https://www.torahmusings.com/2022/04/contemporary-tzaraat-2/
The question why we don’t observe the laws of metzora has troubled many Torah scholars. In his introduction to his Tiferet Yisrael commentary on Mishnah Nega’im, R. Yisrael Lipschitz recalls that in his youth he asked the great R. Akiva Eiger this question. He responded that he himself was wondering the same thing for a long time and does not have a good answer. [18] R. Lipschitz himself answers along the lines of Rambam. Whereas Rambam stressed the need for a kohen meyuchas in determining a metzora to be impure, R. Lipschitz claimed it was essential for the purification process. Because the purification process included shaving the head, it could only be done if the metzora was really impure and had now been cured. But since a metzora can only become impure by the pronouncement of a real kohen, if it turned out the kohen was not a valid kohen, the shaving of the head would be a Torah violation. [19]
Wait, I thought tzara'as disappeared by the end of the First Temple period.
ReplyDeleteIt could be some people are afflicted with Tzara'as nowadays. Just that it goes undetected. In other words, Tzara'as may require a spiritual sensitivity not present in these times.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that it was pretty much being ignored by the late First Temple period and as a result, like the sota ritual, lost its purpose so it disappeared.
ReplyDeleteBut is it a disease like leprosy, or something supernatural?
ReplyDeleteSource?
ReplyDeleteSomewhere in the Gemara.
ReplyDelete"Somewhere in the Gemara", is not being very helpful.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I doubt that you'll find it in the Gemara, because there are several sources that indicate, that Tzara'as was an active issue, even post the SECOND Temple period.
The Sifra (Parshas Metzora, quoted in the linked article) states that the purification ritual of the metzora is relevant “nowadays”.
[The Sifra was written in the post second Temple era].
There is a story mentioned in the Sifra, that Rabbi Tarfon performed the purification ritual on three metzoraim.
The story is also mentioned in the Yerushalmi (Sotah 2:2).
Rabbi Tarfon lived in the post second Temple era (Pesachim 74a).
So evidently it had not disappeared by the end of the First Temple period.
It seems supernatural, based on the descriptions.
ReplyDeleteRav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch has an exhaustive essay in his Torah pierush proving this was not a natural or contagious disease and that Chazal were well aware of this.
ReplyDeleteSo does Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky
ReplyDeleteIt is also the view of Rambam
But it seems clear from sources in gemora and medrash that it was a physical disease