At the bottom of yesterday’s daf, Rav states that Moses was a high priest. This is a surprising claim. In Jewish tradition, all priests descend from Aaron, Moses’ brother. Do we have any evidence that Moses himself functioned as a priest, let alone as the high priest?
In the course of evaluating the claim, the Talmud offers an even more surprising assertion about someone else who once functioned as a priest. Recall that in Numbers 12, Moses’ siblings, Miriam and Aaron, gripe about Moses’ marriage to a Cushite woman and, perhaps more (im)pertinently, complain bitterly that he has been elevated above them. Though Aaron and Miriam are special to God and leaders of the Israelites, they do not rank with Moses. In punishment for their carping, God strikes Miriam with tzaraat, a spiritual disease often inaccurately translated as leprosy.
Tzaraat, as detailed in Leviticus 13 and 14, can only be diagnosed by a priest, after which the afflicted person is quarantined, on the priest’s declaration. Further, it is a priest who later declares the ill person healed. A priest is likewise necessary to perform the sacrifices that will readmit them to the community. In other words, tzaraat is not discovered, managed or cured without a priest. The Talmud wonders: Who is the priest that handles Miriam’s illness?
Miriam: Who quarantined her?
If you say that Moses quarantined her, Moses was a non-priest, and a non-priest may not inspect the marks.
If you say that Aaron quarantined her, Aaron was a relative, and a relative may not inspect the marks.
Neither Moses nor Aaron was qualified to diagnose or treat Miriam. Moses was not qualified because (at least according to this opinion) he was not a priest; Aaron was not qualified because although he was a priest, he was family. (Apparently priests, like doctors today, were not supposed to diagnose or treat their relatives — see Sanhedrin 34b.) If Moses couldn’t treat his sister, and Aaron couldn’t treat her either, who functioned as the priest in this case?
Rather, the Holy One, Blessed be He, bestowed a great honor on Miriam at that time, and said: I am a priest, and I quarantine her, and I will diagnose her with tzaraat, and I will exempt her.
Throughout Tractate Zevachim, we’ve seen God described using a range of metaphors. Here, there is no metaphor. God is a priest and acts as such, diagnosing and healing Miriam. The Talmud maintains that God honors Miriam by assuming this role and taking personal care of her during this fraught moment.
In her book Womanist Midrash, Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney — a biblical scholar and Episcopal priest in conversation with African American women’s interpretative methods and Jewish midrash — offers her own take on this powerful biblical story. Numbers 12:15 states: “the people did not march on until Miriam was readmitted.” Dr. Gafney writes that, “the daughters and sons of Israel vote with their feet on the banishment of Miriam: they refuse to move them. Or they vote with their behinds: they sit on them. In verse 15 the Israelites refuse to continue on their journey without their prophet. They wait for Miriam, and God apparently waits for them. Or perhaps it is God who waits, refusing to venture forward without God’s prophet, Miriam.”
Of the three siblings, the Book of Exodus gives only Miriam the title prophet (15:20). Gafney points out that both the people and God have a close relationship with Miriam, relationships that require patience and commitment when she becomes ill with tzaraat. Her reading helps us appreciate God’s closeness at this moment, and emphasizes Miriam’s exceptionality with both God and the people.
Let’s return to the Talmud. When someone is sent outside the camp to be quarantined, they are isolated. But the priest is required to visit them and check on their condition, doing a thorough examination of their skin to see if the tzaraat has spread or shrunk, remained steady or disappeared. If you’ve ever had your skin checked by a dermatologist screening for cancer, you know that this is a physically intimate act, requiring up close viewing and trust. Beyond God’s patience with and commitment to Miriam, then, the Talmud imagines that God and Miriam maintained this heightened degree of closeness, even in her punishment. Or perhaps especially in her punishment.
We started with Rav’s assertion that Moses was a priest. Ultimately, the Talmud concludes that this story can’t be used to prove that Moses assumed this role. Indeed, it’s important to the story that Moses was not acting as a priest, making room for God to fill that role. But in recounting this version of wilderness events, the rabbis give us a different and arguably more powerful image: God is the highest priest, and a model for us all.
Read all of Zevachim 102 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on December 25, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
