body
leprosy
At a glance
In short
Tzaraas is the affliction itself; nega is the spot, which Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim explains as the point of contact where the affliction strikes. On the Arizal's reading tzaraas is the impurity that has taken hold and nega the Divine blow that brings it to the surface, so that where the Torah pairs them, nega tzaraas, it is naming two things and not one. Tzarua and metzora both mean leper. Of the four explanations of why the Torah alternates them, Rabbi Eliezer Perlmutter's is that tzarua is the man while the affliction is on him, and metzora still fits him until the purification is complete. Tzaraas has been translated leprosy, Hansen's disease, epilepsy, mold and mere skin discoloration. Rav Hirsch holds that an affliction that is merely pathological, and not plainly from Above, is by definition not a nega at all.
Distinctions
Tzaraas (צרעת) and the root צ-ר-ע
The noun and its inflections appear thirty-five times in Tanach, most of them in Vayikra 13-14, plus Devarim 24:8 (one may not evade the consequences by cutting the spot away), Naaman in Melachim II 5:3, 5:6-7, 5:27, and Uziyahu, struck on the forehead for offering the ketores, in Divrei HaYamim II 26:19.
- Gesenius and other philologists hold the Hebrew root related to the Arabic sara'a, being thrown down to the ground, which is where a possible connection to epilepsy comes from; it seems to Rabbi Klein that this literal sense refers to Hashem throwing a man down and humbling him by afflicting him with tzaraas.
- Rav Hirsch (to Vayikra 13:2) links צ-ר-ע to ז-ר-ע (zorea, sowing) and ז-ר-ה (zoreh, winnowing or throwing), by the interchange of tzadi with zayin and ayin with hei: a seed hidden underground bursts out visibly, and so a spot on the skin is the outward showing of a rot rooted within.
- Rabbi Moshe David Valle (Kise Nachon to Melachim I 11:26) parses tzaraas as eis, time, with tzar, constriction.
- Rabbi Avi Kobernick reads the root against its metathesised neighbours: against ע-צ-ר (aritz and ne'eratz, powerful, awesome and esteemed, but also, in ta'arotz, broken and subdued, the two senses reconciled on his reading because a man who views his enemies as powerful is thereby broken in his own eyes), tzaraas is its opposite, since sickness is bodily weakness; and with צ-ע-ר (tzaar, pain), since the affliction is a burden borne. The connection may run deeper: Toras Kohanim to Vayikra 13:2 says that the sufferer is pained by it and so are those who see him, and Chazal's use of tzaar there may hint that they too linked the words.
- Mr. Moshe Ossi (Al Katzeh HaLashon) suggests a connection to שׂ-ר-ע, expansion, the root of sarua, the overextended limb that disqualifies a Kohen or a korban (Vayikra 21:18, 22:23) and of meihistarea in Yeshayahu 28:20, since tzaraas spreads.
Two names seem to come from the root: the city of Tzarah in Dan's territory, named eleven times in Tanach, and Tzeruah, mother of Yeravam ben Nevat (Melachim I 11:26). Alfred Jones, The Proper Names of the Old Testament Scriptures Expounded and Illustrated (London, 1856), p. 376, notes that her name is etymologically related to tzaraas but does not explain why she should bear so odd a name.
- Midrash Tadshe (Otzar Midrashim p. 481) does: her name alludes to her son's bringing a spirit of tzaraas on the nation and turning their hearts from Hashem. Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Ferber of London, explaining that midrash: Yeravam put a rebellious spirit in the air that induced his generation to sin with him.
- Rabbi Moshe David Valle speculates that perhaps she was literally afflicted and passed her impurity to him.
- Pseudo-Rashi (to Divrei HaYamim II 4:17): she was a widow, and when her husband died he spread impurity through the tent to all in it, as a metzora is a conduit of impurity.
