One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
מְחֻסְּרֵי כַּפָּרָה
Offerings for Those with Incomplete Atonement 3-5
Sefer Korbanot · The zav's seven clean days and the discharges that erase them, the full rite of the healed metzora from the Gate of Nicanor to the oil on his head, and the mishaps that test which parts of that rite are indispensable
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Discharges that obligate the zav's sacrifice
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Immersions the metzora makes on days seven and eight
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Sprinklings of oil toward the Holy of Holies
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The night a miscarriage still obligates a second sacrifice
Ch 3The zav's seven clean days, and what erases them
- Count, immerse, wait, bring. When the discharges cease he counts seven clean days like a zavah, immerses on the seventh, waits until nightfall, and brings his sacrifice on the eighth day if he had three discharges; a discharge even at the close of the seventh day, after he immersed, negates the entire counting. (3:1)
- A seminal emission costs one day only. Unlike a zav discharge, it nullifies only the day it occurred; a man who had one on the fifth day counts three more, immerses on the third of them, and brings his sacrifice on the fourth. (3:2)
- Ruinous but not constitutive. Any discharge that nullifies the counting does not create an obligation for a sacrifice, even three discharges in one day at the very close of the seven; the night before the eighth is lacking in time for all Torah laws, with the single exception of a woman after childbirth who miscarried on the night of the eighty-first day. (3:4)
- One on the eighth night links, two do not. One discharge on the eighth night with two on the eighth day are combined and obligate a sacrifice, since a zav's first discharge counts as a seminal emission; two on the night with one on the day are not combined. (3:5)
- Atonement for those who cannot sin. Every male can contract this impurity, including an infant on the day of his birth, a convert, a servant and one who is not intellectually capable; the Rambam writes that it appears to him atonement is brought for them so that they may eat sacrificial food, and their sin offering is eaten. (3:6)
RememberThe same drop can wipe out a week of counting and still not count toward the three that obligate an offering.
Ch 4The healed metzora, step by step
- Birds, shaving, and only then Jerusalem. After the cedar, hyssop, crimson thread and two birds, all his flesh is shaved and he immerses; only then may he enter Jerusalem, and he counts seven days, shaves a second time on the seventh, immerses, and is a tevul yom until evening. (4:1)
- A second immersion for a habit, not a doubt. On the eighth day he immerses again in the Chamber for those Afflicted by Tzara'at in the Women's Courtyard, because he had grown habituated to lesser impurities and may have contracted one, and this holds even though he did not divert his attention after the earlier immersion. (4:1)
- Blood on the right, or nothing. He stands at the lintel of the Gate of Nicanor where all who require atonement stand, inserts his hands to lean on the live guilt offering after it is waved with the log, and blood is placed on the middle lobe of his right ear, his right thumb and his right big toe; placed on the left organs, he has not fulfilled his obligation. (4:2)
- Oil follows blood, and ends on the head. Seven sprinklings toward the Holy of Holies with the finger dipped each time, then oil on the very places the blood touched, then the remainder on the head of the one being purified; if he did not apply it, the Rambam states, he does not achieve atonement. (4:2)
- The leftover oil is holy of holies. The remainder of the log is eaten only in the Courtyard by males of the priestly family, since an association was established between it and the guilt offering, and one who eats it before the sprinklings and applications receives lashes. (4:3)
RememberHe immerses a second time not because anything went wrong that night, but because of what he had been in the habit of doing for months.
Ch 5Mishaps, and what actually holds the rite back
- Place, not substance. The tinuch is the middle lobe; oil on the sides of the thumb and toe is acceptable and on their lower surface is invalid; oil placed where the blood was counts even if the blood was wiped away first, since the verse requires the place of the blood of the guilt offering. One who lacks a right hand, right foot or right ear can never regain purity. (5:1)
- The spill table. If the log spills before the seven sprinklings are finished, bring another and begin the sprinklings again; if after the sprinklings, begin the applications to thumb and toe again; but if the applications were completed and it spilled before the remainder reached his head, no second log is brought, since the application to the head is not an indispensable requirement. (5:5)
- Sequence is law. Oil applied before the blood, or to the thumb and toe before the seven sprinklings, requires the log to be refilled and the step repeated in its proper place, since the verse teaches that the entire law is carried out in the prescribed order. (5:6)
- Favor Above and purity below. Where the seven sprinklings were made without the proper intent, the offering does not find favor Above, yet the afflicted person regains his status of purity. (5:7)
- Measured at the slaughter, not at the plan. One afflicted again after bringing his guilt offering brings a full set of sacrifices each time, but one who brought only his birds between afflictions brings a single set for all of them; and where wealth changed, everything follows his status when the guilt offering was slaughtered, which is why a man caught by a doubt may sign his property away to become poor and bring a fowl. (5:8, 5:9, 5:10)
RememberPurity and atonement are two separate accounts, and the Rambam will let one of them close while the other stays open.