Tzaraat as Cancer
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Published: April 13, 2016
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
[1] I wish to thank Abigail Tambor for reviewing this essay and offering many helpful suggestions.
[2] See e.g. Jacob Milgrom: Leviticus 1-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Anchor Bible; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 816-820. After rejecting leprosy and other options such as psoriasis, Milgrom suggests that the biblical disease does not correlates with any single medical problem.
R. Pinhasi, R. Foley, H.D. Donoghue, “Reconsidering the Antiquity of Leprosy,” Science312 (2005): 846. R.M. Heller, T.W. Heller, J.M. Sasson. Mold: “Tsara’at,” Leviticus, and the History of a Confusion,” Perspect Biol Med, 46.4, Fall (2003):588-91.
[4] Jeffrey E Gershenwald, Gery P. Guy Jr., “Stemming the Rising Incidence of Melanoma: Calling Prevention to Action,” J Natl Cancer Inst 108.1 (2016): djv381.
[5] M. Peterson, MR Albertini, P. Remington, “Incidence, Survival, and Mortality of Malignant Cutaneous Melanoma in Wisconsin, 1995-2011,” WMJ (The Journal of the Wisconsin Medical Society) 114.5 (2015):196-201.
S. Mukhergee, The Emperor of all Maladies (New York: Scribner, 2010).
Leviticus and Deuteronomy describe the kohen’s approach differently. The text in Leviticus implies that the kohen did nothing but observe (ראה) the metzora, and ask him or her to return later for further evaluation. The text in Deuteronomy 24:8, however, states that the patient must do exactly as the kohen instructs, implying that his role was more active.
M. Karamanou, A. Protogerou, G. Tsoucalas, G. Androutsos, E. Poulakou-Rebelakou, “Milestones in the History of Diabetes Mellitus: The Main Contributors,” World J Diabetes7.1, Jan 10 (2016): 1-7. S. Bhattacharjee, “A Brief History of Gout,” Int J Rheum Dis. 12.1 April (2009): 61-3.
[9] Joel S. Baden, Candida R. Moss, “The Origin and Interpretation of Saracat in Leviticus 13-124,” JBL 130 (2011): 643-662.
Yitzhaq Feder, “Behind the Scenes of a Priestly Polemic: Leviticus 14 and its Extra-Biblical Parallels,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 15 (2015): 12-26. See also the discussion in Milgrom: Leviticus 1-16, 820-824.
The assonance between metzora and motzei shem ra was also a factor, as were other biblical texts. See discussion in b. Arachin 15a-17a.
S. Sontag, Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors (New York: Picador, 1990).
See James R. Diamond, “Maimonides on Leprosy: Illness as a Contemplative Metaphor,”JQR 96 (2006): 96-122.
