Parshas
Tazria-Metzora
Be
Kind Too! You're a Web-Rooted Friend
By:
Daniel Listhaus
“Hashem
spoke to Moshe and to Aharon, saying, 'If a person will have on the
skin of his flesh a se'is
or sapachas
or a baheres,
and it will become a tzara'as
affliction on the skin of his flesh; he shall be brought to Aharon
the Kohen, or to one of his sons the Kohanim...'”
-Tazria
13:1-2
“Hashem
spoke to Moshe, saying, 'This shall be the law of the Metzora
on
the day of his purification: He shall be brought to the Kohen.
The Kohen
shall
look, and behold! - the tzara'as
affliction
had been healed from the Metzora.
The Kohen
shall
command...'”
-Metzora
14:1-4
“Hashem
spoke to Moshe and Aharon, saying: 'When you arrive in the land of
Cana'an
that I give you as a possession, and I will place a tzara'as
as
affliction upon a house in the land of your possession.; the one to
who the house belongs shall come to declare to the Kohen,
saying: 'Something like an affliction has appeared to me in the
house'. The Kohen
shall command, and they shall clear the house when the Kohen has not
yet come to look at the affliction, so that everything in the house
should not become impure; and afterward shall the Kohen
come to look at the house....'”
-Metzora
14:33-36
The
whole concept of tzara'as
is
one that is so foreign to us. With tzara'as
as
part of reality, one could imagine how it would perhaps be easier to
see that even non-physical actions could have bad repercussions, as
well as realize that there is indeed a direct connection between the
spiritual and physical worlds. lashon
harah (evil
speech) is spoken everyday by so many people whether it be verbally
or over social networks, with seemingly no consequences. It has
become a part of society. People push themselves forward, by kicking
everyone else backward. We are really disconnected and unmoved by
speaking or listening to lashon
harah.
Certainly
no one would want lashon
harah spoken
about themselves, so why do we say it about others? People do not go
around physically hurting others, because they would not want to be
physically hurt in return. So why do people easily say things which
hurt others' when they would not want that to be done back to them?
What intuition is lacking when it comes to lashon
harah which
causes us to do it without thinking? How could we work on ourselves
to start realizing when we are saying or hearing lashon
harah
in order to stay away from it?
The
passuk1
describes
that upon seeing tzara'as,
the afflicted person goes to the Kohen
and declares, “Something like an affliction has appeared to me in
the house”. Rashi2
further stresses that even if the person is a talmid
chochom (Torah
scholar) who knows that what is on his house is certainly a form of
tzara'as,
still he is not permitted to definitively declare, “An affliction
has appeared to me”; rather, he should say, “Something like an
affliction has appeared to me”. The reason for this, as the next
Rashi3
explains, is because until the Kohen
himself declares it tamei
(impure),
there is absolutely no impurity about the affliction.
The
Alter
of Slabodka4
is
bothered by this process. Is this all a word game? If the man who
received the tzara'as
knows
for himself that it is indeed tzara'as,
why does he need to play dumb with the Kohen?
He should be encouraged to explicitly state the facts: “An
affliction has appeared to me.” What is the point of this trickery
saying, “Something like an affliction has appeared to me”?
The
Alter
of Slabodka answers
by reiterating Rashi
in a slightly stronger way. He writes that because it is the Kohen
who must declare that the affliction is indeed tamei,
it would be sheker
(a
lie) to declare prior to that point that you have seen tzara'as.
Tzara'as
must
be declared by the Kohen.
It is therefore not possible that you have seen tzara'as
because tzara'as
does
not really exist until it is declared tamei
by
the Kohen.
The Alter
of Slabodka continues
to write that perhaps some people are bothered by the following
question. According to this, that we are so careful about not saying
sheker,
we have not accomplished anything. How could this talmid
chochom say
to the Kohen,
“something like an affliction has appeared to me”, if he knows
that it is tzara'as
and
will ultimately be declared as such anyway? If the Torah is really
trying to be so stringent on falsehood, no lesson could be learned
from here, he is lying regardless!
However,
writes the Alter
of Slabodka,
one who is bothered by such a question is being caught up in the same
fundamental mistake. Before the Kohen
comes to declare it tamei,
there is absolutely no tzara'as.