Nega (נגע)
From נ-ג-ע (Ibn Janach, Radak) or the two-letter ג-ע (Ibn Saruk). The root carries touching (nogea), reaching (hagaah), and striking (naga).
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim takes contact as the core: the meeting point of two things; reaching is bringing that contact about, and striking is contact of the harmful kind, whether from a man's hand or from a malady sent upon him. A nega is thus the point where the man and the affliction meet.
- Rav Hirsch (to Vayikra 13:2) makes the Divine element definitional: a leprous disease that is merely pathological, and not plainly an affliction from Above, falls outside the definition of a nega. He also (to Bereishis 20:5) pairs נ-ג-ע with נ-ג-ח, ayin interchanging with ches: negichah, goring, is a violent impact, negiah can be the lightest touch, and a nega is the nexus between a man and a Divine message meant to rouse him to teshuvah.
- The chassidishe adage on nega and oneg, the same letters reordered, turns on where one puts the ayin, that is, on how the eye sees what has come.
Tzarua (צרוע) and metzora (מצורע)
Both are declensions of צ-ר-ע. Tzarua appears five times (Vayikra 13:44-45, 14:3, 22:4; Bamidbar 5:2), for instance where a leper may not eat terumah (Vayikra 22:4) or must be sent from the camp (Bamidbar 5:2); metzora appears fifteen, including the opening of the purification laws (Vayikra 14:2), Naaman (Melachim II 5:1), Geichazi (5:27), and Uziyahu (Melachim II 15:5, Divrei HaYamim II 26:21-23). The feminine metzoraas is used of Moshe's hand (Shemos 4:6) and of Miriam (Bamidbar 12:10). For the four accounts of the alternation, see above. On the sins that can bring tzaraas, Chazal list idolatry, immorality, murder, chillul Hashem, blasphemy, theft, misusing public property, haughtiness, lashon hara, stinginess, false testimony, a judge who perverts the law, swearing in vain, entering another's domain, evil thoughts, and causing strife between brothers (Vayikra Rabbah 17:3, Erachin 16a, Zohar Balak 206a, Tanchuma Metzora 4).
Where the authorities disagree
Are tzaraas and nega synonyms? The Arizal (Shaar HaMitzvos, Tazria) says firmly not. Tzaraas is a spirit of impurity that clings to a man because of a spiritual defect, a real contamination that then shows itself on the body. Nega is the opposite in origin: a holy force, a Divine judgment from the side of purity, whose work is to drive the tzaraas out by forcing it to the surface where it can be dealt with. On this reading nega tzaraas (Vayikra 13:2-3, 13:9, 13:20, 13:25, 13:27, 13:47, 13:49, 13:59, 14:32, 14:34) names both the impurity and the mechanism that exposes it, and each word appears alone where only one of the two is in view.
What tzirah is.
- Ibn Ezra (to Shemos 23:28, Devarim 7:20): not a hornet but a disease or malady, etymologically related to tzaraas; conversely (to Vayikra 13:19), tzaraas itself just means "disease" in a general sense.
- Ibn Janach (Sefer HaShorashim) traces both to צ-ר-ע and defines tzirah as destruction and pestilence.
- Menachem Ibn Saruk lists the two as separate categories under one root and entertains no thematic or semantic connection between them.
- Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (Yerios Shlomo) keeps the standard "hornet" and surmises that the two are connected by content: a hornet's sting is venomous and can prove lethal, as tzaraas can be poisonous and detrimental to a man's health.
- Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh of Carpentras (Ohalei Yehudah) reads tzirah instead as a fusion of tzar, enemy, and ra, bad, swarms of wasps or bees being a peculiarly formidable enemy in that they cannot be fought with sword and spear.
Why the Torah alternates tzarua and metzora. Four answers:
- Homiletic. Peirush HaRokeach (to Vayikra 13:45), as the editors of Tosafos HaShaleim read him: metzora is tzarua plus an initial mem, whose gematria forty points to the fortieth day of Moshe's ascent and the sin of the Golden Calf, for which one punishment was tzaraas (Vayikra Rabbah 17:3). Rabbi Klein notes the weakness: it does not explain which word goes where.
