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LEVITICUS — 13:45 unclean

LEV142 The written Torah states: "The leper in whom the disease [leprosy] is… shall cry: "Unclean, unclean" [this verse]. There is an allusion here to a subtle but pervasive psychological mechanism that Freud recognized: projection. People who are impure themselves are generally the first to detect uncleanness in others. All too easily we can darkly impugn the motives and intentions of others because unconsciously we attribute to others what we know ourselves to be capable of doing and thinking. He who is himself a leper is the first to cry out at others, "Unclean, unclean!" In the pithy adage of our Sages, "Whoever declares others blemished, it is his own blemish that he ascribes to others" (T.B. Kiddushin 70a). This telling point of our Torah is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is Ben Zoma' teaching. Are you ready to denounce and vilify others in the blackest terms, perhaps without justification? Take care. You have a clear warning here that in your own house a thorough spring-cleaning is needed. The more you wield the brush with black paint, the darker your self-portrait becomes. If you would rather be a man of honor, to earn and enjoy the esteem of others, learn to view selectively. Observe in others whatever is good and praiseworthy, and honor them for it. Give each man the esteem that is his due. This is the only way, says Ben Zoma, to achieve your own.

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LEVITICUS — 13:46 alone

LEV145 Realizing the pain caused by loshon hora should deter us from speaking it. The Sages said that since the metzora caused the separation of friends and the separation of husbands and wives, he should also be separated from others. (Erchin 16b, cited by Rashi). The isolation of the metzora gave him time for introspection. He could now recall the marriages and friendships his malicious gossip had dissolved. Removed from society, he would feel the mental anguish he cost others when his slander cost them to be ostracized. From here we see that a person should learn from his own experiences the pain that others feel when they suffer. If anyone ever spoke loshon hora against you, you certainly did not like it. Remember those feelings, and refrain from speaking against others. Rabbi Yisroel Salanter used to say, "If a person says that a rabbi cannot sing and a cantor is not a scholar, he is guilty of speaking loshon hora. But if someone says that a rabbi is not a scholar and a cantor cannot sing, it is tantamount to murder." (Tnuas Hamussar, vol. 1, p. 305).

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LEVITICUS — 14:2 law

LEV148 Observe the laws of purifying someone who had tzara’as. Allusions in the purification process for a metzora--a person who had tzara’as: Cedar wood--the cedar tree grows very tall. The metzora should realize that his sin is due to haughtiness. He must now lower himself and be like a hyssop plant, which grows close to the ground. Extract from a worm--this, too, might be hint to him to curb his haughtiness and lower himself like a worm. Two birds--his sin was sinful speech, excessive and harmful chatter. Therefore, for atonement he brings birds--creatures that constantly chirp. An illusion in the purification process for those who contract spiritual impurity: water for immersion is a hint that when a person becomes cleansed of his impurity, it is a fresh start for him, as if he has just been created anew. While in the water, he should think of the world before man was created, even before any land existed and the whole world was only water. As he comes up out of the water and is purified, he is a renewed person. It is rebirth for him, so with respect to his deeds he should make a fresh start and behave only with virtue, with care for every detail of his Maker's Will.

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LEVITICUS — 14:2 leper

LEV150j We should publicize the importance of refraining from loshon hora. The Midrash (Yayikra Rabbah 16:2) states that the word metzora (a person afflicted with tzoraas) comes from motzi shaim ra (a slanderer), since the disease of tzoraas is a punishment for speaking against others. ... Speaking against others causes quarrels, disputes, strife, and heartache; all of which are likely to shorten a person's lifespan. On the other hand, a person who refrains from speaking against others will lead a much more peaceful and tranquil existence, and will live longer (Kochav MaiYaakov, cited in Mayanah Shel Torah on this verse).

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LEVITICUS — 14:4 order

LEV152 By reflecting on the instruments needed to purify the metzora, we can appreciate the severity of lashon hora. Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv of Kelm wrote that studying the portion of Metzora is analogous to visiting a doctor prior to an operation. If the patient sees that the doctor requires a large amount of the surgical instruments for the operation, it will frighten him. Let us look at the instruments required by the Torah to purify the metzora after he is healed from the physical aspects of the affliction: [this verse]. The Torah continues for an entire section with a description of the instruments and operations that are necessary to cure the metzora spiritually. From here and we can learn the gravity of loshon hora, and should be deterred from this sin. (Chochmah Umussar, vol. 1, p. 332).

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LEVITICUS — 14:7 open

LEV153 (Continued from [[LEV175]] Leviticus 16:9 offering SACKS 185-7) The psychology of shame is quite different to that of guilt. We can discharge guilt by achieving forgiveness--and forgiveness can only be granted by the object of our wrongdoing, which is why Yom Kippur only atones for sins against God. Even God cannot--logically, cannot – – forgive sins committed against our fellow humans until they themselves have forgiven us. Shame cannot be removed by forgiveness. The victim of our crime may have forgiven us, but we still feel defiled by the knowledge that our name has been disgraced, our reputation harmed, our standing damaged. We still feel the stigma, the dishonor, the degradation. That is why an immensely powerful and dramatic ceremony had to take place during which people could feel and symbolically see their sins carried away to the desert, to no-man's-land [referring to the ceremony of the scapegoat, Leviticus 16:7-22]. A similar ceremony took place when a leper was cleansed. The priest took two birds, killed one, and released the other to fly away across the open fields [Leviticus 14:4-7]. Again, the act was one of cleansing, not atoning, and had to do with shame, not guilt. Judaism is a religion of hope, and its great rituals of repentance and atonement are part of that hope. We are not condemned to live endlessly with the mistakes and errors of our past. That is the great difference between a guilt culture and a shame culture. But Judaism also acknowledges the existence of shame. Hence the elaborate ritual of the scapegoat that seemed to carry away the tum'a, the defilement that is the mark of shame. It could only be done on Yom Kippur because that was the one day of the year in which everyone shared, at least vicariously, in the process of confession, repentance, atonement, and purification. When a whole society confesses its guilt, individuals can be redeemed from shame.

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