It is not like we pretend that we do not know what it is and then
when the Kohen makes his statement we say, “Told you so!” It is
not like that at all. Rather, the tzara'as
does
not exist as a tamei
affliction
until the Kohen
declares it as such. This is true to the point that if the afflicted
is a talmid
chochom who
recognizes it as tzara'as,
and the Kohen
is an ignoramus who does not know all the rules of what qualifies as
tzara'as,
and consequently declares it tahor
(pure),
the man is indeed pure. As a matter of fact, this could further be
seen from the Torah itself. The passuk5
advises that before one calls the Kohen
to see the affliction in one's home, one should take some time to
clear his house of his possessions in order that they not become
contaminated at the time the Kohen
determines the tzara'as
to
be tamei.6
The
Alter
of Slabodka definitely
makes himself clear that it would be incorrect for the talmid
chochom to
say, “An affliction has appeared to me”, and that the Torah is
teaching us a lesson of the requirement to stay away from sheker
(falsehood).
However, let us stop and rethink through this again. though. There is
no doubt that honesty is of utmost importance and a pillar of the
Torah. After all, the seal of Hashem is emes
(truth)7.
However, is that really being compromised here? At the end of the
day, what is really wrong with the afflicted person calling it
tzara'as?
Let it be his personal opinion. Imagine that you are sitting watching
a court case and, after listening to both sides, you turn to the guy
next to you and say, “That man is definitely guilty.” Is there
really something so wrong in stating this? Granted, if the person
sitting next to you is the Alter
of Slabodka he
might say, “How could you say he is guilty? The jury has not yet
declared him as such!” But, would that really be a valid complaint,
or is there in fact a bigger fuss about accuracy when it comes to
tzara'as
than
even the most radical truth-tellers would generally make?
Furthermore,
let us take a step back for a moment and recall the bigger picture.
The whole reason for this necessity to say, “Something like an
affliction has appeared to me”, stems from the fact that the Torah
insists that it be only the Kohen
who has the ability to declare tzara'as
to
be tamei.
Why is this necessary? The entire parshiyos
of
Tazria
and
Metzora
are
filled with descriptions of the Kohen
specifically being the one who is commanding and declaring. Why is it
so important and why is there such an emphasis on it? Why not
eliminate the middle man and let the people declare tamei
for
themselves?
The
Medrash8
relates a story of a certain peddler who was traveling through a few
cities near Tzipori.
He went around announcing, “Who wants to purchase an elixir of
life?” Soon, he had attracted a small crowd around him. Rebbe
Yannai happened to be sitting there and said, “I would like to buy
some”. The peddler turned to him and said, “You and those like
you have no need for this product.” However, Rebbe Yannai kept
bothering the peddler to sell it to him. The peddler then took out a
Tehillim
and
showed him the following passukim:
“Who is the man who desires life, who loves days of seeing good?
Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from from speaking deceit.
Turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.”9
It
seems from these passukim
in
Tehillim
that
the two elements which needed required to stay away from lashon
harah are
to come close to Torah10
and to pursue peace. As a matter of fact, the Kli
Yakar11
explains that this is precisely the reason why when it comes to
tzara'as,
it could only be declared tamei
or
tahor
by
a Kohen.12
One who involves himself in lashon
harah is
someone who causes fights and mistrust. Such people destroy society
by tearing its members apart from each other. Therefore, Aharon's
special middah
(trait)
of
shalom
(peace)
must be the one to set the example.
The
mishna13
states
that Hillel used to say, “Be among the disciples of Aharon, loving
peace and pursing peace; loving people and bringing them closer to
the Torah.” These two elements of coming closer to Torah and
pursuing peace are the two fundamentals of establishing a successful
society. Torah represents emes
(truth).
Trust and honesty are needed in order to build real relationships and
friendships. Additionally, in order to have a successful culture,
just being “un-annoying” is not enough. Passiveness is not real
peace. Passiveness would allow for a world where everyone absolutely
despises each other, yet no one wants to violently express that
hatred. Rather, real peace is the pursuit of peace. Just sitting
around being a bobble-head is not enough, one has to go out and be
actively kind and helpful to others with the others' best interests
in mind.
This
was what was so special about Aharon HaKohen.
