Leprosy question (historical)

[cmkeller]

Alan Smithee:

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:

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:

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

[IzzyR]

Chaim,

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