and a person with tzaras, who has a lesion, his garment shall be torn, his head shall be unshorn, he shall cover himself down to his mustache and say, “I am spiritually impure, I am spiritually impure.” (Vayikra 13:45)

According to most commentators the reason the Metzora (person who gets the spiritual disease of tzaras, which comes because a person spoke Lashon Hara) must do what is written in the above verse is because he is to behave like a mourner. I would like to share a thought I had which may be another explanation for why he must behave this way.

One of the worst sins a person could possibly transgress is speaking Lashon Hara. It is brought down that Lashon Hara is even worse than bruising someone. This is because the bruises will eventually heal, but the words we say about another person stay with that person for a long time – sometimes forever. Negative speech does not heal easily. Lashon Hara can literally ruin a person’s life.

When a person would speak Lashon Hara, he would receive a spiritual disease called Tzaras and start to get white spots on his skin. The Cohain would check the spots and would declare the person to be spiritually impure. The person would then need to go outside the city and sit by himself. People would pass by him. What do you think people would think as they passed? I think they would say, “Hey, look at this guy. He must have said something really bad. He is a big sinner.” Imagine how embarrassed the Lashon Hara speaker would be.

I think this is the reason why the Metzora needs to cover his face. The Torah commands him to do this because although he did something terrible and deserves punishment, overly embarrassing him is wrong. Embarrassing someone is just as terrible of a sin as speaking Lashon Hara. Therefore, the Metzora covers his face so he does not get embarrassed. He can think, “at least the passerbys do not know who I am.”

I think there is another lesson, though, and that is the lesson the Metzora himself should learn. His face is covered so he is not embarrassed because he would be devastated if he had to show his face. Well, just as the Metzora realizes he does not want to show his face so he is not embarrassed, he should learn not to speak Lashon Hara which embarrasses other people, making them not want to show their faces.

Some people think the proper way to punish others is to publicly embarrass them. The Torah is different. It teaches the Metzora an important lesson on how to avoid Lashon Hara without embarrassing him.

This is an important lesson to all of us. Lashon Hara is very dangerous – I think we already know that. Embarrassing someone is also very dangerous. Therefore, we should go to all extremes to avoid embarrassing others. If the Torah has so much concern not to embarrass a terrible sinner, how much more must we try to avoid embarrassing others who do things that are no way nearly as bad.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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