Overview

Vitiligo, a skin discoloration that emotionally affects millions of people, has multiple cosmetic-based treatments but no true medicinal cure. In this book, the author explores vitiligo's relation to the biblical skin condition known as Tzaraath as reintroduced in modern times by Professor Gregory N. Minh (University of St. Vladimir, 1836 - 1896), and goes with the professor's conclusion that vitiligo and Tzaraath are in fact one and the same. Rabbi Rivkin pinpoints this correlation as pivotal in understanding why there is no complete medicinal cure on the entire planet to vitiligo and why there may never be a medicinal cure; it is because it is an ailment that only God, as the creator of all of mankind, holds the exclusive and complete cure to. While Judaism believes that when Tzaraath/vitiligo affects a Jew, it is a telling call from God for the sufferer to repent for common soft crimes such as slander and haughtiness, The author was curious as to why non-Jews get vitiligo in such shockingly high percentages. He began his work by exploring all known instances of vitiligo affecting non-Jewish people in Torah and Chazalic texts; Biblical figures such as Cain, Pharaoh, Naaman, Vashti, and Haman all had vitiligo, but the instance of Naaman he found unique as Naaman was totally cured by the prophet Elisha. The author then peruses if the Naaman-narrative can be juiced or containing the secret of promise of a complete cure without future relapse to any non-Jewish sufferer. The Naaman-narrative ultimately enticed the author to question if a non-Jew's vitiligo is always a message from God or may in fact be due to avoidable physical triggers that where pinpointed by medieval rabbinic authors as the root-causes for vitiligo among non-Jews. Moving on to researching those preventive techniques to vitiligo, Rabbi Peretz Rivkin reveals that vitiligo may occur in any person due to the physical habits of parents prior to and during conception of their children. With the purpose of gleaning practical steps that any sufferer can take to prevent vitiligo from ever happening in the first place, the author details those physical triggers that parents-to-be can and should exercise in order to prevent vitiligo in their offspring; both as newborns and even in later stages of their adult life. Later chapters of the book focus on the viability of Rabbi Yochanan's observation (discussed in the talmud) as to why the Babylonian population are completely immune to vitiligo. Appendix one to this book details the evidence that Jewish sages in the mishnaic era where well aware of vitiligo. Appendix two lists the thirty Noahide laws that are applicable to non-Jews that should be given due attention to by the vitiligo sufferer. Although this book draws on rabbinic writings dating to the prior two millennia that required patient and intense analysis, the author aimed to present this work to any reader irrelevant of their religion in an easy and down-to-earth fashion. Future in-topic works by Rabbi Rivkin can be expected to include Professor Gregory N. Minh's Russian-language magnum opus on his vitiligo studies.

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9781500841713

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