In Parshas Tazria, we find the dinim of a מצורע, of צרעת, of נגעים, we find the dinim of leprosy. And concerning a person who has a נגע, we find two general dinim. One din is that in order to see the נגע, to establish whether this נגע is tamei or not, whether it is impure or not, it has to be through a chacham, through a talmid chacham, a person who knows the halachos. A person, as the Rambam says in הלכות טומאת צרעת פרק ט׳ הלכה ב׳, that it has to be a person that יורנו רבו, his rebbi taught him, והיה בקי בכל הנגעים ובשמותיהן, he has to be well knowledgeable in all the נגעים and all their names, בנגעי אדם כולם ובנגעי בגדים ובנגעי בתים, in the נגעים of a person, in the נגעים of garments, and in the נגעים of houses. And this chacham, he is the one that's going to look at it and establish whether it is a נגע which is tamei or not. This chacham does not have to be a kohen. This chacham could be from any שבט of Klal Yisrael, as long as he is בקי in the dinim of נגעים. And he received it from his rebbi, so then he is able to look at the נגעים to establish whether it is tamei or tahor. Because הכל כשרים לראות את הנגעים, because everybody, any Yid is kasher to look at a נגע, as long as he knows the dinim of נגעים. On the other hand, the din is that הטומאה והטהרה תלויה בכהן, whether it is actually טמא, to become טמא, and later on to become טהור, that depends on the כהן. Which means that even after the חכם saw the נגע, and he established that the נגע is טמא, so the person who has the נגע does not become טמא yet, till the כהן says, \"טמא אתה.\" טמא אתה, the כהן has to say, \"You are טמא.\" And the same applies to the טהרה, that even after the חכם comes and sees that the נגע went away from the person, and therefore the person should be טהור, the person does not become טהור completely עד שיאמר לו כהן, \"טהור אתה,\" till the כהן says, \"You are טהור.\" And this, that you must have a כהן in order to establish the טומאה and the טהרה of the נגע, is לעיכובא, which means this is something that must be. That's something that without it, actually the the person is not טמא and not טהור. Which means that even if he is a כהן שאינו יודע לראות, a כהן himself does not know the הלכות and he can't see it, and even it says if the כהן is a קטן or a שוטה, so the כהן relies on the words of the חכם, which means החכם רואהו, as the Rambam says, the חכם will look at it, ואומר לו, and the חכם will say to the כהן, \"אמור טמא,\" you say טמא, והכהן אומר, \"טמא,\" the kohen says tamei, and later on he says, \"אמור טהור,\" say tahor, and the kohen says tahor. So we see here how important it is in the dinim of negaim that it must be through a kohen. But we have to understand: why did the Torah say that this depends on a kohen? Since the kohen anyway relies on the words of the chacham, then why is it important that we should have a kohen who will say tamei or will say tahor? And also, why do we find this din specifically by טומאת צרעת? We don't find this din concerning any other tumah, that the only way he becomes tamei is if the kohen will say you are tamei. If he did the act that makes him tamei, he automatically becomes tamei. But by טומאת צרעת, we see that even if everything fits, all the conditions are there to make him tamei, he doesn't become tamei till the kohen does it. Why is that specifically by טומאת צרעת? And even though this is a גזירת הכתוב, as Rashi says in פרשת תזריע, that it is a גזירת הכתוב, which means that there is no reason for it, the Torah just said that this is the din and that's all, but still, we know what the Rambam writes in the end of הלכות תמורה, that even by the חוקי התורה, that even by those mitzvot which are called chukim that have no reason, גזירות הן, he says, these are mitzvot which are gezerot, decrees of Hashem, and have no reason, nevertheless, the Rambam says, ראוי להתבונן בהן, it's still proper to look into them, וכל מה שאתה יכול ליתן לו טעם, תן לו טעם. Any reason that we could find, we have to try to find. And therefore, we have to try to find a reason for this inyan that in order for the person to become tamei and tahor concerning tzaraat, it depends on the kohen. And it's self-understood that the part that needs explanation really is the part of tumah rather than the part of taharah. That part that in order to become tamei, you have to have a kohen, rather than the part that in order to become tahor you have to have a kohen. Where in the fact that you need a kohen for the metzora to become tahor, that could be explained simply: that since in order to become tamei, you have to have a kohen, and taharah comes after tumah, so therefore, in order to make him tahor, you also have to have a kohen. Which means if the kohen was the one that was able to make him tamei, so then it obviously depends on the kohen to make him tahor. So, that's understood. But the question is on the tumah: why is it that in order to become tamei, you have to have a kohen? And the question is much deeper. Being that the whole chiddush is the tumah, not the taharah, as we just said, so then we really have to understand why is it that in order to become tamei, you have to have a kohen? If the ikar chiddush would be that you need a kohen for the taharah, then we could explain it. Since we know that a kohen is connected to taharah, a kohen always must be tahor, there's a din he's not allowed to become tamei, so therefore, in order to bring about a taharah, a cleanliness, a purity in a person, it's connected to a kohen. But here we're saying the opposite: the reason why you need a kohen for the taharah of the metzora is because the tumah came through the kohen. The reason why we need a kohen is mainly for the tumah, not for the taharah. And the question is why? Why should there be a din that in order for the person to become tamei, you would need a kohen?

