Leprosy?
‘Any Kohen Who Is Not An Expert…’
(Shavuos 6a)
Our sugya discusses tzara’as, whose halachos are so severe that when Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya wanted to tell Rabbi Akiva to study Torah assiduously and profoundly, he said, “Cease your [aggadic] homiletics and delve into the halachos of skin plagues and tents (nega’im v’aholos)” (Sanhedrin 67b).
Tzara’as Is Not An Illness
Rabbi Yehonasan Eibeschitz, zt”l, stresses that tzara’as is not a disease such as leprosy. Rather, it is a spiritual condition. The appearance of tzara’as does not affect a person’s health but his state of purity (Ahavas Yehonasan, haftaras Metzora).
Why Is There No Tzara’as In Our Era?
The halachos of tzara’as do not depend on the Temple; they are applicable in all eras (Sefer Hachinuch 169 and see Rambam, Hilchos Tumas Tzara’as 11:6). Yet these halachos are not observed in our era. The Tiferes Yisrael (at the end of Mareh Kohen, preface to tractate Negaim) recounts that as a child he asked Rabbi Akiva Eiger, zt”l, why not. Rabbi Akiva Eiger replied that he had no suitable answer.
A Matter Of Dispute
Rabbi Yaakov Emden, zt”l (reponsa She’elas Yaavetz, I:138), asserts that one can, in fact, become tamei with tzara’as today, but one cannot become tahor. We can, after all, determine the first degree of tzara’as whiteness, which is “bright as snow.” A person with a snow-white mark is therefore tamei. In Rabbi Emden’ opinion, no kohen is needed to declare a person tamei with tzara’as in such a clear-cut instance. A kohen is required, though, to declare him tahor, and since we have no certified kohanim (meyuchasim) nowadaus, a person with tzara’as today remains tamei forever and may not enter Yerushalayim and perhaps other places too (see ibid., for his explanation of Rambam, Hilchos Tumas Hatzara’as 9:3; see also Minchas Chinuch 169:20 and accompanying remarks).
A Lack Of Kohanim
According to most poskim, though, a person does not become tamei with tzara’as without a kohen’s declaration (see Sefer Hamafte’ach and the above poskim). And since we have no certified kohanim (meyuchasim) nowadays, most Achronim say the law of tazara’as cannot be observed (Radbaz, Hilchos Terumos 7:9; Tiferes Yisrael, ibid; Toledos Adam 1:6).
A Lack Of Experts
Other Acharonim explain that these halachos are not in effect in our era, not because we lack kohanim, but because we have no expertise in the various shades of white that determine whether a spot on someone is tzara’as or not. Peiros Teinah on Shavuos cites the Midrash Lekach Tov: “Rabbi Yochanan said that since the destruction of the Holy Temple there is no tumah of tzara’as because no one can instruct us.”
The Lime Of The Temple
The Chochmas Shlomo explains that the Midrash is based on a mishnah (Negaim 1:1), which details the four degrees of whiteness of tzara’as, one of which is identical to the white lime plaster of the Heichal (the hall of the Holy Temple). As the Holy Temple has been destroyed, we cannot examine the lime of the Heichal to determine that degree of whiteness.