- The source of the derashah. Rabbi Menachem Deutsch, quoted by Rabbi Shlomo Tzvi Shick (Torah Shleimah, Metzora 1): the very choice of metzora over tzarua is what prompted Chazal to expound metzora as motzi shem ra (Erachin 15b).
- Stage of the affliction. Rabbi Eliezer Perlmutter (Even Moshe): tzarua is only for one still actively afflicted, while metzora covers a man whose spot has healed but who has not yet finished the purification, since he remains on the cusp of the affliction returning.
- Number of spots. Shadal (to Vayikra 13:45): tzarua is one who has only a single nega, metzora one who has multiple negaim; Rabbi Klein finds the distinction hard to substantiate.
Also discussed in
- Princessזרע / zera (ז-ר-ע)
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
נ-ג-ע
Reaching and bringing near: touching, at times to do harm, reaching a place, and bringing one thing to another. A second sense is being stricken, with נֶגַע, a plague.
Touching, and touching to harm
כַּאֲשֶׁר לֹא נְגַעֲנוּךָ (Bereishis 26:29), as we have not touched you, is touching to do harm; so too לְבִלְתִּי נָגְעֵךְ (Rus 2:9), not to touch you, and הַנֹּגֵעַ בָּאִישׁ הַזֶּה (Bereishis 26:11), whoever touches this man, to do him harm.
Reaching
Without an object it is reaching: עַד לַשָּׁמַיִם הִגִּיעַ (Divrei HaYamim II 28:9), it reached to heaven, and עֵת הַזָּמִיר הִגִּיעַ (Shir HaShirim 2:12), the time of singing has come; though on fine analysis, he adds, every form of this kind takes an object. With an object it is bringing one thing up to another: וְהִגַּעְתֶּם אֶל־הַמַּשְׁקוֹף (Shemos 12:22), and you shall bring it to the lintel, and וַיַּגַּע עַל־פִּי (Yeshayahu 6:7), and he brought it to my mouth, that is, the angel brought the coal to my mouth. The sense of the whole is reaching and bringing near.
Not enough in his hand
וְאִם־לֹא תַגִּיעַ יָדוֹ (Vayikra 5:7), and if his hand does not reach, is that his hand does not reach to money with which to buy a lamb. Chazal explained it in the Sifra, on parshas Vayikra, perek 18: he has no means to borrow, nor to work at his craft; and even one who had the lamb or its price but not the cost of the road brings the poor man's korban, as the pasuk says, דֵּי שֶׂה, enough for a lamb.
Stricken
A second sense is being stricken: נָגוּעַ מֻכֵּה (Yeshayahu 53:4), stricken and smitten; and the noun, נֶגַע צָרַעַת (Vayikra 13:3), a plague of tzaraas, and אִישׁ נֶגַע לְבָבוֹ (Melachim I 8:38), each man the plague of his own heart.
Feigned or real
וַיִּנָּגְעוּ יְהוֹשֻׁעַ וְכָל־יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yehoshua 8:15), and Yehoshua and all Yisrael were stricken, means that they made themselves out as men struck and beaten, since they were fleeing before them to draw them away from the city. It can also be read that they were stricken in truth, since men who flee and do not turn to fight back at their pursuers cannot but be struck; and had the sense been that they made a show of being stricken without being so, it would have said ויתנגעו, they made themselves out as stricken, in the form for what one does to himself, for that is the rule.