The passuk14
testifies
that at the time that Aharon passed away, the entire B'nei
Yisroel cried
for thirty days in mourning. Rashi15
there comments that all the men and women felt a personal connection
to Aharon because he was someone who would pursue peace, save
marriages, and instill love between two people involved in an
argument.
Speaking
lashon
harah is
not something that one wakes up one morning and decides to do. Rather
it is something which either feels right or wrong to us depending on
the level we are on. The setup for this failure stems from a lacking
in emes
and
a deficiency in pursuing peace. Emes
and
the pursuit of peace is what keeps society healthy; defining the
contrast, however, is where it gets tricky. It is not enough to just
not say or allow for sheker,
nor is it enough to not get on others' nerves. Instead, we must do as
Hillel prescribes in Pirkei
Avos – we
must pursue peace and bring others closer to the emes
of
Torah. This means to actively encourage emes
and to take action in creating peace.
Perhaps
this is why these two points are so specifically stressed throughout
the subject
of
tzara'as.
To pure oneself from tzara'as,
one must focus on the two middos
– emes and
shalom – he
is deficient in, which allowed for him to feel comfortable speaking
lashon
harah in
the first place. This is why the Torah chooses here to emphasize the
distance we must go to stay away from sheker,
and why the Torah takes the task of determining whether an affliction
is impure away from the talmidei
chochomim,
and instead puts it in the charge of those who represent shalom.
Living
during a time of “greed is good” and “on the Internet no one
knows you are a dog”, it is no surprise that we have become so
insensitive to lashon
harah.
Shalom
and
emes
seem
to be the antithesis of what we are influenced with on a daily basis.
One would at least think that a culture where one could make up the
perfect profile, and where self-made success is encouraged, should
consist of the happiest people on Earth. Yet, that is certainly not
the case.
People
were not created to live lives of sheker
or
lack of actively pursuing peace, therefore following such paths
cannot and do not lead to real happiness. Rather, it is being honest
and caring for others which offers a taste of real happiness. A lady
by the name of Elizabeth Dunn led an interesting study in 2008. She
and her colleagues gathered a group of students and distributed
envelopes to them containing cash and instructions on how it should
be spent. Each envelope held either five or twenty dollars along with
a note, which either instructed the money to be spent on oneself or
on someone else. Later, Dunn and her team measured and analyzed the
level of happiness that the participants experienced. Their results
showed that the ones who spent the money on others felt much better
and happier than those who spent the money on themselves –
regardless of whether they had spent five or twenty dollars.
The
idea of pursuing emes
and
shalom
is
something which we must realize works exponentially. Each person is
rooted within a web of friends and acquaintances who in turn are each
a part of their own network. So it is not enough to just be not
unkind, instead we must actively be kind because we are rooted as
part of a web in which one person's positive pursuit of peace could
change others', causing an exponential chain reaction. At the same
time, we must internalize the dangers that a deficiency in these
middos
could
cause. After realizing the mentality which ruins
communities and destroys societies, our task is to work on the middos
which
will prevent us from reaching such disasters.
May
we learn from these parshiyos
of
tzara'as
to work on the middos
of
emes
and
shalom,
and achieve what Hashem tells us in Nach16,
“You shall love truth and peace”.
1Vayikra
14:35
2Ibid.
3Vayikra
14:36
4Ohr
HaTzafun: Chelek Gimmel
5Vayikra
14:36
6Rashi
ibid.
7Gemara
Shabbos 55a
8Vayikra
Rabbah 16:2
9Tehillim
13-15
10See
Gemara Berachos 5a which says that there is nothing referred
to as “good” other than Torah, as the passuk says
in Mishlei 4:2, “For
a good teaching I have given you – My Torah; do not forsake it.”
11Tazria
13:3
12The
Kli Yakar 13:2 actually
maintains that there are three possible reasons why someone would
receive tzara'as: For
speaking lashon
harah, being haughty,
or running after money. The Kli Yakar
(13:3) then explains why it is a Kohen
specifically who declares the tzara'as on
someone who did one of these three things. We will focus on the
lashon harah
part, though it could be applied to all three.
13Avos
1:13
14Bamidbar
20:29
15Ibid.
16Zechariah
8:19
