(מג) וְרָאָ֨ה אֹת֜וֹ הַכֹּהֵ֗ן וְהִנֵּ֤ה שְׂאֵת־הַנֶּ֙גַע֙ לְבָנָ֣ה אֲדַמְדֶּ֔מֶת בְּקָרַחְתּ֖וֹ א֣וֹ בְגַבַּחְתּ֑וֹ כְּמַרְאֵ֥ה צָרַ֖עַת ע֥וֹר בָּשָֽׂר׃ (מד) אִישׁ־צָר֥וּעַ ה֖וּא טָמֵ֣א ה֑וּא טַמֵּ֧א יְטַמְּאֶ֛נּוּ הַכֹּהֵ֖ן בְּרֹאשׁ֥וֹ נִגְעֽוֹ׃ (מה) וְהַצָּר֜וּעַ אֲשֶׁר־בּ֣וֹ הַנֶּ֗גַע בְּגָדָ֞יו יִהְי֤וּ פְרֻמִים֙ וְרֹאשׁוֹ֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה פָר֔וּעַ וְעַל־שָׂפָ֖ם יַעְטֶ֑ה וְטָמֵ֥א ׀ טָמֵ֖א יִקְרָֽא׃ (מו) כָּל־יְמֵ֞י אֲשֶׁ֨ר הַנֶּ֥גַע בּ֛וֹ יִטְמָ֖א טָמֵ֣א ה֑וּא בָּדָ֣ד יֵשֵׁ֔ב מִח֥וּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶ֖ה מוֹשָׁבֽוֹ׃ (ס)
(43) The priest shall examine him: if the swollen affection on the bald part in the front or at the back of his head is white streaked with red, like the leprosy of body skin in appearance, (44) the man is leprous; he is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; he has the affection on his head. (45) As for the person with a leprous affection, his clothes shall be rent, his head shall be left bare, and he shall cover over his lip; and he shall call out, “Unclean! Unclean!” (46) He shall be unclean as long as the disease is on him. Being unclean, he shall dwell apart; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
ועל שפם יעטה AND HE SHALL COVER HIS LIP like a mourner (Sifra, Tazria Parashat Nega'im, Chapter 13 7; cf. Onkelos).
AND HE SHALL COVER. With his garments. The word yateh (he shall cover) is related to the word oteh (covers) in Who covers Thyself with light (Ps. 104:2). And the reason is so that he does not harm anyone with the breath of his mouth.
Rabbi Abbahu said: An allusion to the marking of graves may be derived from here: “He shall cry: Impure, impure” (Leviticus 13:45). This verse teaches that impurity cries out to the passerby and tells him: Remove yourself. And similarly, Rabbi Uzziel, grandson of Rabbi Uzziel the Great, said: Impurity cries out to the passerby and tells him: Remove yourself.
Rava said to Rabba bar Mari: From where is this matter derived whereby people say: Poverty follows the poor? Rabba bar Mari said to him: As we learned in a mishna (Bikkurim 3:8): Rich people would bring first fruits in baskets of gold and of silver, and poor people would bring first fruits in wicker baskets made of peeled willow, and they would give the baskets and the first fruits to the priests. The rich would have their baskets returned to them, while the poor would not. Rava said to him: You said the proof from there, from a mishna, and I say the proof from here, from a verse in the Torah: and he shall cry: Unclean, unclean” (Leviticus 13:45).
by Prof. Wendy Zierler
This point is driven home at the end of Chapter 13 of Vayikra, where the Tzaruah (person afflicted with scale disease) is painfully depicted as a mourner in torn clothes and loose hair, crying out tameh, tameh ([“I am] impure”) so as prevent others from touching him or her (v. 45.) The afflicted individual finally ends up dwelling Badad (alone), outside the camp (v. 46.) Here “the insiders,” whose bodies are whole and pure, are kept in, while the outsiders, those whose skin has been intruded, are kept out. Our association of the word Badad with the breached, defiled, destroyed state of Jerusalem in Megilat Eichah (1:1), only adds a sense of grief or desolation to this ritual depiction of the Metzorah.
There was a fearful scream which almost froze our hearts to hear. As he had placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had seared it--had burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal. My poor darling's brain had told her the significance of the fact as quickly as her nerves received the pain of it; and the two so overwhelmed her that her overwrought nature had its voice in that dreadful scream. But the words to her thought came quickly; the echo of the scream had not ceased to ring on the air when there came the reaction, and she sank on her knees on the floor in an agony of abasement. Pulling her beautiful hair over her face, as the leper of old his mantle, she wailed out:--
"Unclean! Unclean! Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh! I must bear this mark of shame upon my forehead until the Judgment Day."