הַחַיִל אֲשֶׁר־נָגַע אֱלֹהִים בְּלִבָּֽם (שמואל א' י, כו), עַד־יַעְזֵר נָגָעוּ (ישעיה טז, ח). כַּֽאֲשֶׁר לֹא נְגַֽעֲנוּךָ (בראשית כו, כט), פירוש להרע. וכן לְבִלְתִּי נָגְעֵךְ (רות ב, ט), הַנֹּגֵעַ בָּאִישׁ הַזֶּה (בראשית כו, יא), להרע לו. לֹֽא־תִגַּע בּוֹ יָד (שמות יט, יג), מֵֽאֲנָה לִנְגּוֹעַ נַפְשִׁי (איוב ו, ז). עַל־כֵּן לֹֽא־נְתַתִּיךָ לִנְגֹּעַ אֵלֶֽיהָ (בראשית כ, ו), וְלֹֽא־יֹסִיף עוֹד לָגַעַת בָּֽךְ (שמואל ב' יד, י) הֲלוֹא כְּגַעַת בָּהּ (יחזקאל יז, י), גַּע בֶּהָרִים וְֽיֶעֱשָֽׁנוּ (תהלים קמד, ה) והפעל הכבד שאינו יוצא [הִפְעִיל] עַד לַשָּׁמַיִם הִגִּֽיעַ (דברי הימים ב' כח, ט), מַגִּיעַ הַשָּׁמָיְמָה (בראשית כח, יב), עֵת הַזָּמִיר הִגִּיעַ (שיר השירים ב, יב). אף על פי כי לדקות העיון כל הפעיל הוא יוצא. ואשר הוא יוצא וְהִגַּעְתִּיהוּ אֶל־הָאָרֶץ וְנִגְלָה יְסֹדוֹ (יחזקאל יג, יד), וְהִגַּעְתֶּם אֶל־הַמַּשְׁקוֹף (שמות יב, כב), וַתַּגַּע לְרַגְלָיו (שמות ד, כה). וַיַּגַּע עַל־פִּי (ישעיה ו, ז), המלאך הגיע הרצפה על פי. וַיִּשְׁלַח י"י אֶת־יָדוֹ וַיַּגַּע עַל־פִּי (ירמיה א, ט), פירוש הגיע ידו על פי. וְאִם־לֹא תַגִּיעַ יָדוֹ (ויקרא ה, ז), כלומר שלא הגיע ידו לממון שיקנה בו שה. ופירשהו רבותינו ז"ל (ספרא פרשת ויקרא פרק יח, דף יד) אין לו ללוות ולא לעסוק באומנותו, ואפילו היה לו השה או דמיו ולא היה לו הוצאת הדרך מביא קרבן עני שנאמר דֵּי שֶֹה (שם), ענינם ההשגה וההקרבה. וענין אחר נָגוּעַ מֻכֵּה (ישעיה נג, ד), וָאֱהִי נָגוּעַ כָּל־הַיּוֹם (תהלים עג, יד). והשם נֶגַע צָרַעַת (ויקרא יג, ג), אִישׁ נֶגַע לְבָבוֹ (מלכים א' ח, לח), בסגול הנו"ן. נְגָעִים גְּדֹלִים (בראשית יב, יז). והפעל הכבד [פִּעֵל] כִּי נִגְּעוֹ י"י (דברי הימים ב' כו, כ), וַיְנַגַּע י"י אֶת־פַּרְעֹה (בראשית יב, יז). ושלא נזכר פעלו ממנו [פֻּעַל] וְעִם־אָדָם לֹא יְנֻגָּֽעוּ (תהלים עג, ה). והנפעל מזה הענין וַיִּנָּֽגְעוּ יְהוֹשֻׁעַ וְכָל־יִשְׂרָאֵל (יהושע ח, טו), כלומר הראו עצמם שהיו כנגועים ומוכים, כי היו נסים לפניהם כדי להתיקם מן העיר. ויתכן לפרשו שהיו כן נגועים, כי אחר שהיו נסים לא יתכן שלא היו נגועים, שהרי לא היו משיבים מלחמה לרודפים אחריהם, ואילו היו פירושו שהראו עצמם נגועים מבלתי שהיו נגועים היה אומר בלשון התפעל ויתנגעו כי כן המשפט.
