Negaim 1:6-2:1

Negaim 1:6

It leads to a stringency if there was no white hair and white hair appeared, if they were black and turned white, if one was black and the other white and they both turned white, if they were short and became long, if one was short and the other long and they both became long, if a boil adjoined both or one hair, if a boil surrounded both or one hair, or if they were separated by a boil, the healthy flesh of a boil, a burn, the healthy flesh of a burn or a white blemish and that thing disappeared, if it had no healthy flesh and healthy flesh appeared, if it was round or long and it became square, if it was on one side and became enclosed, if it was dispersed and then gathered in one place, if a boil entered it, surrounded it, separated it or reduced it in size – a boil, the healthy flesh of a boil, a burn, the healthy flesh of a burn or a white blemish – and it disappeared, if there was no spread and spreading appeared, if a boil, the healthy flesh of a boil, a burn, the healthy flesh of a burn or a white blemish divided between the original sign of a nega and the spread but it then disappeared – in all of these situations, it results in a stringency.

Negaim 2:1

A bright spot on a German (i.e., Caucasian) person appears dull and a dull spot on an Ethiopian (i.e., Black) person appears bright. Rabbi Yishmael says that Jews are like boxwood, neither black nor white but somewhere in between. Rabbi Akiva says that artists have paints that they use to portray people of black, white and intermediate skin tones. One should therefore paint an intermediate skin tone around a nega so that it will appear as it does on intermediate skin tones. Rabbi Yehuda says that the colors of negaim are judged leniently and not stringently, therefore the negaim of German people should be inspected on their own skin tones in order to rule leniently, while those of Ethiopian people should be inspected as if on an intermediate skin tone in order to rule leniently. The Sages say that both are treated as if they were on intermediate skin tones.