Or if the man with the discharge spits on one who is clean, he too shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.OK, I have to admit I laughed when I read this. First, the idea of someone spitting on someone else has never been appealing in my mind. I come from a culture where people just don't spit; it isn't done, no mater who you are, unless you literally have something in your mouth that has to come out (dirt, bugs, etc.). Also, spitting at, much less on, someone is the height of rudeness, so you don't do it anyhow. So why would someone spit on another person to begin with? I understand that some people do it specifically to be rude to another, but I can't say I ever really understood it.
That led me to another question. According to everything I've ever been taught, an unclean person had to cry out that they were unclean everywhere they went, so that others would not be infected by accident. So how did the guy get close enough to spit on someone?
I'm sure that I'm leaving out a few possibilities, but the simplest reason that I found was that they were trying purposefully to infect the other person. Maybe they've given offense or some such, but this could be used as a route for intentionally make another share your disgrace/misery, by making them unclean for the day. I even see how this could be used strategically to undermine someone you don't like, say by disrupting a big business meeting. I'm sure this isn't the original use for the law, but the possible abuses kinda worry me on this one.
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