05-20-2024, 11:24 PM
Okay, so I was having sort of a back and forth with Aleph Beta to try and understand what Rabbi Fohrman was actually trying to say.
Here is their reply -
"Thanks for this question. Looking into it further, I can see that we missed an opportunity to clarify the claim. The precise word "nega - נגע" is used many times throughout Torah, but only with two specific connotations. a) plague b) having a skin condition of tzara'at. plague has a definite punishment / negative connotation. Tzara'at is a neutral connotation, a sort of spiritual disease. So the "one other time" is how Rabbi Fohrman is highlighting that this is the one other use case. Thanks for this question and the opportunity to clarify."
Here is their reply -
"Thanks for this question. Looking into it further, I can see that we missed an opportunity to clarify the claim. The precise word "nega - נגע" is used many times throughout Torah, but only with two specific connotations. a) plague b) having a skin condition of tzara'at. plague has a definite punishment / negative connotation. Tzara'at is a neutral connotation, a sort of spiritual disease. So the "one other time" is how Rabbi Fohrman is highlighting that this is the one other use case. Thanks for this question and the opportunity to clarify."