Zev: << In any event, it might surprise you to learn that despite the ubiquitous translation of tzaraas as “leporsy,” most Orthdox Jews don’t believe it to be so. >>
I’ll expand that to say that any knowledgable person (regardless of religious persuasion) who has studied the texts do not believe that tzaraas is leprosy. That was the KJV translation, when they didn’t know much about medicines or diseases. Most modern translations call it “scale disease” or some similar term.
Roger that.
Somewhere between "Hansen's Disease" and bad acne.How different would the world be if Leviticus wasn’t in the bible?
My understanding is that “leprosy” did not refer to Hansens’s disease, but was a generic application to any kind of dermatological condition (including psoriasis, eczema, and really bad acne) which rendered the skin “unwhole” (unholy). Ancient people had all kinds of superstitious phobias about ritual purity and the Hebrews seem to have had a particular fixation on skin. People with open wounds or any other condition which rendered the skin “unholy” were isolated from everyone else because it was believed that touching such a person would render the toucher “unclean” (spiritually). One of Jesus’ most shocking characteristics (to those of his time) was his total disregard for such notions of what constituted spiritual “cleanliness.”