Tazria: Music to One’s Ears

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Imagine you walk into the doctor’s office, concerned about your injured son and wait anxiously for a diagnosis. The secretary calls your name and, trembling, you walk into a private room to consult with your doctor. The door is closed and the doctor barely registers your presence amongst his frantic typing on the computer. He eventually turns to you, and pronounces in a grave tone: ‘You have ecchymosis, a form of contusion, with tissue hematoma…’

What?? The foreign words frighten you, and you have no idea what the diagnosis means. You look blankly at the doctor who smiles at you and says, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a scientific term for a minor bruise…’

We turn to the parsha this week, the portion in which we learn about the sin of lashon hara, (lit. evil speech, gossip) and the Torah introduces the diagnosis of tzara’as, leprosy, with the following words: ‘Adam ki yihiyeh b’or besaro s’eis oh sapachas oh baheres…’ If a person has a se’is or a sapachas or a baheres on his skin…

What do all of these terms mean? Why is the Torah complicating tzara’as with all these terms? Can’t we just get a straight diagnosis…?

Before we answer our question, let us turn to the following scenario.

A number of years ago, I used to play the clarinet. The beautiful notes of the clarinet are produced through blowing into the mouthpiece at the top of the instrument. Depending on which holes are covered by the fingers of the musician, different sounds emanate from the instrument. Of course, the inside of the clarinet needs to be cleaned out regularly, since the mouth is constantly blowing into it and the instrument can easily get clogged up. I recall at least one occasion where I had not cleaned out the clarinet; either I had been too lazy, or else forgotten. Whatever the reason was, to my horror and to the horror of those around me, the sounds I was producing were… unmusical at best. It was heavy at times, squeaky at others, hard to blow, and overall, extremely unharmonious. The type of music you would cover your ears to avoid listening to!

Our mouth is an instrument which Hashem gifted us with. Our mouth can produce melodious psalms, deliver sweet words of Torah and tell inspiring stories of Hashem’s hashgacha (loving supervision). Our mouth can compliment others, sing praise to Hashem and fill the room we are in with joyous music. But if we are not careful with our mouths, if we speak disparagingly of others, insult, mock, embarrass, if we use our instrument to produce the ugly sound of lashon hara, then we clog up our instrument. Our G-dly clarinets can no longer produce the beautiful chords they are designed to. The Chofetz Chaim writes that we actually prevent our prayers from reaching the Throne of Hashem. And this is no surprise. Since a clogged clarinet cannot produce a musical symphony. And a clogged mouth cannot produce prayers. We are the conductors of our own orchestra and it is our responsibility to produce the finest quality G-dly music and to clean out our clogged instruments.

Now that we understand the beauty of a pure mouth which can sing its music to Hashem, and how off-key the sounds of lashon hara are, we can answer our question. HaRav Moshe Sternbuch explains in his Sefer ‘Ta’am vDa’as,’ that the three different words used in the pesukim correspond to three different forms of tzara’as. The three forms of tzara’as correspond to three types of people.

The first term, ‘se’is,’ comes from the root ‘nasa,’ to raise up, to uplift. This type of person speaks lashon hara in order to elevate themselves over others. They suffer from pride and seek to present themselves as better than their flawed family and friends.

The second term is ‘sapachas,’ which comes from the root ‘lehistapea’ch,’ which means to attach oneself. This form of tzara’as affects those people who don’t intend to speak disparagingly about others, but they are influenced by bad company and imitate the negative habits of their friends. They suffer from peer pressure and through this, they speak in a way that does not befit them.

The third term, ‘baheres,’ is related to the root ‘bahir,’ which means clear. This type of lashon hara is spoken by the know-it-alls who always have a juicy piece of gossip to share and are the first to access and spread information. They feel the need to know and share snippets of unsavoury information about those around them.

We can ask ourselves: What goes on inside of me when I speak negatively about other people? Do I say it to make people laugh? To belittle those around me? Do I say it when I am with specific people? Do I feel good when I expose people’s shortcomings and do I actively seek out this information? What situation leads me to speak this way?

Incredibly, the name for the tzara’as itself tells us the root cause of the problem, and ultimately how to fix it. These are not foreign terms. The Torah has gone out of its way, using three different expressions, not to complicate the verses, but to guide us as to how to eliminate lashon hara from our lives. For each category, a different treatment plan. If we can be honest enough with ourselves and figure out why our clarinets are clogged, why we are falling prey to the yetzer hara of evil speech, that knowledge will be our medicine and equip us with the tools we need to battle the temptation.

This is a battle that has been raging since the creation of Adam HaRishon. As the Chofetz Chaim explains, it was the snake’s manipulative speech that led to Adam and Chava sinning, and their subsequent expulsion from Gan Eden. Later in history, it was the lashon hara of Yosef’s brothers which ultimately led to the painful exile of the Jewish nation in Egypt, 210 years of brutal slavery. It is this sin which is holding us hostage in this exile, and our victory over this yetzer hara will be our final triumph, our geula, our redemption! It will be a cure for us, and a cure for the world.

Each time we experience a victory in this area, it is as if we are unclogging a little part of the clarinet, and finally releasing our long-awaited Heavenly music of pure speech to the world…