Se’ar ba’nega hafach lavan

White hair, the sign of maturity and wisdom -well not always. Abnormal white-hair (on parts of the body other then the scalp and beard) is a telling sign in the Torah’s classification of Tzaraath.

In terms of receiving a grace period, were the afflicted person already aged and white, this sign of 2 white hairs rooted inside the nega was likely there prior to the nega’s appearance, making the only other way of him/her being called tamei only is being placed in quarantine and the nega increasing in size.

Even in the aged person, if those areas of the body where the hair is usually black, such as the eyelashes, eyebrows and pubic hair to turn white, that would be a telling sign of tumah as well.

The younger population

Where the person young enough that the hair on the afflicted area is black. The appearance of 2 white hairs rooted in the nega is a call for immediate tumah.
Although white hair is a sign of tumah by all four white shades of nega’im, it most often will make its appearance inside the bahereth than that of the se’eth.

White hair only

When the Torah says white, this excludes red, green, black and even yellow (blond) but it seems that grey is included as a tumah indicator.(see Torah vhamitzva parshat tazria min. Ch. 49)

Two discolored white hair strands are a powerful type of tumah indicator; if they make an appearance in the se’eth or bahereth even after the kohen pronounces it tahor (say after 7 days) that is a call for immediate tumah. (Sifra tazria min. Ch. 66

Exclusion

White hair is not an indicator of tumah when it appears on the head of the afflicted -both the Karachat and gabachat are excluded from being deemed immediately tammei. (Sifra tazria min. Ch. 69)

About the Author

igudhakohanim

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.