Leviticus 14: 1-9, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper; Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days. But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.”
If a person was found to have the infectious disease and then put in quarantine there was a means of being reexamined if they believed that the disease was cured. However, part of the quarantine process involved separation from the rest of the community while the person had to cover his mouth and nose and call out “unclean” whenever he came near other people. It might be okay for the person to be cured and he might even be declared clean by the priest. But what about the rest of the community. When should they feel free to come to an unclean person? There was a complete and public process for a person who had been healed. This process was designed to show the rest of the community that the formerly unclean person was now clean. Even in this matter a person was given the best possible access to reintegration.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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