Day 2: Leviticus 13:24-39 (Study Notes)
Parsha Tazria-Metzora: Day # 2 (Leviticus 13:24-39)
As with the last portion of the Parsha, this section discusses additional skin afflictions and the accompanying examinations that are commanded to determine if a person has a disease or if the person is clean and is affected with a normal (not due to disease) skin abnormality.
(Leviticus 13:24-28) Skin Afflictions: Burns
This section, like the section on scars, provides the examination that must take place after a person has healed from a burn.
If you have ever suffered a burn, you may well know that a new patch of skin will form that does not look like the rest of your skin.
If your burn was bad enough, you may even receive a skin graft. This graft will certainly be different than your normal skin. One of the main differences in appearance will be the color of the burned area.
(Leviticus 13:24-25)
Moshe Rabbeinu provides the signs to look for that indicate that the healed wound needs to be examined by the priest, who we said previously was like the community doctor. If the patch of healed skin is discolored and the discoloration is:
White OR
White with red streaks
THEN the person must be seen and examined by the priest.
Like all wounds, healed burns can grow infections—some dangerous, as discussed above. So, upon examining the healed burn, if the priest finds:
The hair in the discolored patch has turned white AND
the discolored patch goes deeper than the skin
THEN the person is pronounced unclean by way of leprosy breaking out in the affected skin. Again, the term leprosy is used for many different conditions, which modern medicine can name and differentiate. The lack of “proper diagnosis” is not germane to this discussion.
(Leviticus 13:26-27)
If upon examination of the affected skin of the healed burn victim, the priest finds:
No white hair
The discoloration is faded
The discoloration is only skin deep AND
The patch is lower than the skin around it (indicating a possible necrotic disease)
THEN the person must be put in isolation for seven days and be reexamined on the eighth day.
If after the seven day idolization period, the priest finds:
The patch spread: the person is pronounced unclean with a leprous affection.
The patch remained stationary, did not spread, and has faded: the person is pronounced clean and the patch is determined to be scar tissue from the burn.
(Leviticus 13:29-37) Affects of the Scalp or Beard
These affections can be for men or women. While women do not have beards, we can understand that the affections can affect the facial hair of women, even if only a single hair follicle.
(Leviticus 13:30-31) Initial Examination of Scalp or Beard
As with other skin affections, if a person notices that he or she has an abnormal area on their scalp or beard/face, the person is to be examined by the priest. Upon examination, if the priest finds that:
The affection goes deeper than the skin AND
A thin yellow hair has grown in the affection
THEN the person is pronounced unclean and diagnosed with a “scaly eruption.” The modern medical condition that best fits this affection is seborrheic dermatitis. This type of skin disorder is caused by a yeast overgrowth on the skin.
If on examination by the priest, the affected area:
Does not go deeper than the skin, AND
There is no black hair (meaning the hair has fallen out)
THEN the person is to be isolated for seven days and reexamined by the priest on the eighth day.
(Leviticus 13:32-34) The reexamination
If upon reexamination on the eighth day the priest finds that the affected area on the scalp or beard/face:
The scall has not spread,
There is no yellow hair
The affection does not go deeper than the skin
THEN then person must shave all of their hair, except for the hair in the scall. After shaving all of their hair, the person must be isolated for another seven days and be reexamined again on the eighth day.
If upon the second reexamination the priest finds:
The scall has not spread AND The scall does not go deeper than the skin: the person is pronounced clean. After washing their clothes, the person is clean. Without the presence of the yellow hair, this discolored scaly patch could be something akin to psoriasis or eczema.
The scall spread: the person is unclean (without looking for a yellow hair).
The affection is unchanged in color and a black hair grew back: the person is pronounced clean and the scaly eruption is pronounced healed.
(Leviticus 13:38-39) Tetter: Clean
If a man or woman has streaks of dull white discoloration on the skin of their body, the priest will pronounce the person clean. The discoloration is diagnosed as “tetter”.
According to Merriam-Webster, Tetter is:
“Tetter is an archaic or informal term for various itchy, scaly, or blistering skin diseases, including eczema, ringworm, herpes, and impetigo. It refers to skin eruptions that form crusts or pustules and spread over the body. It was historically used to describe any cutaneous disease characterized by scabs.”
“Tetter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tetter. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.
Studying the definition of tetter, we notice modern medical conditions that are not necessarily associated with “cleanliness,” such as herpes and ringworm.
Thus, one must consider how someone with such conditions are immediately pronounced clean, while a person healing from a wound or burn are isolated and reexamined.
If we consider modern medicine, we know that the bacterial infections discussed with the wounds can be life threatening and fast spreading.
Herpes and ringworm can also spread very quickly through contact, and they can also become chronic. There may be periods of healing mixed with periods of flare ups. It would make sense to isolate the person during flare ups so as not to get others sick, but this we do not see commanded.
The clean status does make sense for people with eczema or psoriasis, however, because these conditions are not communicable. They cannot be spread from person to person.
Perhaps the best explanation is that what was referred to as Tetter in biblical days is not the same as what is listed in our modern-day dictionary.
Am Yisrael Chai!
Kimberly Davis