The kohen shall look, and behold, the nega tzaraas has been healed from the metzora.[2]
Anyone who has found it important to improve their compliance with the laws of lashon hora (and these days, B”H, who hasn’t?) has heard the story.[3] A peddler was hawking his wares. “Who wants a life-giving elixir?” R. Yanai expressed interest. The peddler said to him, “Not you. You don’t need it.” R. Yanai kept pressing him, so he took out a Tehillim and read,[4] “Who is the one who wants life, who loves days to see good? Guard your tongue from evil…leave evil behind and do good.” This is pretty sound advice. Why did the peddler insist that R. Yanai didn’t need it?[5]
In considering Rabbenu HaKadosh’s death-bed declaration that even his pinky had not taken enjoyment from this world, Tosafos[6] cite a midrash:[7] “Before davening that words of Torah should penetrate your inners, first daven that pleasures should not enter your belly.” Rabbenu Hakadosh made this point to impress his students that his Torah study would have met with no success had he pampered himself in the slightest.
We understand why. Our over-stuffed physical selves leave no room for the refined spirituality of Torah. To succeed in self-elevation, a person must first rid himself of the coarseness of excess. That is how the peddler understood the verse in Tehillim. Before they can have a meaningful time doing good, people need to first jettison the incompatible behaviors of improper speech and evil behavior.
When the peddler heard R. Yanai’s request, he first brushed him off. “You don’t need this program. You’ve already spent years disgorging the physical excess that interferes with assimilating Torah. This is not for you, my friend. You’ve already done the preliminary demolition work, that is needed before stable construction.”
With this, we can turn to our pasuk. It seems to be inverted. It states that the nega has been cured from the metzora. Shouldn’t it more accurately state that the metzora has been healed of his nega?
The Ran[8] finds a verse in Hoshea[9] to be puzzling. “When I [Hashem] come to heal Yisrael, the iniquity of Efraim will be revealed.” Hashem’s healing of the Jewish people should cure the iniquity, not reveal it! He explains that a physician can look at a patch of skin covered by a thick, painful scab. He could treat the scab – but that would not solve anything. He really must find out what the wound or condition beneath it is all about, and attend to it. The scab is only the symptom. Treating the symptom without treating the disease is foolish. He must remove the scab to expose the underlying ailment. When Hashem intervenes to free us from our sins, He must first reveal the iniquities and flaws, so that they can be properly addressed.
Similarly, the nega is always symptomatic of a spiritual flaw. When the nega appears and then recedes, it is evidence that having been exposed, the underlying condition has also been treated.
Only in this way is the metzora truly cured of his ailment.
- Adapted from Divrei Shaul, by Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson zt”l, the Shoel U-Meishiv ↑
- Vayikra 14:3 ↑
- Vayikra Rabbah 16:2 ↑
- Tehillim 34:13 ↑
- The author offers several explanations. We will consider only one of them. ↑
- Tosafos Kesubos 104a s.v. lo ↑
- Tanna de-vei Eliyahu ↑
- Derashos HaRan #9 ↑
- Hoshea 7:1 ↑