LEVITICUS XIV:1-XV:33

CUTANEOUS MANIFESTATION OF SLANDER

The great biblical expositor and defender of orthodoxy, HaRav Samson Raphael Hirsch of Germany, insisted that tzara’at, the affliction that occupies the attention of the biblical text, should not be confused with leprosy. In the case of leprosy, you should go to the doctor; on the other hand, for the healing of tzara’at – which also presents itself as a skin lesion – the person indicated to examine the wound is the Kohen, who then decides what is the remedy for its healing. Because, according to the Talmud, tzara’at is an external manifestation of an internal spiritual evil. According to the Chachamim, the word tzara’at comes from Lashon HaRa, (Lehotzi ra) the perverse use of language to revile one’s neighbor. 

It is not a matter of inventing a slander, but the propagation of some real deficiency of the neighbor, a negative characteristic of the person. That is, telling a truth that presents the other person from a negative perspective. If someone lies, telling one’s neighbor about this fact constitutes Ashon Hara. However, if someone is about to hire a person for a position that requires confidence in his word, it is necessary to warn that that person is lying.

The faculty of speech is perhaps the greatest distinction of the human being above the other creatures that inhabit the earth. Language allows mental abstraction, the construction of models to describe nature. It is the means through which God communicates with man. But, just as it is often the most effective means of development, it is also the most efficient instrument for destruction. With a well-placed word, you can help a person to get a job, while with a slander you can destroy a reputation that took decades to be consolidated.

If the Kohen determined that the skin lesion was indeed tzara’at, it expelled the afflicted person from the community for a period of 7 days, during which time the person had to leave the camp. This seven-day period was also intended to allow the person to examine his or her behavior during his or her journey through the desert. The intention was that he could recognize where the mistake he had made was and what was the damage that his slander had caused. Because the healing of the injury occurred through teshuvah, the recognition of the injury against one’s neighbor and the firm decision not to repeat the mistake in the future.

It should be noted that the prayer of greatest recollection on the day of Yom Kippur is called Kol Nidrei, an affirmation that is not a prayer, but a promise not to break a promise in the future. Once again, the importance of the word is underlined, the promise pledged but unfulfilled.

The Talmud relates that one of the Tana’im asked his servant to go to the market and bring him the most delicious delicacy he could find. Faithfully, the servant returned with the tongue of an animal. When he asked him to bring him the worst food this time, the servant again brought home a tongue. The obvious moral is that with the language one can compose verses, make peace between litigants; but at the same time the reputation of an honest person can be slandered and destroyed.

In other chapters of the Torah , the importance of keeping one’s promise will be emphasized. The first chapters of the Torahtestify that God created the universe with the word. God said and it was done. He expressed His Will, which became physical facts that man can appreciate with his senses. The Torahconsists of words: the word of God and the Ten Commandments are designated by Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Words. The condition of tzara’at teaches that the misused word has a real consequence, an injury to the skin that can be appreciated by all.

MITZVAH: ORDINANCE OF THE TORAH IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS 11 POSITIVE MITSVOT

173. Leviticus 14:2 Purification Ritual by tzara’at

174. Leviticus 14:9 Shaving the one affected by tzara’at on the seventh day (part of the purification ritual)

175. Leviticus 14:9 Immersion of the unclean individual in a mikveh for ritual purification

176. Leviticus 14:10 The Offering of the Individual with tzara’at When He Is Healed of His Affliction

177. Leviticus 14:35 Laws of Ritual Uncleanness of a House Defiled with tzara’at

178. Leviticus 15:2,3 Laws of ritual uncleanness of the person who has emissions, zav, who is the object and cause of his ritual uncleanness

179. Leviticus 15:13,14 Offering of the zav when it is healed of emissions

180. Leviticus 15:16 Laws concerning the ritual uncleanness of semen, which is ritually unclean and causes ritual uncleanness

181. Leviticus 15:19 Laws of ritual uncleanness of the person who is menstruating who acquires ritual uncleanness and causes ritual uncleanness

182. Leviticus 15:25 Laws of ritual uncleanness of the person who is menstruating abnormally who acquires ritual uncleanness and causes ritual uncleanness

183. Leviticus 15:28,29 An offering of a woman zava, who is menstruating abnormally when she has already been ritually purified