Tazria–Metzora: The Lessons of Tzaraas—Lashon Hara, the Kohen’s Compassion, and Communal Responsibility

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Parshas Tazria Metzora, two big parshas about tzaraas. Tzaraas in the home, tzaraas on the clothes, tzaraas on the person, and all the halachas, halachas v'halachas v'halachas, so much. Does it apply bizman hazeh? Do we have tzaraas bizman hazeh? It's interesting, they say over, it's brought in the sefarim, that Reb Yitzchak Volozhin had some kind of a bruise on his skin, and when the doctor said it should be removed, he didn't want it to be removed. He was choishesh, he was afraid, maybe, maybe it's the tzaraas of the Torah, and if it's the tzaraas of the Torah, there's a lav to cut it off, to remove it. So he didn't want to remove it. Parshas, we don't have tzaraas today. Parshas, we don't have it today. Parshas, tzaraas was a thing of the past. So the question is, if there's so much halachas and tzaraas, which is simply not nogea bizman hazeh, so when you read these parshiyos, when you read it, how are you supposed to react to the halachas? In Hebrew we say a gisha. What's the— Gishah to these halachos. I mean, it's not נוגע בזמן הזה, and yet it's so detailed. So, be'emes, there's two things that I have to point out about tzaraas which make it applicable בזמן הזה. The Rambam tells us at the end of Hilchos Tzaraas that we're supposed to be hisbonenu, to look into, to think into the parsha of tzaraas, the way tzaraas afflicted Miriam, and even though Miriam was the older sister, and she cared, and vechulei vechulei for Moshe, and yet she was afflicted in tzaraas. Kol shekein, how much more so for people who speak lashon hara, that they will be afflicted with tzaraas. And he says it goes into the rule of the pasuk. The pasuk says, Hishamer b'nega tzaraas, lishmor v'laasos. So if the Torah tells us, Hishamer b'nega tzaraas, it's not only just on the physical tzaraas, which we may or may not have today, like we discussed a second ago. From the Rambam, it seems to imply that it is נוגע בזמן הזה, al kol panim in lesson. To take the lesson from the tzaraas is part of Hishamer lecha b'nega tzaraas, lishmor v'laasos. That's what it's mashma in the Rambam. So it's true that one could come and contemplate maybe tzaraas is not נוגע בזמן הזה. Do we have it? We don't have it. The Rambam and Rishonim tell us that nigei batim and nigei begadim are a pela v'ois b'Yisrael. It was something very special, almost like nevuah. And it was only b'eretz achuzaschem. Nigei batim, the pasuk says clearly it's only in Eretz Yisrael, and the Ramban discusses it. So today we don't have nigei batim, and we don't have nigei begadim. Maybe, maybe we have nigei or, and even that, pashtus most say that we don't have it. So it's not applicable? Yes, it is applicable, zman hazeh. From the Rambam it would be implied that it's applicable in lesson, to take the lesson from tzaraas. And that's nichlal in the tzivui, in the azhara of Vishamer lecha benega hatzaraas. So it is nogea b'zman hazeh on that level. There's also an interesting Gemara in Sanhedrin, daf ayin aleph, ayin beis. The Gemara speaks about ben sorer u'moreh lo hayah v'lo nivra, according to one man d'amar, it never happened, lo hayah v'lo asid lihyos. It's something that never happened. And the Gemara says another man d'amar says, no, it happened. I was zalkivroi, I...

