Avodah Zarah 072
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
RABIN MISHNAH STUDY GROUP
TRACTATE AVODAH ZARAH, CHAPTER FIVE, MISHNAH NINE (recap):
The following are prohibited and [impart] their prohibition with any amount: yeyn nesekh, idolatry, punctured leather, a stoned ox, a decapitated calf, a leper's birds, a nazir's hair, a donkey's redemption, [an admixture of] meat and milk, and secular slaughter performed in the priestly court. [All] these are prohibited and [impart] their prohibition with any amount.
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
7:
We continue our explanation of this mishnah. The next item in the list is the leper's birds. It is now accepted that the biblical laws concerning leprosy do not relate to the affliction which is now known as Hansen's Disease. It seems that in the Torah any deformation or enscalation of the skin is given the generic name tzara'at which has traditionally been translated as leprosy.
8:
Any appearance on the skin which was extraordinary must have been very frightening, especially in a society which had no knowledge of how to heal such an affliction. Tradition ascribed such afflictions to the sin of lashon ha-ra, which is malicious prattling which defames someone's good name. This is based upon a biblical incident described in Numbers 12:
Miriam … spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married: "He married a Cushite woman!" [Numbers 12:1]
This malicious prattling displeases God, who remonstrates:
"When a prophet of God arises among you, I make Myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is trusted throughout My household. With him I speak mouth to mouth, plainly and not in riddles, and he beholds God's likeness. How then did you not shrink from speaking against My servant Moses!" Still incensed with them, God departed. As the cloud withdrew from the Tent, there was Miriam stricken with snow-white scales! [Numbers 12:6-10]
9:
The Torah [Leviticus 14:1-7] prescribes for the purification of the leper as follows:
God spoke to Moses, saying: This shall be the ritual for a leper at the time that he is to be cleansed. When it has been reported to the priest, the priest shall go outside the camp. If the priest sees that the leper has been healed of his scaly affection, the priest shall order two live clean birds … to
be brought for him who is to be cleansed. The priest shall order one of the birds slaughtered over fresh water in an earthen vessel; and he shall take the live bird, along with the cedar wood, the crimson stuff, and the hyssop, and dip them together with the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. He shall then sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the eruption and cleanse him; and he shall set the live bird free in the open country.
In his commentary on this passage Rashi, basing himself on a midrash in Leviticus Rabba 16:7, gives a rather quaint explanation of why two birds were required for this ceremony of purification:
Lashon ha-ra is malicious gossip, so birds were required for the [leper's] purification because they are always twittering.
Be that as it may, our present mishnah rules that if the bird that was set free should become mixed up with other birds they all become forbidden. (I do not know how anyone could know that one particular bird was a leper's bird, so why were not all birds forbidden – just in case?)
10:
The next item is a nazir's hair. We have discussed the phenomenon of the nazir on several occasions. In AZ 059, for example, I wrote:
The nazirite was a person who had made a vow of abnegation. (The basic details are given in the Torah [Numbers 6:1-6].) In every culture there are people who feel that they must deprive themselves of some of the good things of life: possessions, society, sex and so forth. Medieval monasticism is a good example, where people took vows of 'poverty, chastity and obedience' – in other words, they vowed to deprive themselves of possessions, sex and independence. However, in the provisions of the Torah we find that there are already restrictions 'built in'. The Nazirite may only deprive himself of three things (consumption of alcohol, cutting of hair and contact with a corpse) and that only for a certain period of time. When the time is up the vow is terminated.
11:
When the period of the nazirite's abnegation is up he is required to go through a purification ceremony, which is outlined in the Torah [Numbers 6:13-18]:
When the days of his abnegation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and he shall offer his offering to God, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings… The Nazirite shall shave the head of his abnegation at the door of the Tent of Meeting, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings.
Again, rather curiously, should some of this hair become mixed up with other hair they all become forbidden.
To be continued.
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