Tazria

A fresh perspective on Loshan Hara

Rabbi Moishy Pruzansky

This week’s ParaShah discusses tzara’as, a spiritually caused physical affliction that was primarily the result of lashon hara, gossiping, or speaking negatively about another (Arachin 15b). When one was afflicted with tzara’as, he was required to go to the Kohen who would verify the tzara’as and pronounce him impure. Interestingly, the severe status of impurity did not begin at the time that tzara’as appeared on the body. Rather, even if many Kohanim and experts verified that one had tzara’as for a long period of time, the impurity only began once the Kohen verbalized that the person was impure (Nega’im 3:1). His impurity relied so greatly on the Kohen’s verbalization, in fact, that if the person was in middle of his own sheva berachos, and the Kohen recognized tzara’as but delayed his verbal declaration out of respect for the sheva berachos, the impurity only took effect after the Kohen articulated that the man was impure, instead of from the time of the actual affliction (Nega’im 3:4).

When it comes to all other cases of impurity, one was considered impure from the moment that the cause of impurity occurred. Why did tzara’as, in particular, require the words of the Kohen in order for the impurity to commence?

Perhaps we can answer this by addressing another question: Hashem created this world with dibur, words (see Parashas Bereishis). Why did Hashem specifically do so with the spoken word, instead of through thought or some other means?

On July 1, 1846, the vienna General hospital in Europe hired Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis to work in the maternity ward. There were two maternity clinics in the hospital at the time. The first clinic had a maternal mortality rate of about 10%. The second clinic’s rate was considerably lower, averaging less than 4%. Inexplicably, even mothers who gave birth in their homes had a better survival rate than those who gave birth in the first clinic. Semmelweis was severely troubled by this, but he couldn’t figure out what the cause could be. The two clinics used practically identical techniques. The only major difference was the indi- viduals who worked there. The first clinic was run by medical students who came to deliver babies after their morning work dissecting cadavers, while the second clinic was exclusively run by midwives.

The breakthrough occurred in 1847. dr. Semmelweis con- cluded that the medical students carried “germs” from the cadavers in the autopsy room to the patients they examined in the first clinic. This explained why the student midwives in the second clinic, who were not engaged in autopsies and had no contact with corpses, saw a much lower mortality rate.

The germ theory of disease had not yet been developed. Thus, Semmelweis concluded some unknown “cadaverous ma- terial” caused childbed fever. he instituted a policy of using a solution of chlorinated lime for washing hands between autopsy work and the examination of patients. The results were simply incredible. The mortality rate in the first clinic dropped dramat- ically from 10% to 1.9%. In the year following his discovery, the death rate was 0%.

Unfortunately, dr. Semmelweis’s failure to convince his fel- low doctors of “invisible germs” led to a tragic conclusion. dr.

Semmelweis’s hypothesis — that there was only one cause of disease, that all that mattered was cleanliness — was extreme at the time and was largely ignored, rejected, or ridiculed. his practices of cleanliness and his belief in germs were completely disregarded by the other doctors, and many patients died as a result of their ignorance. Semmelweis was promptly dismissed from the hospital, harassed by the medical community, and was even committed to an asylum. Semmelweis’s practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory of disease, offering a theoret- ical explanation for Semmelweis’s findings.

Like germs, LaShoN hara is an invisible killer, one that can cause very real and devastating destruction if precautionary measures are not taken seriously. While its harm cannot be seen by the naked eye, it can cause severe destruction to our relationships with our fellow Jews and our own well-being both in this world, as well as in the World to Come.

Lashon hara is more severe than idolatry, adultery, and murder combined (Yerushalmi, Pe’ah 1), but its efforts are invisible, leaving the great risk it poses to be taken too lightly. Indeed, one could easily make the mistake of thinking that words are utterly harmless and that they have no real impact on the world or the people around them. In order to dispel this notion, and in order to demonstrate the power of speech, Hashem specifically created the entire universe with words. It is also for this reason that when it comes to tzara’as, the punishment for lashon hara, the Torah put so much power specifically in the words of the Kohen. This was intended to demonstrate just how real, potent, and concrete our words are. They have the ability to create worlds and nurture spiritual growth and, at the same time, they have the ability to utterly destroy them.

The Chafetz Chaim’s lifetime efforts to promote awareness of the incredible danger of lashon hara can, in a sense, be compared to Dr.Semmelweis’ efforts to make the world aware of germs.* Will we take to heart the Chafetz Chaim’s very strong warnings regarding the danger of lashon hara, thereby saving our nation from exile, not to mention preserving your own personal spirituality and relationships? Will we follow his paramount advice to study the laws of lashon hara daily? Or will we choose to disregard, ignore, and reject his advice, as Dr. Semmelweis’s peers did? This monumental life decision is ours.