And the explanation that can be given to this is that we're talking here about טומאת צרעת. Now, טומאת צרעת is stricter than any other tumah. Therefore, we find that when a person becomes a metzora, the pasuk says: בדד ישב מחוץ למחנה מושבו. He's supposed to live all alone, he's supposed to be isolated, he's supposed to stay outside of the machaneh, as the pasuk says in פרשת תזריע, קפיטל י״ג, פסוק מ״ו, which means that he has to be sent out out of all three מחנות. We know that the Yidden were divided into three camps: מחנה ישראל, מחנה לויה, and מחנה שכינה. And a metzora is supposed to be sent out out of all three מחנות. And when he is there out of all three מחנות, the pasuk says בדד ישב, he must stay alone, so Rashi says it means שלא יהיו שאר טמאים יושבים עמו. Not only can't he sit together with people who are clean, who are tahor, he can't even be together with other people who are tamei, which means that the place of the metzora is out of the machaneh, even out of the machaneh of other teme'im. Which shows us that the tumah of metzora is a very, very strict tumah. That his place is outside of any machaneh of kedushah. Spiritually, it means that he is so isolated, that he's isolated away from all the Yidden. That any machaneh which is connected to Bnei Yisrael, even if it's the lowest level, the מחנה ישראל, the metzora is outside of that machaneh also, which means he is outside of the machaneh of kedushah. That's how low the metzora is. So, the Torah tells us that who is able to say, to pasken, that a Yid is so low that he is really outside of all מחנות of קדושה? Only a kohen. Who could have this responsibility of paskening and causing that this Yid is so low that he is outside of the מחנה of קדושה, he's outside of the camp of בני ישראל? This could be done only through a kohen. What's the idea of a kohen? We know that a kohen has to have special אהבת ישראל. He's supposed to have אהבת ישראל more than other Yidden. That's why we find that one of the mitzvot of a kohen is to bentsch the בני ישראל, to bless the בני ישראל. And the way he is supposed to bless the בני ישראל is as he says in the berachah before Birkat Kohanim: אשר קדשנו בקדושתו של אהרן וצונו לברך את עמו ישראל באהבה. That You commanded us to bentsch, to bless the בני ישראל with love. Because a kohen is considered an איש החסד, as the pasuk says in פרשת ברכה, קפיטל ל״ג, פסוק ח׳, and explained in the Zohar חלק א׳ בהשמטות דף רס״ו סוף עמוד ב׳, and in Zohar חלק ג׳ קמ״ה עמוד ב׳, עמוד ב׳, etc., etc., that he is called the איש איש החסד, and his job is to bless the בני ישראל, and to do it with ahavah. As it is known, brought down in poskim, that it's an important condition in Birkat Kohanim that it has to be done b'ahavah, with love. And if chas veshalom, when he blesses the בני ישראל and he's missing the love, so then it's a sakanah, danger, dangerous for him as it says in poskim brought down in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, סימן קכ\"ח, סעיף י\"ט. And that is the reason why the kohen is supposed to be the one to decide, to determine whether this person is טמא or not. Because only a person who is איש החסד, a person who has kindness, only a person who has the real אהבת ישראל, is able to give out such a pesak on a Yid that he belongs outside of the מחנה ישראל. And this explains, by the way, the המשך of the pasuk in פרשת שופטים, קפיטל כ\"א, פסוק ה', where it speaks about the Kohanim. So the pasuk says: בם בחר ה' אלקיך לשרתו, that ה' chose the כהנים to serve Him, ולברך בשם ה', and to bless in the name of ה', and the פסוק continues: ועל פיהם יהיה כל ריב וכל נגע, that based on the mouth of the Kohanim will be all arguments, they will pasken all arguments and all נגעים. So we see here that the Torah makes a connection between the Kohanim blessing the בני ישראל and the fact that they pasken all the נגעים. Because in order to be able to pasken on a נגע that it's טמא, which would mean that by they are paskening that this Yid belongs מחוץ למחנה, this Yid is outside of the camp of בני ישראל, for that you have to have real Ahavat Yisrael. You have to be a kohen whose job is to bentsh the בני ישראל, whose job is to express his love to the בני ישראל. Certainly, the pask of the kohen has to be based on the Torah. And that's why, first the chacham who is a חכם בחכמת התורה, the person who is knowledgeable in Torah, who is בקי בכל הנגעים, who knows all the דינים of נגעים, who received it from his rebbe as we said before, he is the one that's supposed to look at it, and