Stop the Spread of Evil Speech

Image from the TV series “Gossip Girl”

Parashat Metzora, Leviticus 14:1–15:33

Dr Jeffrey Seif, UMJC Executive Director

When introducing me as guest speaker at Congregation Mayim Chaim on April 13, 2024, Rabbi David Tokajer quipped: “I’m glad Rabbi Jeffrey Seif is here to talk about Parashat Tazria because I’d rather not.” My hunch is the reluctance expressed in jest had nothing to do with his being afraid of Leviticus 12:1–13:59, as much as it did with the fact that the passages in both last week’s and this week’s readings (Leviticus 12–13 and 14–15) are so far removed from contemporary experience that it’s difficult to find a modern-day application. The readings both weeks speak to, for, and about communicable skin diseases. This week’s reading, Parashat Metzora, alights upon the post-partum quarantine of mothers, upon priests acting as medical inspectors examining dermatological anomalies, upon priests examining and condemning properties, and more. It’s tough to preach from.

Unlike today—where we operate in a world that places a premium on distinguishing between the secular and the sacred (e.g., the premium placed on separating church and state)—in the world of Leviticus, priests served in various capacities as agents of a theocratic state. In that regard, though they occasionally attended to sacerdotal functions, they also served as medical inspectors, building inspectors, and more.

Priests functioned in another time and in another world, one far removed from our own. Challenges associated with bringing light from this ancient parasha to bear on modern experience notwithstanding, oddly for me, it was while I was working on this particular section of hard-to-tackle biblical literature that I got my first “ah-ha!” lightbulb moment as a young spiritual leader and exegete.

While wrestling with Leviticus, and reading through the commentary of former chief rabbi of the British Empire Dr J. H. Hertz, I was struck by his treatment of Leviticus 13:1ff. Commenting on the skin diseases noted therein (that is, “leprosy”), he informed us: “[Some] rabbis regard leprosy as a Providential affliction in punishment for slander or tale bearing; thus teaching that the slanderer is a moral leper, and should find no place in the camp of Israel” (Pentateuch & Haftorahs, 461). Though I’m not personally convinced that leprosy is a providential affliction, I was struck by a recollection that another Jewish sage, Rabbi Sha’ul (Paul), insinuated as much in 2 Timothy 2:14–18. Therein, in v. 16, he beckoned Timothy to “avoid godless chatter,” noting in v. 17 that worthless, ill-spoken “words will spread like cancer” (TLV and NKJV). Closer to the actual Greek, other versions replace “cancer” with “gangrene” (cf. NIV and RSV), given that Sha’ul uses the Greek gangraina—that is, the well-known skin condition denoting tissue death.

Different renditions aside, we do well to note that, with other rabbis, Rabbi Sha’ul correlated reckless speech with an infectious skin disease that starts off as a small infection, grows if left unchecked, and eventually consumes and kills the body as it expands. James says as much, too. For his part, James, like Moses and Sha’ul, spoke to, for, and about the deleterious power of the tongue. In James 3:8, for example, he likened the tongue to a “restless evil, full of deadly poison” (TLV). In so doing, James—better, Ya’akov—parroted the Jewish premium on avoiding lashon hara, that is, an “evil tongue.” His noting inherent problems with evil speech dovetails with the scourge associated with malicious gossip and misinformed speech noted in this week’s Torah portion.

Better understanding traditional Jewish interpretations and applications in Leviticus chapters 12–15 enabled me to better understand what a New Testament writer was saying in 2 Timothy 2:17. Something I dimly saw in black-and-white suddenly burst forth in Technicolor. The confluence, for me, is the power Jewish studies brings to bear on New Testament understanding. Refracting the “Good News” through the eyes of the Jews is the benchmark of Messianic Jewish theology—something I have been engaged in as a professor for 34 years. Bonding together as a community, with a mind to creatively abide in both the Old and New Testament worlds (Jewish and Messianic / Jews and Gentiles) is the trademark of Messianic Jewish congregational life—something we abide in. We work with the Good News through the eyes of the Jews and endeavor to live out the insights and implications together.

“Togetherness” can get a little messy. The movement is new and there’s considerable variance amongst adherents. I encourage patience with one another, believing it best we grant others space to work out the essence and substance of Messianic Jewish faith and orthopraxy. I believe it’s important to give grace—not just space; sometimes we can be guilty of (how can I put it), lashon hara—evil speech.

Have you ever heard of the “Ink Blot” test? A Danish physician named Herman Rorschach asked individuals to describe what they saw when they observed ink splattered on a piece of paper in a clinical setting. Viewing a mushroom configuration on a paper, for example, some described it as an atom bomb blast, a ping pong paddle, a mushroom, or whatever . . . there was no right or wrong answer. It is a projective analysis test, with people eventually describing themselves by the things they were purporting to describe.

As individuals proceeded through a variety of ink blots, patterns emerged on how they processed and evaluated images. I’m less interested in giving a psychological assessment lesson than I am in noting that individuals who are excessively and incessantly critical of persons, circumstances, or places do more to describe their own interior negative dispositions than the things they purport to describe.

People who traffic in gossip about people they really don’t know, and about situations where they’re really not privy to the necessary details, say more about themselves than anything—and they hurt three people in the process. First, they injure their own humanity by trafficking in gossip; second, they take a piece out of the person they are talking about, and then, third, they injure the person they are talking to. In Proverbs 16:27, gossiping lips are likened to a “scorching fire,” and in v. 28, those with loose lips are referred to as “perverse” because they “separate close friends” (TLV).

For these reasons, it seems to me that our rabbis got it right when noting the deleterious effects of slander, much as Rabbi Sha’ul hit the nail on the head by likening bad speech to a cancer or gangrene that starts as a small blot and then destroys the body as it grows. Cognizant of this as I am, I’m reminded of the necessity to be more tolerant of theological variance, patient with those who don’t think like me, and more guarded in the way I speak. With Passover in view, permit me to remind us of the necessity of taking out the old leaven, in this case that of degrading speech— lashon hara. We want to build up and not tear down. There are lots of problems in this world; by following principles noted in this week’s Torah portion I can better position myself to be part of the cure—and so can you!