Tazria-Metzorah 5783-2023

If, however, the spot is found to be unchanged on the seventh day inspection, the Priest may quarantine the house for another seven days. If, on the thirteenth day, when the Priest inspects the spot, it has become lighter in color, the owner must scrape off the spot and the surrounding area, replaster it and the home is declared ritually fit. In order to finalize the purity of the house, however, the owner must bring an offering of two birds to the Temple as atonement for any sinful behavior on his part that may have caused the blemish.

If, however, after the second inspection the spot has spread, the owner is required to remove the stones on which the spots were found, scrape the surrounding area, and replaster the entire house. The house is then placed under quarantine for a third seven-day period, and on the nineteenth day from the first inspection, the Priest visits again to see if the spot has continued to spread. If it has, the Priest orders the entire house demolished and the debris removed to a place beyond city limits.

As one might expect, the commentators are perplexed by this unusual set of laws. As we have explained in our analysis of previous years, most of the commentators attribute the tzara’at disease to לְשׁוֹן הָרָע—l’shon harah–speaking evil. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch brilliantly suggests that although the biblical text is out of chronological sequence, the first signs of the tzara’at disease usually appear in the slanderer’s home. If the speaker of evil persists in his errant behavior, the symptoms appear closer to his body-on his clothes. If he still does not stop his sinful ways and continues his habit of evil speech, the symptoms then spread to his own physical body.

Once the disease is diagnosed as tzara’at, the speaker of evil must leave, not only his home, but the entire camp and remain outside the camp. Outside the camp, where the sheep and flocks graze, there is not much opportunity to speak evil! If, however, the speaker of evil still does not repent, his entire body is afflicted with the disease and he is declared “pure,” allowing him to return to the camp. Why pure? Because now that he’s completely covered from head-to-foot with the disease, the violator of evil speech must face the consequences and the ridicule of being known publicly by all as a chronic gossiper and slanderer. He can no longer hide as he had done before when his house was torn down “for remodeling,” and his wardrobe burnt because “they were out of style.”

Other commentators, such as the Ibn Ezra claim that the chance of the tzara’at  disease appearing in the walls of a house is very slight. He notes that tzara’at only appears in homes that are located in the land of Israel–the Jewish homeland. This is because the land is so sanctified that any sign of moral and spiritual impropriety will result in a plague.

The author of the Sefer Ha’Chinuch cites the Midrash that states that when the Canaanites heard that the children of Israel were approaching the land to capture it, they quickly hid their treasures of gold in the walls of their homes. G-d therefore afflicted these homes with tzara’at, so that the Israelites might have to destroy the houses, only to discover the valuable treasures. Other commentaries reject this theory out of hand.

Whatever the Divine purpose of afflicting a home with the plague of tzara’at, the message of the plague resounds clearly.

The well-known aphorism, “walls have ears,” may have much to teach us in this instance. When reading the description of the biblical affliction of tzara’at, it may be easily concluded (incorrectly, we must add) that we’re referring to something similar to mildew. Home dwellers who have experienced mildew in their dwellings know what havoc it may wreak. It has now been confirmed that many serious medical disorders result from exposure to severe mildew–including stomach problems, inability to concentrate, skeletal pain, and even incontinence. Mildew is a malady that frequently is not visible, often has no smell, can’t be touched, but the homeowner knows it’s there, and it is very difficult to eliminate once it infects a location.

Ironically, there may be a lesson to learn from second-hand cigarette smoke. After many years of scientific research, it has been conclusively confirmed that secondhand cigarette smoke has a deleterious impact on all the residents in the smoker’s home. Children who live in homes of heavy smokers may contract asthma or develop lesions on their lungs, or, G-d forbid, even cancer.

Our rabbis often speak of the “sanctity of the Jewish home.” The Talmud praises women who were so righteous that the walls of their homes never saw an immodest act or behavior. They tell of the family that was so diligent in guarding their speech that no evil or improper word was ever spoken within the portals of their home.