He shall dwell in isolation; his dwelling shall be outside the camp” (Vayikra 13:46)

There used to be a spiritual disease called Tzaras where a person would get white spots on his skin. This normally came from speaking Lashon Hara and the person was punished by having to sit outside of the community by himself. Before the person was exiled to sit by himself, a Cohain would check out the spots and decide if these were Tzaras spots or not. Rashi points out that the Cohain would also look at the person to make the decision. If the person was a groom during his first week of marriage, the Cohain would not make him go into exile. This is true even if the spots were clearly Tzaras. Why is this?

Rabbi Yochanan Zweig shares an amazing answer. One of the main reasons a person speaks lowly of others is because he has a low view of himself. He is depressed. But during the first week of marriage, the groom is treated like a king. He is honored above all and feels great joy. This changes his view of himself. This joy makes him a new person and he will no longer have a low view of himself. He is transformed through this joy. The ultimate goal of any punishment is to make the person no longer commit the sin and this joy solves this issue for this man. He no longer needs to sit in isolation.

We can learn a great lesson from this, which is when a person is happy, he can avoid many sins. Therefore, we are all obligated to work on bringing happiness to ourselves. But we are also obligated to bring happiness to others.

I think this is a perfect time to learn this lesson. We are two weeks away from Pesach and we know what that means: cleaning and spending lots of money. It is a very stressful time. Unfortunately we sometimes become too focused on doing things properly and forget that this is a time of happiness. We do need to follow the laws, but we should not cause extra sins through yelling, screaming, and getting upset. If we remember to be happy, we can avoid many sins.

Good Shabbos!
-y.e.s.
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