Tzara’at that Develops out of a White Dermal Lesion
13:1 God spoke to Moses, instructing him to convey His words to Aaron, saying:
2 “In addition to contracting ritual defilement through birth, death, or certain discharges from the reproductive organ, the possibility will exist, from now on, for a person or his or her possessions to become ritually defiled by a condition termed tzara’at, the symptoms of which are specific types of lesions or discolorations, as follows. This condition specifically affects individuals of otherwise sterling character and moral excellence who have committed the sin of gossip, slander, or haughtiness. If tzara’at appears on their bodies, it will appear on their heads if they are guilty of haughtiness and elsewhere if they are guilty of gossip or slander. It is an entirely spiritual, miraculous condition, unrelated to any natural disease and with no physiological cause.
If a person develops (a) a wool-white spot, (b) an egg-membrane-white spot, (c) a snow-white spot, (d) a lime-white spot, or (e) a spot of any of these four degrees of whiteness tinged with red streaks—but not so many red streaks that the spot loses its white appearance—on the skin of his flesh, covering at least an area equivalent to a square the length of each of whose sides is equal to the diameter of a Cilician bean [i.e., 154 mm or 0.24 in], and it seems, according to the symptoms that will be described presently, that it forms a lesion of tzara’at on the skin of his flesh, he must be brought to Aaron the high priest, or to one of his sons, the regular priests, or their successors, for only they are authorized to pronounce someone or something defiled or undefiled on account of tzara’at. (Nonetheless, if a priest erroneously pronounces someone undefiled who is in fact defiled, his declaration is ineffective.)
Hebrew NameTranslationDegree of Whitenessבהרתbright spotshiny like snowספחת של בהרתadjunct to bright spotshiny like limeשאתraised (-looking) spotdull like clean, white woolספחת של שאתadjunct to raised (-looking) spotdull like an egg membraneFigure 1. White Lesions that can Become Tzara’at, in Decreasing Order of Whiteness
Since the priest must examine the lesion before pronouncing the person defiled or undefiled, a blind priest is disqualified from rendering judgment in cases of lesions suspected to be tzara’at. The priest may not examine someone or something suspected of suffering from tzara’at during the festivals, nor may he inspect a bridegroom (or any of the bridegroom’s possessions) during the seven days of rejoicing following the bridegroom’s wedding.
A spot that is darker white than any of these four degrees of whiteness is a simple lack of pigmentation, which cannot develop into tzara’at.
Diagnosis and Signs
3 Tzara’at can develop out of any of these four types of white spots. There are three signs that indicate that a white lesion has developed into tzara’at: white hairs, healthy flesh, and spreading (see Figure 2, page 97). The rules regarding white hairs are as follows: The priest must examine the lesion on the skin of his flesh, and if two or more originally dark hairs within the lesion have turned white since the appearance of the lesion—whether the appearance of the lesion, in the case of a snow-white or lime-white spot, is deeper than that of the unaffected skin of his flesh (due to its shininess), even though the spot is not actually deeper than the skin, or, in the case of the wool-white or egg-membrane-white spot, the appearance of the lesion is not deeper than that of the skin (due to its dullness)—it is a lesion of tzara’at. When the priest sees this, he must pronounce him ritually defiled.
The practical ramifications of the ritual defilement contracted on account of tzara’at are the same as those for the ritual defilement contracted by a man who has suffered two or more discrete non-seminal discharges, which will be discussed in detail later.
Inner Dimensions
[2] Wool-white spot: When two patches of color are placed side by side, the darker-colored area will appear raised relative to the lighter-colored area. Thus, the Hebrew word for a wool-white spot literally means “raised”: since its whiteness is less intense than that of the baheret, it therefore appears raised in comparison to it—even though it appears sunken compared to the unaffected, surrounding skin.
An area: This area is further equated with the average area covered by 36 hairs (6 hairs by 6 hairs) as they grow naturally on the body. The spot need not be a perfect square, but if it is less than 6 hairs wide, it is not considered tzara’at, no matter what its length.
[2] Tzara’at: Although tzara’at does not result from any natural physiological condition, when Divine providence decrees that this condition appear on a person, the resulting lesion is produced by limiting the circulation of blood in the area, which then turns white. This obstruction is, in turn, the physical manifestation of its corresponding spiritual antecedent: the obstruction of the flow of Divine consciousness from chochmah to binah. This is alluded to by the fact that one of the Names of God associated with binah is Ekyeh (אהיה); the numerical value of the regressive iteration of this Name (אהיה + אהי + אה + א) is 44, the numerical value of the word for “blood” (דם). The psychological equivalent of this blockage between chochmah and binah occurs when we contemplate, as we should, God’s transcendence and how He manifests Himself in creation, but our heightened awareness of God’s presence does not cause us to feel nullified within that presence.
When this self-nullification is lacking, our enhanced awareness of God can actually inflate our ego even further, instead of nullifying it as it should. In the words of the sages, “If [the student] merits, [the study of the Torah] acts for him as an elixir of life; if he does not, it acts as an elixir of death.” The word for “merit” (זכה) also means “to be refined,” intimating that the “merit” that determines whether the study of the Torah betters or debilitates the student is his degree of spiritual refinement, i.e., lack of ego.
This amplified sense of self intoxicates us with overconfidence, which, unless checked, will corrupt us in many ways. It can delude us into thinking that we can safely lower our guard against the enticements of materialism; it can render us overly judgmental of others (hence the increased propensity toward gossip or slander); it can exaggerate our self-estimation, thereby leading us to depression when we fail to live up to our unrealistic expections for ourselves, and so on. Whatever the case, the forces of evil siphon off Divine energy from this unbalanced binah.
This added opportunity for the forces of evil to insinuate themselves into our lives is reflected physically in the growth of white hair within the lesion. As we will see later, hair represents a highly attenuated flow of Divine energy—so attenuated that the forces of evil are allowed to tap it. For this reason, hair must normally be kept short, in order to prevent the forces of evil from siphoning off more than the minimal Divine energy that they are allocated for their continued existence.
In order to restore the flow of chochmah to binah, the individual must be presented to a priest, who represents chesed, which is derived from chochmah (both sefirot being on the right axis of the sefirotic tree). The priest then quarantines him for seven days, in order to allow the seven lower sub-sefirot of chochmah to re-enter binah (for it is always the seven lower sub-sefirot of a higher partzuf that become vested within a lower partzuf), imparting to it its inherent sense of self-nullification before God.
