Tzaraath

Tzaraath, [|variously transcribed] into English and frequently translated as leprosy, is a term used in the Bible to describe various ritually impure disfigurative conditions of the human skin, clothing, and houses. Skin tzaraath generally involves patches that are white and contain unusually colored hair. Clothing and house tzaraath consists of a reddish or greenish discoloration.
The laws of tzaraath are given in depth in chapters 13–14 of Leviticus, and several Biblical stories describe individuals who have contracted tzaraath.

Name

Variant transcriptions of the name into English include saraath, zaraath, tzaraat, tsaraat, tzaraas, tzoraas, and tsaraas.
The Hebraic root tsara or tsaraath, and the Greek lepros, refer to conditions other than Hansen's disease. The editors of the Septuagint translated the term tzaraath with Greek lepra, which in classical sources referred to psoriasis and similar skin conditions; at the time Hansen's disease was known in Greek by a different term. The connection with the bacterial infection now known as Hansen's disease increased as the latter disease spread more widely, and was firmly established by Islamic works on medicine in the 9th century. The classical Greek term lepra stems from the noun lepis λεπίς, which in turn stems from the verb lepó λέπω, hence 'leprosy'. Variants of the word leprosy conflating tzaraath with Hansen's disease were used from the earliest English translations of the Bible, including Wycliffe's, Tyndale's, and Coverdale's.
The linguistic root of tzaraath may mean "smiting"; the Arabic cognate ṣaraʕa has a similar meaning. Alternatively, tzaraath may be derived from the Hebrew word tzirah, based on the idea that tzaraat affects the skin in a manner resembling a wasp's sting. Other theories suggest a connection to the roots שרע or זרע.
The manifestation of tzaraath is termed a negah "affliction", nega'im.

Affliction of the body

There are three varieties of nega'im that relate to human flesh:

on the skin
in a boil or burn
bald patches or lesions of the scalp or beard, in which case the lesion is called a נתק
Skin patches

White patches of the skin are confirmed as tzaraath by the occurrence of one of three signs:

white hair – if at least two hairs within the confines of the negah turn white
healthy flesh – if skin of a normal appearance appears within the confines of the patch
spreading – if the patch became enlarged since the time of the initial examination by the Kohen

Tzaraath skin patches can come in three varieties : se'et, sapahat, and baheret. The meaning of these terms is obscure, but they may suggest that tzaraat consists of an abnormal skin texture as well as color. However, rabbinic interpretation almost universally concluded that these three terms refer to different shades of color rather than different textures. The rabbis even argued the phrase "its appearance is deeper than the skin of his flesh" refers to color. As se'et and baheret are later discussed individually, while sapahat is not, sapahat may be considered a possible feature of se'et or baheret rather than an individual condition; in which case, the rabbinic interpretation may also be the original meaning of the verses.
Paradoxically, if the tzaraat covers a person's entire body, it is considered pure, and no isolation or purification ritual is needed. However, according to a minority interpretation, it is not the entire body, but the entire lesion which must be covered by tzaraat in order to have this pure status.

Boils and burns

Boils and burns, as occur naturally as a result of an abscess, blunt force trauma or thermal insult to the skin, are not tzaraath and do not carry impurity. During the healing phases of these wounds, however, if certain signs that mimic those of the aforementioned patches appear, tzaraath may occur.
Confirmation is by the occurrence of one of two signs:

white hair – similar to that in patches
spreading – similar to that in patches
Scalp or beard

The initial symptom of this type of tzaraath is patches of hair loss. According to Maimonides, scalp and beard tzaraath is characterized by hair loss without any change to the skin of the bald spot. The Tosefta, however, maintains that the skin of the bald spot becomes altered.
There are two confirming signs:

thin yellow hair – if at least two-and-a-half hairs from within the bald patch turn yellow
spreading – if the balding spreads, according to Maimonides. According to Abraham ben David, who quotes the Tosefta, this spreading would refer to spreading of a skin change as well.

While baldness is not a form of tzaraath, patches that occur on a bald scalp may be tzaraath if they meet the criteria mentioned by the Torah. Such an eruption on a bald scalp must appear in a distinct fashion, but is regulated by rules similar to that of tzaraath on the skin; however, it can only occur on men. For a scalp eruption to be tzaraath, the lesion must be a white patch tinged with red. This can occur in one of two places: within what are referred to as a man's posterior baldness and anterior baldness.

