On Illness and Separation from the Community
In his book The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition, 1 Dr. Arthur Kleinman makes an important distinction between illness and disease. He writes: Illness refers to how the sick person and the members of the family or wider social network perceive, live with, and respond to symptoms and disability. . . . Disease, however, is what the practitioner creates in the recasting of illness in terms of theories of disorder. We see this distinction between illness and disease clearly in Parashat Tazria in the laws concerning tzaraat, 2 — a skin ailment sometimes translated as "leprosy," its diagnosis, and the treatment of those afflicted with it. The priests are practitioners. They want to know exactly what disease this person with a skin rash has, what are its symptoms, and — most important — what the person did to "get" the disease. In Leviticus 13:2-3 we read: When a person has on the skin of the body a swelling, a rash, or a discoloration, and it develops into a scaly affection on the skin of the body, it shall be reported to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests. The priest shall examine the affection on the skin of the body. . . . when the priest sees it, he shall pronounce the person unclean.