So the caveat of the Ben Sorer U'Moreh, that same man d'amar says that nigei batim is also lo hoyah v'lo nivra. It also never happened. It's something which can't happen, nigei batim, he says, lo hoyah v'lo nivra. And because it can't happen, so why was it written? What's the point of writing something that won't be? And the answer is, drosh v'kabel schar. Learn it and get reward. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter already speaks by Ben Sorer U'Moreh that says drosh v'kabel schar. What do you need it for? Learn something else. Learn a different parsha in the Torah v'kabel schar. Obviously, drosh v'kabel schar means to learn up the lessons v'kabel schar. It doesn't just mean to read the pesukim and you'll get reward for limud haTorah, because then you could have taken any parsha. So Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, by Ben Sorer U'Moreh, that gives us insight to drosh v'kabel schar means to take out the lesson, than hu hadin by nigei batim. According to this man d'amar, it says drosh v'kabel schar, it's the same man d'amar, the same lashon of the Gemara. The implication is that we have to look into the lesson of nigei batim, and that becomes the mitzvah of nigei batim, because it's not nigei. The mitzvah itself, the halachos itself, are not nigea. So it was all written to elaborate and to bring recognition, meaning a person shouldn't overlook it. So we give a lot of halachos to draw attention to nigei batim, and the purpose of that is drosh, to learn it up. In order to take out its lesson and to be mekabel schar for taking its lesson. This, l'choira, makes nigei batim not a thing of the past, and not only nigei adam and nigei begadim not a thing of the past, but it makes it a thing of the present. Even if, lemaaseh, we don't have the lemaaseh of nigei batim and nigei begadim and nigei adam. This, I believe, is a very clear and important hakdamah, introduction to the sugya, to the parsha of the goy. A person says, Negaim, who, what? You know, they do translate negaim, leprosy. That's a very loose translation. The Rambam actually, even in the Yad HaChazakah, begins his halacha of explaining tzaraas at the end of Hilchos Tzaraas to explain the meaning of the word tzaraas. What does the word tzaraas mean? It is interesting that the word tzaraas, the Gemara darshens, is motzi shem ra, and has something to do with hotzaas ra. So the inherent in the name of it is the aveirah, but the truth is maybe every choli, every sickness is that way. We might not know the right terminology for the sickness, but the sickness might have, and its name might contain, what the reasons for the sickness are. And it's usually chet, ein hanachash meimis ela chet meimis. So even sickness, the shoresh of it is chet. So maybe motzi shem ra. True tzaraas comes from oti shem, right? But maybe it's a physical thing. Might be a physical thing. You should know, if you look at the Medrash Tanchuma, the Medrash Tanchuma says, how does tzaraas come? He says man is made of dam and mayim, and it's an equilibrium. It has to be the correct balance between mayim and dam. If it's a little bit off, there's a problem with the person. So if he has more dam than mayim, he has tzaraas. That's Medrash Tanchuma in this week's parsha. So tzaraas has on the person some physical sickness. It's a physical ailment, just like you have chromosomes. If a person has one less chromosome or one more chromosome, he's sick. You have Down syndrome. You have the other machlokes when it's less, one more, one less chromosome, cystic fibrosis. They're different machlokes which come from the equilibrium of the genetic makeup of the person is out of control. It's not where it's supposed to be. So the Medrash says that tzaraas also might come from an imbalance in the equilibrium.

of the person, there's more dam than mayim. So there are physical ailments, tzaraas. That is true. Yet still, it might be that we don't have tzaraas today either way, and the leprosy that everybody talks about might not be the leprosy of the Torah. It might be two different things. True, like we spoke, Reb Yitzchok of Volozhin was afraid that maybe, maybe, and therefore he didn't want to touch a scar or a blemish or a bruise that he had on his hand. But that, of course, is because tzaddikim are worried. Pashtus, we don't have leprosy today. We don't have it. Yet the Torah is telling us so much halachas about it. It is incumbent upon us to learn it as if it's nogea l'maaseh, like I explained to you, that the Rambam and the Gemara tells us that the tachlis of these halachas is not the l'maaseh, but the lessons that are learned from it. That's what you see. So yes, we do have tzaraas today. Yes, we have the chata'im that bring the tzaraas today, and therefore it's relevant b'zman hazeh. Let us discuss what is the lesson of tzaraas. What is it? So I'd like to begin from Nigei Adam, which was last week's parsha, Tazria, to Nigei Batim, which is this week's parsha, and we will try to take out as many lessons as we could, because like we said, Negaim is about teaching lessons to the person. I want to begin. By saying over from the Brisker Rav, in the themes of Brisker Torah, they explained that there's a very big difference between korban of chet and korban of metzora. The korban of chet is in Hilchos Karbanos, and that's where the Rambam brings those halachos. The korban of metzora is called taharah, and the halachos of the