Negaim 14:2-3

Negaim 14:2

The kohein would come to free the living bird. He wouldn’t face the sea, the city or the wilderness as per Leviticus 14:53, “He shall let the living bird go out of the city into the open field.” He then comes to shave the hair of the metzora. The kohein passes a razor over the entirety of the metzora’s skin and the metzora washes his clothes and immerses in a mikvah. After this, the metzora no longer conveys impurity by entering a building but he still conveys impurity as a sheretz (vermin) does. He may enter within the Jerusalem city wall but he must keep away from his house for seven days and he is not permitted to engage in marital intimacy.

Negaim 14:3

On the seventh day, he shaves a second time just like the first, he washes his clothes and immerses in a mikvah. After this, he no longer conveys impurity like a sheretz but he’s a t’vul yom who may eat second tithe. (A t’vul yom is a person who immersed in a mikvah by day but who must wait until nightfall to be fully purified.) After nightfall, he may eat trumah and after bringing his atonement offering, he may eat holy things (i.e., sacrifices). We see that there are three stages in the purification of a metzora and three stages in the purification of a woman after giving birth.