Parshas Tazriah-Metzorah

This week’s Torah portion, Parshas Tazria-Metzora, introduces us to one of the most fascinating and mysterious phenomena in all of Torah: tzaraas. Most people have heard it mistranslated as leprosy, but tzaraas was no natural disease. It was a supernatural aliction that could appear on a person’s skin, their clothing, or even the walls of their home, with the Kohen serving not as a doctor treating an illness, but as a spiritual diagnostician reading a divine message.

Of all the sins the Torah warns against, of all the punishments and consequences described throughout its pages, tzaraas stands alone. It is the only miracle that the Torah explicitly presents as a direct, tangible, divine response to a person’s sin. The Sages teach that it came primarily as a consequence of lashon hara, evil speech, along with other moral failures like arrogance and jealousy. Tzaraas was Hashem pulling back the curtain, reaching directly into the physical world in a visible and undeniable way, sending a message that could not be ignored.

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, known by the name of his landmark work the Chofetz Chaim, dedicates an entire book to the laws of lashon hara. His conclusion is a sobering one. Evil speech was behind almost every major crisis the Jewish nation faced, from the conflicts among our forefathers through to the present day. And it was precisely this sin that Hashem chose to halt with an open miracle. That alone tells you how seriously Hashem takes the way we speak about one another.

The Chofetz Chaim makes clear that lashon hara is not limited to lies or malicious gossip. Saying something negative about another person, even if completely true, violates the laws of lashon hara unless it meets seven specific legal conditions outlined in the book. The damage ripples outward, bringing suering into the life of the person being spoken about and into the life of the speaker as well. Hashem does not look lightly upon people speaking badly about His children. The Chofetz Chaim is available in both Hebrew and English and is genuinely worth studying.

May we all merit this Shabbos and throughout our lives to guard our tongues and speak only words of kindness and truth, and in that merit may Hashem shower us and all of our nation with blessing and success in all that we do.