korban of metzora are brought in Hilchos Taharah. And the Brisker Rav saw in this a lesson that normally when there's chet, there's korban, but tzaraas is not about korban per se; it's about taharah. It's a procedure where the person has to cleanse himself. And like we're explaining, negaim is a lot different than just all other aveiros. I believe that in all other aveiros, when you bring a korban, the korban is to mechaper on the past, but there's nothing per se in the korban which is a lesson on how not to sin in the future. It's true, it's emes that there are parts of a korban which is about anavah, adam ki yakriv, it's true, but in the general sense, it's more of a kaparah for the avar, excuse me, a kaparah for the avar. Metzora is a taharah, which means, like we've explained above, when we explained in the beginning of the shiur, it's to take a lesson not to sin in the future. The best example, eitz eres. Shnisei las, tziporim. He brings grass, he brings cedar, gaivo, the birds, because he was mefatfet, because he was talking too much. A lot of the chet of lashon hara is merumaz in the taharah of the metzora. And the reason being, because it's not just to be mechaper on the past, but it's to teach the person a lesson. Like the Rambam says, Yishamer lecha b'nega hatzaraas, hisbonenu. The person was supposed to learn from the tzaraas. It was a learning experience. This, rabosai, I believe, is emes la'amito, the truth and understanding tzaraas. Tzaraas is not just a form of kaparah for the avar, but it was a lesson. It was meant to be a tremendous lesson for the person, just like all yisurim. Yisurim is meant lefashfeish b'ma'asim, that when the person got yisurim, he was supposed to look into his personal life, what brought about this yisurim. Tzaraas was meant the same thing, and that we would call in Brisker lashon, taharah. It's to purify the person. Kaparah, you have a chet, you have to take...

of the chet. Taharah is by metzora a whole different theme. Of course there's kaparah involved also, but the main nekudah is taharah, to cleanse the person for the future. What caused the tzaraas, what caused the problem in the first place. Interesting, the Gemara tells us, it says, Chazal say, she'ein hatumah v'hataharah by metzora only תלוי בכהן, strictly a kohen. Only a kohen is allowed to come and be metameh and metaher. Who is this kohen? The Gemara, the Rambam brings it lahalacha, the kohen could have been a child. Not only he could have been a child, he could have been a shoteh, a child that's a shoteh. Says the Gemara, but if he's a child and a shoteh, so how do you want him to pasken hilchos tzaraas? So the Gemara says, and that's how the Rambam brings the halacha, chacham mevi'im ito. You bring a chacham with him, and the chacham tells the child, the shoteh, You're tamei, and the child repeats, Tamei atah, You're tamei, from his mouth. Could you explain to me why there should be such a halacha? You want a kohen, take a kohen that could pasken a she'eilah, a gadol. How did a katan? Where did a shoteh? Imagine the way he says it. Tomei ata. He can't even talk. And you tell him to say those words. That's it. Why? And like I said to you, the lessons of taharah is a lesson for the person. The taharah, like I'm explaining to you, is possibly a lesson for the person more than it is a kaparah. So why is the tumah and the taharah תלויה בכהן, even if he's a katan, even if he's a shoteh? I believe there's a tremendous yesod here, rabosai. You know, this person spoke lashon hara, spoke against everything and everybody. You know what they're teaching the person? To tell another person to his face, Tomei ata. You have to be the child of Aharon HaKohen. You have to come from kohanim that say in the morning, Asher kid'shanu b'kedushaso shel Aharon, v'tzivanu levarech es am Yisrael b'ahavah. Only he can tell another person to his face, Tomei ata. A child of Aharon HaKohen that loves, only he has the right to say, Tomei ata. Nobody else has the right. No one else has the reshus to tell another, You tomei ata. And this was supposed to be a lesson. The Medrash says that Moshe Rabbeinu couldn't understand how Yitachen Aharon is the one to be busy with this. It's almost demeaning. You know what it is to sit there to look at a guy's foot? It's Aharon HaKohen. So the Medrash says that he asks the Ribono Shel Olam, why are you doing this to Aaron? Aaron has to see, go to a doctor. So the Medrash says, Ribono Shel Olam said to him, but he gets chavdaled. He gets the chavdaled matnas kehunah, so therefore he has to do it. So the Chofetz Chaim in the Igros says, what's the pshat? How do you explain? And the answer is that once he gets from Klal Yisrael, once he gets from Klal Yisrael, so it becomes his responsibility, his achrayus, his chiyuv, to help them to the end. So it doesn't mean only to take care of them in ruchniyus, but if in such a case also, the way I explained it once, you know, it's very gishmak to be makriv a korban. Meyridig, meyridig gishmak to be makriv a korban. Everybody's elevated, the kohen, oilah, rei'ach nichoach, the fire comes from Shamayim. It's meyridig. How about taking care of the guy when he's tamei, chutz lamachaneh, and it's not so elevating, and it's not so glamorous? That's still the job of the kohen. You know, a lot of times people, they like to say a good shiur. I say a good shiur. It's very gishmak to say a good shiur. Do you care about the...

