic] homiletics and delve into the halachos of skin plagues and tents (Nega’im v’aholos)” (Sanhedrin 67b).
Tzara’as Is Not An Illness
Rabbi Yehonasan Eibeschitz, zt”l, stresses that the tzara’as discussed in the parshios of Tazria and Metzora are not diseases, as opposed to the leprosy known to us which is a skin ailment. The tzara’as of the Torah is the appearance of a mark that does not affect a person’s health but his state of purity (tahara) or impurity (tumah). This determines whether he must stay outside of the community until he becomes tahor (Ahavas Yehonasan, haftaras Metzora).
Why Is There No Tzara’as In Our Era?
The halachos of tzara’as do not depend on the Temple but are applicable in any era (Sefer HaChinuch 169, and see Rambam, Hilchos Tumas Tzara’as 11:6). Yet these halachos are not practiced in our era. The Tiferes Yisrael (at the end of Mareh Kohen, preface to tractate Negaim) recounts that as a child he asked this question of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, zt”l, who replied that he had no suitable answer.
A Matter Of Dispute
In fact, Rabbi Yaakov Emden, zt”l, (reponsa She’elas Yaavetz, I:138) disagrees and asserts that the laws apply even today, and that one can now become tamei with tzara’as, but one cannot become tahor. We can, after all, determine the first degree of whiteness, which is “bright as snow.” A person with a snow-white mark is therefore tamei and, in Rav Emden’s opinion, no kohen is needed to declare tzara’as in such a clear-cut instance. A kohen is required to declare the tahara of a metzora, and as we have no kohanim meyuchasim (verified kohanim), a person with tzara’as today remains tamei forever and must not enter Yerushalayim and perhaps other places (see Minchas Chinuch 169:20 and accompanying remarks).
That is the opinion of Rabbi Yaakov Emden (see ibid. for his explanation of Rambam, Hilchos Tumas Hatzara’as 9:3). However, according to most poskim, a person does not become tamei with tzara’as without a kohen’s declaration (see Sefer Hamafte’ach ibid. and the above poskim). Thus, what is their reasoning?
A Lack Of Kohanim
According to most Acharonim, the reason is that we have no certified kohanim meyuchasim, who are the only ones who may declare an afflicted person as tamei (Radbaz, Hilchos Terumos 7:9; Tiferes Yisrael, ibid; Toledos Adam 1:6).
A Lack Of Experts
Other Acharonim explain that these halachos are not in effect in our era not because we lack kohanim but rather because we have no expertise in the appearance of whiteness required to determine a mark as tzara’as. Peiros Teinah on Shavuos cites the Midrash Lekach Tov: “Rabbi Yochanan said that since the destruction of the Holy Temple there is no tumah of tzara’as because no one can instruct us.”
The Lime Of The Temple
The Chochmas Shlomo explains that the Midrash is based on the Mishna in Negaim 1:1 which details the four degrees of whiteness of tzara’as, one of which is identical to the white lime plaster of the Heichal (the hall of the Holy Temple). As the Holy Temple has been destroyed, we cannot examine the lime of the Heichal to determine that degree of whiteness.
