TZARA'AS

Chaim G. has a guestpost on Dovbear's blog (here: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2007/04/sigh_26.html) in which he shares a vort by Reb Hanoch of Alexander about tzara'as, lashon hara, and rechilus.

[Note Chanoch of Alexander was a talmid of the Kutzker, whom Chaim G. also mentions. More about both below.]


Tzara'as

Pursuant thereto it is perhaps worthwhile to consider what tzara'as is.

Tzara'as is commonly translated as leprosy, yet a review of symptoms, causes, and cures will make clear that while it may metaphorize Hansen's disease it is by no means the same ailment.

[Please reread Parshas Tazria (She Bears Seed, Seifer Vayikra, psookim 12:1 through 13:59) and Parshas Metzora (Diseased Individual, Seifer Vayikra, psookim 14:1 through 15:33).]

The mistranslation is based on mediaeval misconceptions and ignorance. As is clear from the many descriptions of leprosy dating from the middle ages, mediaeval man considered almost every ailment that marked the skin as leprosy, and believed all such diseases to be highly infectious, virulent, and untreatable. The number of people cast out during the middle-ages for even such common conditions as acne or psoriasis was correspondingly enormous. Since then, as science progressively differentiated among skin ailments, the term leprosy has been more narrowly defined, eventually limited to Hansen's disease.

Hansen's disease is a slow infection that can only be caught be long exposure to another infected party. While it isn't curable, it can be arrested and suppressed (for accurate up-to-date medical information please consult a physician).
One risk is that because the sufferer will have been infected for a long time before symptoms are manifested, there will be a likelihood that housemates have caught the disease - hence in the middle-ages entire families were expelled together, thus guaranteeing the spread.

[Except, of course, if they were rich and powerful - nobles and wealthy merchants were usually spared isolation and banishment. Unless the Church failed to get some of their money.]

What clinches the argument that tzara'as is NOT leprosy is that buildings and objects are also subject to tzara'as - and, if remaining infected despite purificatory rituals, must be abandoned.

It is better to think of tzara'as as a broad spectrum of manifestations characterized by spottiness, ranging from nervous skin afflictions and allergic reactions, to seepage, molds, and mildew in buildings, and manufacturing flaws in materials that only became apparent after use and under certain conditions. The exact determinants are not clear, but the key concept is a blemish that spoils perfection – similar to unacceptable sacrificial animals, women during Nidah, and Kohanim in spotty relationships.

[If the whiteness or scaliness completely covered the person or object (perfection) it was not tzara'as.]


Tzara'as, as a symbolic version of leprosy, was the result of lashon hara - the telling of negative things about another, and in the Torah a method is given for "curing" the metzoro.
The incidence of a multitude of skin-ailments which were not alleviated by rituals, especially during an age in which possible dermal manifestations of malnutrition, parasitic infections, and lingering or chronic ailments were not uncommon, must have lead to many people being accused of speaking ill of others so horribly that they could not be purified.

How bitterly ironic.

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APPENDIX
[Hanoch of Alexander, the Kutzker, plus other important linkages.]

Hanoch of Alexander: Rav Chanoch Henich HaKohen (1798 - 1870), A disciple of the Kutzker (1787 - 1859) who followed Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Ishbitz (1804 - 1854) upon the split in 1839 or 1840 between the Kutzker and the Ishbitzer. He was also influenced by Rav Simcha Bunim of Pshishcha (1767 - 1828).
He was noted for his deep understanding of both nigla (the revelationary side of Torah) and nister (the mystical side of Torah).

He became the Rebbe of Alexander at the age of 68 after the death of the Chiddushei HaRim. Upon his death four years later he was succeeded by the Sfas Emes.

[His surname is also given by some sources as 'Levin' and 'Szatten-Levin', rather than as HaKohen. HaKohen ('The Priest') is usually merely a title of descendants of Aaron.]


The Kutzker: The Tzaddik of Kotsk, Rav Menachem Mendel ben Leibush Morgenstern (1787 – 1859), the grandfather of the Shem Mi Shmuel. He was a student of the Chozeh of Lublin (1745 - 1815) and of Rav Simcha Bunim of Pshishcha (1765 - 1827), whom he succeeded.

The Kutzker founded a chassidishe derech which is still in existence, though not numerous. He was reclusive, and at times extremely anti-social, coming out of his room only to hammer home the pursuit of truth (emes) and justice (din). His disciple the RIM founded Gerrer Chasidus, which at one time had many tens of thousands of followers in Poland and Gallicia.


Rav Simcha Bunim of Pshishcha: Simcha Bunim (or Binem) Bonhart (1765 - 1827), a student of the Maggid of Koznitz (Rav Yisroel ben Shabbasai Hopstein, 1737 - 1814) and the Chozeh (seer) of Lublin (Rav Yakov Yitzchok Horowitz, 1745 - 1815). One of his students was the RIM, also called the Chiddushei HaRim.


The RIM: Rav Yitzhok 'Feige' Meir Alter of Rothenburg (1799 – 1866), first Rebbe of Ger, also known as the Chiddushei HaRim (innovativa of the RIM, that being the title under which his writing appeared), had also been a student of Rav Simcha Bunim of Pshishcha. His grandson the Sfas Emes succeeded him to Ger. The Rim was a descendant of Rashi, and hence of the lineage of King David. Note: Chiddushei means 'new things of', and hence innovations of, or even insights of. It is a term used in reference to Torah and Talmud scholarship.


The Sfas Emes: Rav Yehuda Aryeh Leib ben Avraham Mordechai Alter (1847 – 1905), second Rebbe of Ger (which is now Gora-Kalwaria), called Sfas Emes (Lips Of Truth) after his most famous book. The greatest influence on the Sfas Emes was his grandfather, the Chiddushei HaRim. The Sfas Emes was the father of the Imrei Emes (Rav Avrohom Mordechai Alter, 1866 - 1948).

One of the Sfas Emes' students was Rav Yekusiel Yehudah ben Tzvi Hirsch Halberstam (1905 – 1994), a great grandchild of Rav Chayim Sanzer, and founder of the Sanz-Klausenberger dynasty, which has branches in Kiryas Sanz in Israel, Boro Park in Brooklyn, Union City in New Jersey, and in Williamsburg.

Now note that there is a connection between Bobov and Sanz-Klausenberger – The Bobover Rebbes are descendants of the eldest einiklach (grandson) of Rav Chayim Zanzer (the Divrei Chayim), Shlomo Halberstam. His son, Ben Tzion Halberstam (1874 – 1941), was murdered by the Germans in 1941, but succeeded by his son Rav Shlomo Halberstam, who eventually rebuilt Bobov in the U.S.


Note: Rav Chanoch is the Alexander because that is the town in which he settled after having been rabbi of Krushnyevitz. The Chiddushei HaRim, the Sfas Emes, and subsequent iterations are Ger, after the town where Rav Yitzhok Alter had been rebbe, and where his grandson later became rebbe.