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Fred Rosner, MD
Jamaica, NY

JAMA. 1981;246(20):2324.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

In response to a physician's inquiry about the spontaneous development of localized poliosis (whitening of the hair), the consultant (1981:246;284) cites several common causes, including radiation therapy, alopecia areata, severe dermatitis, and vitiligo. Two additional possibilities are described in ancient Hebrew writings.

The Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Berachoth folios 27b and 28a) relates that when the wise and sagacious Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah was asked whether or not he would consent to become head of the rabbinical academy, his wife said to him: "You have no white hair." He was 18 years old on that day, and a miracle was wrought for him as 18 rows of hair on his beard turned white. That is why he said: "Behold, I am like seventy years old" and did not simply say seventy years old.

The commentator Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchok, popularly known as Rashi, states that Rabbi Eleazar ben . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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