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Saturday, April 22, 2023

Was leprosy demonic for Leviticus?

DAVID BAR-COHN: Tzaraʿat Purification: A Vestige of Demonic Exorcism (TheTorah.com).
In Priestly law, impurity is stripped of its mythic origins in the demonic realm but still retains its dangerous, physical presence, and must be mitigated by specific acts of ritual cleansing and banishing, depending on the type of impurity. The final purification from skin disease, tzaraʿat (Leviticus 13–14), is the starkest example of such a ritual.

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