“And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.”
Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, unclean, unclean. The social regulations for the person declared unclean with a defiling skin disease: torn clothes, unkempt hair, covered lower face, and the cry of unclean, unclean. The torn clothes and unkempt hair are the signs of mourning (the same signs Aaron's sons were forbidden to show in Leviticus 10:6). The unclean person lives in a state of communal mourning — excluded from the community's life as if in a permanent state of grief. The cry of unclean, unclean warns approaching people of the impurity, protecting them from inadvertent contact.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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