“If a woman has a discharge… whoever touches her shall become ritually impure until evening. And whatever she lies while in a state of nidda shall become ritually impure, and whatever she sits on shall become ritually impure (Vayikra 15:19-20)

This week’s parsha discusses the laws of Taharos, which is ritual purity and impurity. These laws are very strict and when the Temple stood, everyone needed to be very careful with them. One way a person could become ritually impure is by touching certain men or women who were tamei (ritually impure). Certain tamei men and women could even transfer their ritual impurity to objects, like the chair they sit on or the bed they lay on. Therefore, a ritually pure person would always need to be careful where he sat and would need to inquire about the status of anything he wanted to rest on.

Why are these laws of ritual impurity in the same parsha as the one that discusses the spiritual disease of tzaras? Tzaras is a discoloration on one’s skin, clothing, or house, which would make the person, clothing, or house ritually impure. Tzaras happened for numerous reasons, but one of the most prevalent reasons is because a person spoke Lashon Hara (slander).

I think tzaras and the laws of Taharos are explained in the same parsha because a lesson can be learned from one and applied to the other. Just as a person needs to be aware of all of the details about his situation when dealing with laws of ritual impurity, so too before a person speaks, he better make sure he has all of his details correct. The reason is simple – he might be missing an important detail which totally changes the story. One small detail can change everything.

This past weekend, I was reading Amelia Bedelia books to my children. These humorous books are about a maid who understands words in a different way than they are meant. For example, in one book she is driving a car and comes to a fork in the road. She doesn’t understand why there isn’t a piece of silverware in the road, but anyway, she asks the passenger which way to go. He says “Bear left.” So she turns right. The passenger starts yelling at her for going the wrong way. She responded that he said there was a bear on the left path so she wanted to get away from it and went right.

There are so many things that look one way and are really another way. When we learn all of the details regarding the events we speak negatively about, we might realize that we misunderstood the whole thing. Amelia Bedilia thought she was doing something good when she turned right. So too, all people think they are doing good when they perform the acts they do. We just do not always understand all of the details and therefore Lashon Hara is spoken.

The Torah puts the laws of Taharos and Tzaras together to teach us that just as a person needs to inquire carefully regarding Taharos, a person also needs to inquire carefully before speaking negatively. When a person does this, he might realize there was not any negative in the first place.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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