Talmid in his problem, when it's not so gishmak, do you get into his private issues where he needs your help, where it's not so glamorous? Aharon was being taught, avodas kohen means not only in the Beis Hamikdash, but avodas kohen means even this. Otherwise, the peltike zach. You know, what did Chazal say? He gets the chav daled matnos kehunah. So what, he becomes an eved for...? Imagine you pay a person to work from nine to seven. When he finishes working at seven o'clock, you tell him, Okay, now come and clean my car and mop my floor. The guy says, What are you talking about? I finished my job. No, I pay you. What do you mean? If I pay you, you have to go do... So what was the answer in the Chazal? Moshe Rabbeinu saying, Why should Aharon do this? And the answer is he gets chav daled matnos kehunah. I don't understand, but he gets that for doing the avodah in the Beis Hamikdash. What does he get chav daled matnos kehunah for the avodah in the Beis Hamikdash, right? You hear? Chav daled. So what, he has to do this also? First of all, how much is chav daled matnos kehunah? It's peanuts. And you think they always got it? The Gemara says, Kohen machzer b'beis hagranos. They used to have to run around to get it. Talk for kohen. The whole sugya, talk for kohen, because the guy doesn't want to give it to the kohen. He doesn't want to give the bechor to the kohen. You think it was easy for the kohanim to get paid? No one ever gets paid easy. It's always, I'll have it for you tomorrow. It's always that way. So what's the pshat he gets chav daled matnos kehunah? So the Chofetz Chaim understood from this achrayus, shibud. You owe it to them. And owing means to the end. And he says this yesod, that a rav of a kehillah that gets paid from the kehillah, it says achrayus, not just to, you know, say a nice drasha, but to be responsible, even in the tumah v'taharah, even to get into the till the end. Azoi zogt the Chofetz Chaim in the Igros. He learns it from this medrash, that if you take, you owe, and you owe means to the end. Not just, I make a ... You got to take care of the tumah and taharah of the tzaraas. That's how far it goes. But it's a chayri, the kasha, a good kasha. Why does he owe? Why? Why is it that if a person gets paid to do the avodah, it's not enough the avodah that he does; he has to do more takkeh. He has to wash down the floors of the balabos. What does he have to come home now and do his errands at home also? What does it mean? Maybe ... pshat. My zeiden, the hakdamah to his sefer Meitzach Harim, brings a gevaldige pshat, and people, you know, say it over, it's like one of the famous pshatim. It's basically a mashal also. He says, why is it that birchas kohanim was given to the kohanim? It should be given to the Gedolei Yisrael. Who's a kohen already? He could be a simple guy, a kohen. You know, when I realized how strong this question is, there was a person once wrote an article that he was a kohen from America. He went to Eretz Yisrael, and he davened in Reb Elyashiv's minyan on Yontif. He writes what it felt like to sit there and give the Gadol Hador a bracha, and the Gadol Hador tells him, Yasher koach, thank you for the gevaldige bracha, while in essence it should have been the other way around. He came to Reb Elyashiv to get a bracha. And it struck me that this is the kasha that Maaseh Eden is asking in the sefer. Why is birchas kohanim given to the kohen? It should be given to the Klal Yisrael. So Maaseh Eden says a pshat there, and I think the Maharsha also says kimat the same words, that the pshat is you need levarech es Am Yisrael b'ahavah. It has to come from love. Where does the money of the kohen come from? From Klal Yisrael. So in order to bring out that it's with all his heart that he gives the bracha, it has to be that he gets from the bracha, because in return he gets the matnos kehunah. So then he'll give it with all his heart. Chazal wanted, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the Torah wanted that the bracha should be with everything he has, being that the matnos kehunah comes from the Yisrael, so when he gives the bracha, it's going to be...

