This shall be the law of the Metsora on the day of his purification: He shall be brought to the Kohen (14:2)
The Mishna learns from these words that even if the Metsora is a Kohen himself and capable of determining if such a blemish makes him impure, he is still required to seek the ruling of another Kohen as to his current state of purity and may not rely on his own ruling.[1]
Why would this be the case, if the Kohen is knowledgeable to rule on other people’s blemishes, why is he not trusted on his own?[2]
The answer is that the purification process of a Metsora is not a medical process, it is a process of teshuva. Since the blemish stemmed from the Metsora’s haughtiness (in that he treated his fellow Jew badly – an act that stems from over-evaluating his own self-worth), the Metsora must humble himself by asking another person about his blemish.
Another answer is that often, when we look at our own faults, we tend to justify them and overlook their seriousness, but when it comes to the faults of others, we are only too quick to judge unfavourably and look down on their transgressions. For this reason, the Kohen must ask someone else about his own blemish, because when it comes to his own faults, he may not be capable of seeing so clearly.
This is the conclusion that Rav Yisroel Salanter came to when he pondered why most people have one eye weaker than the other. He answered that the weaker eye is to see the faults of others, whereas the stronger eye should be used to see our own faults.
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