Inspection and pronouncement

To determine whether a skin condition is indeed tzaraath, the afflicted individual must visit a kohen. The kohen, trained in examining lesions and diagnosing tzaraath, examines the lesion according to the previously mentioned criteria, and determine whether it meets the specifications of tzaraath. If during the initial examination the lesion meets the criteria for tzaraath, the kohen pronounces the individual ritually impure.
If the criteria are not met by the lesion during the initial examination, the individual is confined to his home for seven days, pending a follow-up examination. If the criteria for tzaraath are again not met and the lesion has not spread, there is a difference in protocol depending on the type of lesion.

For skin patches, another confinement period of seven days is imposed.
For boils or burns, the kohen declares it merely a צרבת and there are no further examinations.
For bald patches or lesions of the scalp or beard, another confinement period of seven days is imposed. However, prior to this second confinement period, the individual is shaved around the lesion, but not in the lesion itself; according to the rabbis, a rim of two hairs surrounding the bald spot is left, to make any spreading recognizable.

After the second confinement period of seven days, those with skin patches or bald patches are re-evaluated once more. If the criteria for tzaraath have still not been met, the individual is declared pure. He or she, must, however, wash both his or her body and garments; due to the confinement, he or she is considered impure in some sense.
If the lesion was declared ritually pure and later it spread, it must be shown once again to a kohen, who will then pronounce it tzaraath.
If, however, the criteria for tzaraath have been met, either during the initial inspection or at either of the two follow-ups or even after a previous pronouncement of purity, the individual is declared impure. The individual is declared impure even if the lesion did not worsen or spread but remained the same—the skin eruption must become dimmer in appearance for it to be declared pure at the second follow-up examination.
The biblical emphasis appears to be on the ritual impurity that results from a diagnosis of tzaraath, not on any possible medical danger. The commands repeatedly discuss the sufferer's "pure" or "impure" status, only rarely mentioning "healing", and no Biblical story of tzaraath appears to involve the danger of death to the afflicted person.

Impure status

The individual who is declared impure with tzaraath is referred to as either a tzarua or a metzora. Such individuals must live alone outside the confines of their community, and call out impure, impure. They must tear their garments, keep their hair unkept or uncut, and cover their upper lip; these practices are expressions of mourning. In a different interpretation, the mouth must be covered, to prevent contagion.
A few medical historians, such as Arturo Castiglioni, regard this as the first model of sanitary legislation. Nevertheless, some Talmudic laws treat tzaraath as noncontagious: non-Jewish victims of tzaraath were not considered ritually impure; in special circumstances the kohen's inspection could be delayed until after the celebrations; in cases where white hair is a sign of tzaraat, if the white hairs were plucked before the inspection then the person was not declared impure. Similarly, in the Biblical description of house-tzaraath, individuals are encouraged to remove their belongings from the house before the house and its contents are pronounced impure.

Purification ritual

Once the metzora's lesion vanishes, he is evaluated by a kohen, who leaves the community to examine him. When the priest had certified that tzaraath had been cured, the biblical text requires that the formerly infected person undergo a number of ritual events, some occurring immediately, and some occurring a week later.
Initially, the person took two kosher birds, cedar-wood, scarlet, and ezov. "Living" water was placed in an earthenware vessel, over which one of the birds was slaughtered and into which the blood was allowed to run. The kohen then dipped the remaining bird and other items into the bloodied water, and sprinkled it on the metzora seven times. The live bird was freed into the open field. The metzora washed their garments from impurity and shaved off all their hair.
The metzora then waited for seven days to begin the final steps of his purification ceremony; in this period he must avoid his own home, but may mix with other people. On the seventh day, he again washed his garments from impurity and again shaves off all of his hair, and was then deemed pure. On the eighth day, he brought three animal sacrifices to the sanctuary: a sin-offering of a female lamb, and a guilt-offering and a burnt-offering, both male lambs. One who could not afford this sacrifice would instead offer birds rather than lambs for the sin-offering and burnt-offering. Blood from the slaughtered guilt-offering was placed on his right ear, right thumb and right big toe; then some of the oil for the sacrifice was poured into the priest's left palm, and applied with the priest's right forefinger onto the metzora right ear lobe, right thumb, and right big toe. The rest of the oil from the priest's palm was poured on the metzora 's head. Finally, the sin-offering and burnt-offering were sacrificed.
Some scholars speculate that the initial ritual may have originally been connected to sympathetic magic, with the living bird representing the departure of ritual impurity. Hyssop might simply be a good implement to use for sprinkling, with cedar-wood perhaps having alleged medicinal properties. Alternatively, tzaraath is seen as akin to death, and the use of "living" water dyed with blood and scarlet dye, along with cedar and ezov which also appear in the ceremony of purification from corpse-impurity, represent the symbolic return of the metzora to life.