With everything that he has in his heart, full, full bracha, I believe that this is what the Chazal are saying. And this could be the pshat. Moshe Rabbeinu doesn't understand why is it that Aaron has to be busy with the tumah and taharah. And the Torah says the chav daled matnos kehunah mean that he's devoted to Klal Yisroel. The ahavah comes from the chav daled matnos kehunah, like the Maharsha says. And in order to take care of the tumah taharah, you needed the ahavah. That's the pshat. Another person, he can't have that ahavah, and ממילא you can't say tamei atah. The goyim needed that the kohen should deal with the person b'ahavah, and the relationship of the kohen with the person was b'ahavah because of the chav daled matnos kehunah. That's what I think the taich is, the Chamoyridike taich. Here, the Maharsha teaches us that the birchas kohanim b'ahavah is based on the chav daled matnos kehunah. In order to deal with tumah and taharah of another person, and in order to be able to tell him he's tamei, or to care about the fact that he's tamei, you have to put yourself into his matzav and to care about him. That comes from the chav daled matnos kehunah. That was the kesher. That created the kesher between the kohen and Klal Yisroel, that it was b'ahavah. And this was a lesson. This was a lesson to the Mitzri. You spoke against this one and that one. The kohen has no right to talk to you even, unless he has a hava. And I'll tell you more. The Chazon Ish brings down a meyudike chiddush. It says in the pasuk, V'raahu hakohen. The kohen should see him, and he tells him if he's tamei and tahor. He sees him. Who is it referring to? The person, says the Chazon Ish, a shaila. Why does the kohen have to look at the person? It's an erchin. In the beginning in the Chazon Ish in Erchin, why does he have to look? Is it because of the psak halacha, because you can't pasken unless you look at the person? Says Chazon Ish, it can't be. You know why? Because we just said that who's paskening? The chacham. So it's not the kohen, the shayta. So then why is it v'raahu hakohen? Says the Chazon Ish, it's a special din in tumas and taharas metzora, that when you tell him tamei atah or tahor atah, you have to look at him. That's like the Chazon Ish. It can't be because you're paskening, so you have to see what you're paskening about. Otherwise, how could you pasken? They say over a cute story. I heard this from my zeide, zichrono livracha, that Reb Simcha Zissel Riger, Brisker Dayan, used to be meikel on all the chickens in town when they used to come to ask shailos. Everything was kosher. Now the Brisker Rav lived on the bottom of the house, of the apartment, and the top was Reb Simcha Zissel, Brisker Dayan. So when they would come to him to ask, they had to climb a ladder. There were no steps in the apartment; there was a ladder. So the Rav would come out and look at the shaila, the Brisker Rav would look at it, and then when they would come down afterwards with the teretz, the psak from Reb Simcha Zissel, the Brisker Rav would want to know, why didn't he pasken? And always was kosher. Every time it was a chicken, it was kosher. So it bothered the Brisker Rav, bothered him. How could it be that it's always kosher? It doesn't make sense. So he said he's going to already give a zittel, a Yiddish shtickel, which means he'll give him a sharp jab. He's going to tell him something already when he gets the right opportunity. He said they met at a simcha, and he says, Brisker dayin zog mir, how could it be that every single chicken is kosher? Every she'eilah is kosher? So the simchas Yisrael answered him, Mamon Yisrael. It's the money of—unfortunately people are poor and you have to care for their money, Klal Yisrael's money, and therefore we have to find a heter on everything. We have to look to always be matir. So Brisker Rav says, Brisker dayin, un vos iz mit gezunt fun Klal Yisrael? What do you mean? Gezunt means the health of Klal Yisrael. Why do you make the poor old women climb the steps? Put a sign on the bottom, Alles is kosher. It's all kosher, and then what do you have to climb the steps? You say you don't care. You said you care about Klal Yisrael, so why do you care about their health? It's difficult to climb the steps. Put a sign on the bottom of the steps. You should know l'chatchila that it's all kosher anyway.

