Rabbi Chanania le vice des prêtres dit: Les apparitions de Negaim sont seize. Le rabbin Dosa ben Harkinas dit: Les apparitions de Negaim sont trente-six. Akavia ben Mahalalel dit: soixante-douze. Rabbi Chanania, le vice des prêtres, dit: On ne peut pas examiner le Negaim d' abord après le Shabbat [pour les diagnostiquer] parce qu'alors [la fin de] sa semaine [d'impureté] tombera le Shabbat. Et pas le deuxième jour [de la semaine] parce qu'alors [la fin de] sa deuxième semaine tombera le Shabbat. Et pas le troisième jour [de la semaine] pour le cas des maisons [qui affligent Nega ], car alors [la fin de] sa troisième semaine tombera le Shabbat. Rabbi Akiva dit: On examine toujours. Si [la fin de la semaine] tombait le jour du Shabbat, ils repousseraient [l'examen] jusqu'à après Shabbat. Et cette question est à la fois indulgente et rigoureuse.
Bartenura on Mishnah Negaim
מראות נגעים שלשים וששה – and we don’t have the reading: "מראות נגעים ששה עשר" /”The appearances of plagues are sixteen. But there were thirty six, four appearances that are smooth and four appearances that are variegated of the skin of his body, and corresponding to them, with שחין/inflammation (or boil, skin-disease) and מכוה/a burnt spot on the skin, for the inflammation and the burnt spot are one, and Scripture did not divide them other than to tell you that they do not combine, and corresponding to them with the נתקים/bald (blanched) spot on the head or in the beard, and corresponding to them with קרחת/a leprous affection on the back of the head (making it bald) and גבחת/a leprous affection on the front of the head (making it bald), and ירקרק/pale-colored/greenish andאדמדם /reddish leprosy (see Leviticus 13:42), that are the plagues of houses, these are thirty-six.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Negaim
Rabbi Hanina, the vice-chief of priests, says: the colors of negaim are sixteen. Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas says: the colors of negaim are thirty-six. Akaviah ben Mahalalel says: seventy-two. The three rabbis in this mishnah sub-divide the four colors of negaim into either sixteen, thirty-six or seventy-two different colors. The same rules would apply as we learned in mishnah three. Evidently, these rabbis were simply more attuned to color than the other rabbis.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Negaim
עקביא בן מחללאל אומר שבעים ושתים – these thirty-six at the outset when he (i.e., the potential leper) is brought to the Kohen, and thirty-six others corresponding to the end of the first week or the end of the second week of isolation or the end of the third week for plagues upon houses to distinguish between appearances [of plagues] ab initio to an appearance at the end, these are seventy-two. Maimonides explained them thusly, and he is sound/upright. But what is difficult to me about this is that he counts eight appearances of bald (blanched) spots on the head or in the beard, but we hold that bald (blanched spots on the head or in the beard defile in all appearances [of plagues] and they lack special appearances like the rest of the plagues.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Negaim
Rabbi Hanina the vice-chief of priests says: negaim may not be inspected for the first time at the end of Shabbat, since the end of that week will fall on Shabbat; Nor on a Monday, since the end of the second week will fall on Shabbat; Nor on a Tuesday, in the case of houses, since the end of the third week will fall on Shabbat. If a priest examines a nega on Sunday (here called the end of Shabbat), then the end of that week, when it will be determined whether or not the person should be isolated, will fall on Shabbat, and it is forbidden to examine negaim on Shabbat. The same problem will occur if one examines the nega on Monday. The end of the first week will be on Sunday, and Sunday will count as both the end of the first week and the first day of the next week. Therefore, the end of the second week will fall on Shabbat. When it comes to the negaim that infect houses, there are three weeks of isolating. If the house is first examined on Tuesday, then the second week will begin on Monday and end on Sunday, and the third week will end on Shabbat.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Negaim
ששבוע שני שלו חל בשבת – for two isolations, are thirteen days. For the seventh day of the first week counts for this week and the other [week], as it is written (Leviticus 13:5): "והסגירו [הכהן] שבעת ימים שנית"/ “the priest shall isolate him for another seven days.”, which teaches that the seventh day counts for him from the number from before it and from after it. And similarly, the three weeks of plagues on houses are not other than nineteen days, for the first and seventh [days] of the middle week count before them and after them.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Negaim
Rabbi Akiva says: they may be inspected at all times, and if the time for the second inspection falls on Shabbat it is postponed to after Shabbat; and this procedure leads sometimes to a leniency and sometimes to a stringency. Rabbi Akiva agrees that a priest cannot examine negaim on Shabbat. However, he disagrees as to whether this means that we need to adjust the original exam. Rabbi Akiva prefers to conduct the original exam on the day upon which the person/house is brought to the attention of the priest. If the seventh day falls on Shabbat, we simply delay the examination until after Shabbat. Sometimes this will lead to a leniency and sometimes to a stringency. The following two mishnayot will explain what these leniencies/stringencies are.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Negaim
חל להיות בתוך השבת – that on the Sabbath days falls the seventh day, we don’t see him (i.e., examine him) on the Sabbath, because it appears like adjudication is taking place on the Sabbath day, but we delay it until after the Sabbath. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Akiba.
