LEVITICUS XIV:1-XV:33
CUTANEOUS MANIFESTATION OF SLANDER
The great biblical expositor and defender of orthodoxy, HaRavSamson Raphael Hirsch of Germany, insisted that Tsara’at, the affliction that occupies the attention of the biblical text, should not be confused with leprosy. In the case of leprosy, you should see a doctor. On the other hand, for the healing of Tsara’at – which also presents itself as a skin injury – the person indicated to examine the wound is the Kohen, the Priest who then prescribes the remedy for its healing. Because, according to the Talmud, Tsara’at is an outward manifestation of an inner spiritual malady. According to the Chachamim, the word Tsara’at comes from Motsi Shem Ra, the perverse use of language to injure one’s neighbor.
It is not a question only of slander, of propagating some real deficiency of the neighbor, a negative characteristic of the person. Including, telling a truth that presents the other person from a negative perspective. If someone lies, telling his neighbor about it is Lashon Hara. However, if someone is about to hire a person for a position that requires trust in his word, it is necessary to warn that the person is lying.
The faculty of the use of speech is perhaps the greatest distinction of the human being above the other creatures that inhabit the earth. Language allows for mental abstraction, the construction of models to describe nature. It is the medium through which God communicates with man. But, just as it is often the most effective means for development, it is also the most efficient instrument for destruction. A well-placed word can help a person get a job, while slander can destroy a reputation that took decades to consolidate.
If the Kohen determined that the skin lesion was indeed Tsara’at disease, he 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 a person to examine his behavior during his journey through the desert. The intention was for him to recognize where he made a mistake and what the damage his slander had caused. Because the healing of the injury came through Teshuva, 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, a statement that is not a prayer, but a promise not to break a promise in the future. Once again, the importance of the word, the promise pledged but unfulfilled, is underlined.
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 her to bring him the worst food this time, the servant again brought home a tongue. The obvious moral is that with language you can compose verses, make peace between litigants; But it can also be used for slander todestroy the reputation of an honest person.
Other chapters of the Torah will emphasize the importance of keeping the promise. The first chapters of the Torah testify that God created the universe with the word. God said, and it was done. He expressed His Will, which became a physical fact that man can appreciate with his senses. The Torah consists of words: the word of God and the Ten Commandments are designated as Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Words. The Tsara’atcondition 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 Ritual of purification by Tsara’at.
174. Leviticus 14:9 Shaving the person affected by Tsara’at on the seventh day (part of the purification ritual).
175. Leviticus 14:9 Immersion of the unclean individual in a Mikve for ritual purification.
176. Leviticus 14:10 The Offering of the Individual with Tzaraat when he Is healed of his affliction.
177. Leviticus 14:35 Laws of ritual Impurity of a house defiled with Tsara’at.
178. Leviticus 15:2,3 Laws of ritual impurity of the person who has emissions, Zav, that is the cause of his ritual impurity.
179. Leviticus 15:13,14 Zav offering when he is cured of emissions.
180. Leviticus 15:16 Laws on the ritual impurity of semen, which is ritually unclean and causes ritual impurity.
181. Leviticus 15:19 Laws of ritual impurity of the menstruating person who acquires ritual impurity and causes ritual impurity.
182. Leviticus 15:25 Laws of ritual impurity of the abnormally menstruating person who acquires ritual impurity and causes ritual impurity.
183. Leviticus 15:28,29 Offering of the Zava woman , who is menstruating abnormally when she has already been ritually purified.