Which meant to say was without even looking at the shailah. You have to look at the shailah before you pasken halacha. So when the kohen looks at the person, the kohen's looking at him because he has to pasken. Frekt the Chazon Ish, but not in this case. In this case that he's a katan or a shoteh, the chacham is paskening. So why still is there a din v'ro'ah hakohen? Says Chazon Ish, efsher k'minhagin. It's a special din that you have to look him in the face and tell him tamei or tahor. It's a major lesson, rabboisai. You know, you talk about people, you never look at them. Never look at the person. Why don't you look at the person who you're talking about, and then talk to him? Then say what you have to say. They say over a ma'aseh, a story of a Rebbe who went to a menahel, to another mechashev, complaining that he can't be mashpia on a certain talmid. He's trying so hard on this talmid and it's not going. So the regadel asked him, What color eyes does he have? He goes, What? What kind of question? What's the negea what color eyes? He says, No, tell me, what color eyes does he have? He said, I don't know. If you don't look him in the eyes and you don't connect, how do you expect to be mechanech him? Don't look at the person. How do you expect to talk to him? Who are you talking to and about? V'ro'ah hakohen. The kohen has to look at the person. Look who you're talking about. And then say, if he's tamei or tahor. These were lessons. Who's dealing with you? Aharon HaKohen. The Torah says, not an average person off the street, because he's not going to do it b'ahavah. And when he talks to you, he's talking to you, he's looking at the person, he's summing you up. You're a person. I'm seeing who I'm talking to, not a tamei, a tamei tahor, yeah, one after like a factory, a tamei-tahor factory. No. This was all part of the taharah, of the cleaning process of the Kohen, of the metzora. In the pasuk it says, V'hizkir haKohen es hanega. What does it mean, V'hizkir haKohen es hanega? He locks up the nega? He locks up the person, not the nega. So the Kesav V'Kabbalah asks this for a question. It should have said, V'hizkir haKohen es hanegua, not es hanega. See, he tries to say maybe nega refers to the person, nega, negua. He goes through dikduk, because there's a very famous Kesav V'Kabbalah's derech is the dikduk. So I saw it's brought down, I don't know the name of the mechaber, he brings a certain sefer I saw, I don't know who it is, but a beautiful pshat. It's not my pshat. V'ra'ah hanega, V'hizkir es hanega. Don't look at the person, look at the nega. It's not the person, it's the person that has a nega. Sometimes, what do we do? We make the whole person. Ah, the person's a Yid, a tayere Yid. He, grada, has a nega. V'hizgir. What are you locking up? Not the person. Who are you putting away? Not the person. The Kohen is teaching what it means, yachas to another Yid. When you see fault, it's the fault, not the person. V'tamei chata'im b'lo chaitim. That's v'hizgir es hanega. You lock away the nega. The Yid, in your eyes, the Yid is not in a geulah. The Yid is asher boi nega. That was—these were all lessons for tzaraas, for lashon hara. Learn, learn. You know, I'll tell you a ma'aseh dikke zach. Rav Yehuda Levenberg, shlita, the Imrei Chein, my friend, I go visit his father from time to time. He's now in Lakewood. His father was a Rosh Yeshiva in Connecticut. His grandfather was a big rav in Europe. So he told me a ma'aseh, that his grandfather was sitting with the Chofetz Chaim, yeah, and the Chofetz Chaim sits, and there's a sefarim on the table. So the grandfather picked up one of the sefarim and he looks...

