# Leprosy question (historical)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leprosy-question-historical/69894>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 23, 2001, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leprosy-question-historical/69894 "2001-06-23T18:33:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leprosy-question-historical/69894/21 "2001-06-26T13:56:08Z")

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Alan Smithee:

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> Chaim, I don’t think it’s necessarilly implied that Tzaraas is a single disease. A fungus or mold could fit the bill, but I think several other (purely physical) conditions would qualify as cases of Tzaraas as well according to the Biblical criteria (including nearly any fungus or mold on cloth or houses). I think the proper translation of Tzarass would be “a disease or infection requiring the intervention of a priest.” Tzarass is therefore a (ritual/spiritual) category that could apply to multiple (physical) biological phenomena.

You could be right; without an actual set of cases to study, it’s impossible to say for sure. I’d simply assumed that the single word referred to a single disease rather than to a class of diseases.

samclem:

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> Is it fair to say that “ts” words have been changed to “tz”?

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Just a matter of how I grew up transliterating that Hebrew letter; others who pronounce it exactly the same way might transliterate it differently. There’s no “official” way.

JCHeckler:

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> Does the text specifically say it is visible on houses and clothing, or does it just infer that they are in some non-specific way “unclean”?

Clothing, from Leviticus 13:49 - “and if the contamination in the clothing, or leather, or woven or knitted material, or any leather article, is greenish or reddish, it is a spreading mildew [\<-- Tzaraas in Hebrew] and must be shown to the priest.”

Houses, from Leviticus 14:37 - “He is to examine the mildew [\<-- Tzaraas in Hebrew] on the walls, and if it has greenish or reddish depressions that appear to be deeper than the surface of the wall,”

Chaim Mattis Keller

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**Author:** ![IzzyR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@IzzyR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IzzyR)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leprosy-question-historical/69894/22 "2001-06-26T19:51:38Z")

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Chaim,

Do you have any source for your assertion that tzara’as of people is not an actual disease?

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