Milah Vs. Negah

Why is the commandment of bris milah given as the intro. to the parsha of negaim? In Nedarim (31b) Rav Nechemia says milah is great because it overrides the prohibition of cutting off a negah.  Why does this show us the greatness of milah?  The Maharal explains that a neggah is klipos hachetzonim, they are klipos but milah is pnimious and hence it overrides the negah.  What does this mean?

The Alter Rebbe says that the possuk uses the word  eish, איש כי יהיה בבשרו which refers to the greatness of man to teach us that it is only one who has achieved great spiritual heights can receive a negah.  Only the person who has perfected himself to a great degree but is just lacking perfection in just the last levels is susceptible to the tumah of a negah.  The negah on the skin reflects the impurity that exists in the individual’s most outermost layer.  The root of this idea can be found in the Shla who says the negah affects the עור of a person because the tumah of a negah comes about because of the sin of Adam who turned אור into עור.  He is referring to the midrash in Berashis (20:12) that in the Torah of Rebbe Meir it didn’t say כתנות עור, it said כתנות אור.  What is the midrash teaching us?  That originally even the body of Adam was purified and radiated spiritual light.  It is only after the sin that the body becomes עור, a course, physical, uncouth being.  It is only because of this impurity of the body that the tumah of the negah develops.  It is the person who hasn’t refined his עור into אור that gets afflicted with a negah. 

Milah is the antidote to the negah.  When one performs the mitzvah of milah he is perfecting his body.  He is doing an act that brings holiness to the body itself.  The Torah sets forth the commandment of milah before introducing negaim in order to teach us the lesson of the negah.  The point of receiving a negah isn’t just a punishment, it is to teach the person to bring holiness to every aspect of his life.