This morning I received a daily email from the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation regarding loshon hora. Those who spoke loshon hora were afflicted with tzaraas.
One may wonder why in our day the affliction of tzaraas is not manifest upon those who habitually speak loshon hora. The Chidah offers the following explanation:
When God visits punishment upon an individual, He does it for the person’s benefit, to purify him of his sins and to stir him towards repentance. Now, it was only during the Temple era that a metzora could attain taharah (purification). Today, however, when due to our sins there is no Temple, no sacrifice, and no way for the Kohen to perform the other components of the purification process, if God were to afflict a person with tzaraas, he would remain in his impure state for the rest of his life, without any possibility of ridding himself of it. Therefore, in the absence of the Temple, the impurity of this affliction clings only to the soul, but is not manifest on the person’s body.
Nowadays, it behooves us to realize that when we sin or utter derogatory words about someone, even though there is no immediate visible marking that we have changed for the worse, our souls have become blemished. It is harder to get rid of a stain that is not visible to the naked eye than to one that is immediately apparent.
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