God knows all about disease. He knows what causes it, what
prevents it, and what heals it. Therefore, if his instructions regarding
a disease make no scientific sense to you or me, then our understanding
is deficient, not his. We misunderstand his instructions or the
disease.
This week's double Torah portion, Tazria-Metsora (Leviticus 12-15), spends a lot of ink on something called
tsaraat.
Although that word has been historically translated as "leprosy,"
Tazria and Metsora do not appear to be addressing the disease we know as
Leprosy (aka Hansen's Disease) today.
Characteristics of Hansen's Disease
- Not highly contagious.
- Does not heal spontaneously.
- Causes numbness.
- Can cause the loss of fingers, toes, and sight.
- Infects only people and armadillos.
- Skin lesions and hair loss.
- Fever
Characteristics of Tsaraat
- Contagious enough to warrant solitary quarantine (no leper colonies allowed!)
- Can heal spontaneously.
- Infects people, cloth, leather, and stone.
- Skin lesions and hair loss.
- Fever
There is a superficial similarity to the symptoms, but it is apparent that
tsaraat
does not equal Hansen's Disease. More likely, Hansen's is a subset of a
larger category of conditions comprehended in biblical leprosy, which
must include a variety of bacterial and fungal infections.
The rabbinic understanding is that
tsaraat is caused by
lashon hara
or an evil tongue. In other words, gossiping, back-biting, libel,
slander, and "sharing" can all be manifested in a physical condition. In
such a case, it is not so much the physical condition that requires
solitary confinement, but that of the heart, "for out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh." Compare two other biblical passages
that involve symptoms of
tzaraat:
Numbers
12:1,10 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the
Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian
woman....And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold,
Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and,
behold, she was leprous.
Isaiah 3:16-17,24 Moreover the LORD
saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with
stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go,
and making a tinkling with their feet: (17) Therefore the Lord will
smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and
the LORD will discover their secret parts....And it shall come to pass,
that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a
girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a
stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
I am not completely convinced that
lashon hara specifically causes
tzaraat, but it certainly seems that some spiritual condition can trigger it, perhaps
lashon hara or pride. In either case, the cure is humble obedience to God's commands.
Update April 17, 2010:
Tony Robinson says that
tzaraat
is caused by disrespecting the authority of God's prophets and priests.
I think he is on the right track, but I will go further and say that,
based on Isaiah 3, it might be disrespect toward
all divinely appointed authority.
