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.
Ukrainian-Jewish born Yehuda L. Katzenelson, (1846–1917) devoted a portion of his work on talmudic medicine to the analysis of the parallels between vitiligo and biblical tzaraath, he concluded that the chazalic consensus was that they are synonymous.
Mildew infecting a flat
In Jewish religious law, ṭum'ah and ṭaharah are the state of being ritually "impure" and "pure", respectively. The Hebrew noun ṭum'ah, meaning "impurity", describes a state of ritual impurity. A person or object which contracts ṭum'ah is said to be ṭamé, and thereby unsuited for certain holy activities and uses until undergoing predefined purification actions that usually include the elapse of a specified time-period.
A niddah hut (Mergem Gogo) at the Jewish village of Ambober in northern Ethiopia, 1976.