צ-ר-ע
To be stricken with צָרַעַת, tzaraas, a thing he calls known. The צִרְעָה some said was a flying creature that struck the eyes with venom; Ibn Ezra takes it from צרעת.
The stricken man
וְהוּא צָרוּעַ אוֹ זָב (Vayikra 22:4), and he is stricken with tzaraas or has a flow; זָב וּמְצֹרָע (Shmuel II 3:29), one with a flow and one stricken with tzaraas; וְהִנֵּה־הוּא מְצֹרָע בְּמִצְחוֹ (Divrei HaYamim II 26:20), and behold, he was stricken with tzaraas in his forehead; and מְצֹרַעַת כַּשָּׁלֶג (Bamidbar 12:10), stricken with tzaraas, like snow. The noun is נֶגַע צָרַעַת (Vayikra 13:9), an affliction of tzaraas, and he says it is known.
The צרעה
וְשָׁלַחְתִּי אֶת־הַצִּרְעָה (Shemos 23:28), and I will send the tzirah: some said it is a kind of flying swarming creature, which struck them in their eyes and cast its venom into them, and they died. Ibn Ezra explained the word from the sense of צרעת.
וְהוּא צָרוּעַ אוֹ זָב (ויקרא כב, ד), זָב וּמְצֹרָע (שמואל ב' ג, כט), וְהִנֵּה־הוּא מְצֹרָע בְּמִצְחוֹ (דברי הימים ב' כו, כ) מְצֹרַעַת כַּשָּׁלֶג (במדבר יב, י). והשם נֶגַע צָרַעַת (ויקרא יג, ט) ידוע. וְשָֽׁלַחְתִּי אֶת־הַצִּרְעָה (שמות כג, כח), אמרו שהוא מין שרץ העוף והיתה מכה אותם בעיניהם ומטילה בהם ארס והם מתים. וחחכם רבי אברהם אבן עזרא ז"ל פירשו מענין צרעת.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Tazria/Metzora: Spot on (Tzar'at)," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 3 May 2025.
Cited in the essay: Vayikra 13:2-3, 13:9, 13:19, 13:20, 13:25, 13:27, 13:44-45, 13:47, 13:49, 13:59, 14:2-3, 14:32, 14:34, 21:18, 22:4, 22:23; Shemos 4:6, 23:28; Bamidbar 5:2, 12:10; Devarim 7:20, 24:8; Yeshayahu 28:20; Yehoshua 24:12; Melachim I 11:26; Melachim II 5:1-27, 15:5; Divrei HaYamim II 4:17, 26:19-23; Erachin 15b, 16a; Vayikra Rabbah 17:3; Toras Kohanim to Vayikra 13:2; Zohar Balak 206a; Tanchuma Metzora 4; Midrash Tadshe (Otzar Midrashim p. 481); Arizal, Shaar HaMitzvos, Tazria; Ibn Ezra to Shemos 23:28, Devarim 7:20 and Vayikra 13:19; Ibn Janach, Sefer HaShorashim; Radak; Menachem Ibn Saruk; Pappenheim, Yerios Shlomo; Rav Hirsch to Vayikra 13:2 and Bereishis 20:5; Shadal to Vayikra 13:45; Peirush HaRokeach to Vayikra 13:45 with Tosafos HaShaleim; Rabbi Shlomo Tzvi Shick, Torah Shleimah, Metzora 1, citing Rabbi Menachem Deutsch; Rabbi Eliezer Perlmutter, Even Moshe; Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh of Carpentras, Ohalei Yehudah; Rabbi Moshe David Valle, Kise Nachon to Melachim I 11:26; Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Ferber; pseudo-Rashi to Divrei HaYamim II 4:17; Rabbi Avi Kobernick; Moshe Ossi, Al Katzeh HaLashon; Gesenius; Alfred Jones, The Proper Names of the Old Testament Scriptures Expounded and Illustrated, p. 376.