he is the one that's supposed to say whether it is טמא or not. But when it comes to actually l'maaseh, giving out the פסק דין, it has to be done through the כהן, who is איש החסד. Because only when a person feels the real strictness of such a פסק דין, he really understands how terrible it is to pask'n that a Yid belongs מחוץ למחנה, only he is able to pask'n this דין, because definitely he will not hold back any effort in really investigating and looking into this, and asking the חכם over and over again, to make sure that this פסק דין is a real פסק דין. And only after he will investigate and really come to the decision that this person is טמא, which means this person really is מחוץ למחנה, then he will pask'n that he is טמא. So if it's done through such a person, we can be sure that this פסק דין is a true פסק דין. And on the other hand, we also can be sure that since this פסק דין was given by a כהן who really cares about another Yid, he will do everything possible to make sure that eventually this person will become טהור and come back into the מחנה. And this is the reason why the Torah wanted that the טומאה of the צרעת, the מצורע should come through a כהן, because then we know for sure that when the פסק דין is that this person is טמא, it's a real פסק דין. And because the טומאה comes through the כהן, so therefore the טהרה also comes through the כהן.

From here we take a very, very important lesson. בשעת we see on somebody that he acts improper, rachmana litzlan, till it seems that this person is so low that he really doesn't even belong in the מחנה ישראל, the camp of Yidden, like we find in the Haggadah the expression concerning the רשע that he is הוציא את עצמו מן הכלל, he took himself out of כלל ישראל, he is not fit to be within the מחנה ישראל. So the Torah says that even if the person is a big חכם and he knows all the הלכות of the Torah, and according to his שיקול הדעת, his understanding, and according to the way he knows the חכמת התורה, that person is fit to become מחוץ למחנה מושבו, to stay out of the מחנה, nevertheless, before you give out such a פסק דין on another Yid, first you have to test it to see whether this fits to the מידה of chesed and אהבת ישראל. That's why you have to go to the kohen. Because if you're missing chas v'shalom in the true אהבת ישראל, then you have no right chas v'shalom to give out a פסק דין on a second Yid that he is not in מחנה ישראל. It could be that the reason you're paskening like that is not pure שיקול הדעת, pure understanding through the Torah, but maybe it becomes it comes because your midot, your emotions, your attributes are not so pure. Your midot are not so clean, and therefore you pasken that that he is מחוץ למחנה. The only way you're able to really come out with a פסק דין that this person is מחוץ למחנה based on his הנהגה and his behavior is only if you have the real, pure אהבת ישראל, which means if you are a kohen—doesn't mean a technical, physically a kohen, but you are a איש החסד, a person who is full of chesed, a person who has the real אהבת ישראל. Then, if you pasken that he is מחוץ למחנה, your פסק דין is a real פסק דין. But if you pasken it not based on אהבת ישראל, then the person actually is not tamei. Even if you feel he is tamei, and you say he is tamei, he doesn't become tamei, just like in the halacha of a נגע. If the chacham would say tamei, the person doesn't become tamei, as long as the kohen didn't say it. The same here also: if you pasken on somebody else that he is tamei, and it's not done through the inyan of kohen, which means through the inyan of ahavat Yisrael, then it's not true, it's a sheker. Then the person who said this psak din, he is a liar. He is the one that motzi shem ra. He is the metzora. A metzora is a person who gives out a shem ra, a bad name. The word metzora comes from the word motzi ra, motzi shem ra. So if you give out such a psak din without first having the kohen, having the inyan of chesed within you, so then by giving out this psak din you are lying, because the person is not really tamei if it doesn't come through the kohen, through the chesed. So then you are the one that's lying. And this is a lesson that we're supposed to take from this parsha, from this din, that in order to be able to pasken on a Yid that he doesn't belong in Klal Yisrael, you have to really, really test yourself to see whether it comes because you have, chas veshalom, bad middos, or it is a real, true psak din that comes as a result of your true ahavat Yisrael.