The pshat in it there didn't make much sense. Somebody, you know, the guy, the mechaber, wrote a stupid thing. So the grandfather, I think his name was Reb Baks or something, he says, Eh, look at the narishkeit the guy wrote. Narishkeit. So he turns to the Chofetz Chaim and he says, קוקט, look, look what the guy wrote. It's a narishkeit in the sefer, a stupid pshat. The Chofetz Chaim turned his head. He didn't want to see it. He takes the sefer, he closes, he puts it down. He didn't want to see. So he asks him, Aber Chofetz Chaim, it's not lashon hara, because it's a milsa d'avida ligluyei. Something you're writing in a sefer is not lashon hara. It's out in the open. And something that's out in the open, so in halacha it's not lashon hara. You know what the Chofetz Chaim answered? Bizgerecht. What dafke does visen? Why do I have to know this for? Why do I have to see a bad thing about another person? What do I need it for? Yeah? You're listening, rabosai, what it means how to look at another person. Why should you see bad in another person? Why should you do it? Aharon HaKohen's midah was that even if he had a nega, he doesn't focus on the person; he focuses on the nega. The Yid is gevaldig. The Yid is beautiful. The Yid is beautiful. The Yid has a problem, that he has a nega. It's true. That's the taich in the middos of yadus, the gisha, the approach that the Torah wants we should have when it comes to seeing bad and fault in another person. Sometimes it's there. Sometimes you can't deny it. It's the fault. Yitamu chataim v'lo chotim. Now I want to show you a peladike thing about nigei batim. You know, it's interesting. We just said that nigei batim, according to one man d'amar, lo hoyu v'lo nivra. But at the same time, we know that it's the beginning process, that first it goes to the batim, then it goes to the keilim, and then it goes. So what happened to nigei adam? There was no nigei adam either, according to this man d'amar? What happened? Obviously, if there's no nigei batim and it's only droisha kabl schar, unless this man d'amar holds it doesn't go in such a seder. Maybe. I mean, you see there was arba metzoraim. You see we find metzoraim in the Torah. You can't come and say there was no such thing as metzora. Maybe even more perplexing. The Torah tells us, V'nasati eretz achuzah, I give you an eretz achuzah. Then it says, V'nasati tzaraas, I'll give tzaraas b'vateichem. The word v'nasati, Chazal understand, is a besorah. It's a good—it's almost like giving you good news. So Rashi right away points out, what's the good news in nigei batim? That there's an otzer. The Amoraim used to leave in the walls gold, treasures, and when you would break your house down, you would get a treasure. I have a question. If the Ribono Shel Olam wants that we should get rich, you don't think He has a better way to do it? That a guy who does an aveirah, speaking lashon hara, should walk away with a treasure. Does that make sense? Give it to a tzaddik. Don't give it to... You know, if you tell this to people, you have a whole line of people ready to speak lashon hara. Who's not going to speak lashon hara? You tell a guy he becomes a millionaire for speaking lashon hara. Who's not going to join up on line for this? This is a tremendous thing. Here, rabosai, somebody is a shaila. The Eibishter wants to give you, nigeh, a treasure. You know how he can give you a treasure? A person walks into his house and he builds a maka or he puts up a mezuzah, something else, and then you'll get the treasure. Why is it that nigei batim come from an aveirah, and that aveirah brings you a treasure? So I'll tell you, rabosai, what I think the pshat is. There's something unique about nigei batim. First it's the first step. Nigei batim is the first step, then comes nigei keilim, and then comes nigei adam. By nigei batim, it says that the person comes to the kohen, uva el hakohen, and he says, K'nega nirah li babayis. When it speaks about nigei adam, which was last week's parsha, the beginning, it says, V'huva el hakohen. When he has the tzaraas, he's brought to the kohen. The Ramban explains based on...

Chazal, what is v'huva ba'korchoi? He has to be forced to the Kohen, which means, says the Ramban, this person, it cleaned up already. It's already after the tzaraas already went away. Now he has to bring his korbanos to ha'ira. He's a no-show. He doesn't show up. V'huva, you have to force him to the Kohen. So there's a ma'irdik pshat from the Fridiker Rebbe, the Rambaz, the early people, the early Acharonim talk about it, that there's a very essential difference. Nigei batim is the first step, and what does he do? He runs to the Kohen. When a person gets a nega, and he learns from it, and he takes it serious, and he runs to the Kohen, so then the Ribono Shel Olam says, There's a treasure waiting for you. He didn't learn his lesson by nigei batim. He got nigei keilim. He didn't learn his lesson by nigei keilim. He got nigei adam. He still doesn't learn his lesson because he's not ready to bring the korbanos. He's stubborn. V'huva la'kohen. You don't get the treasure. When a person gets a sign from Shamayim and he learns from it, and he learns from it, then the Ribono Shel Olam says, There's a treasure waiting for you. That's the pshat, I believe, also, k'nega nirah li babayis. What is k'nega? So Chazal say a person should always talk light, don't say clear. So the Sifsei Chachamim explains, l'olam yilmad adam lomar lashon safek. A person should always say, Maybe, you know for sure it's a nega. I believe, Rabosai, m'kan zoger a ma'irdik pshat. Even the nega's not so clear. So you know what another person does? He excuses it away. Ah, it's nothing. Ah, it was raining. Ah, this, no, it got dirty, the birds. He has a million excuses, you hear? He comes and he says, Kohen k'nega. Something is wrong. Even something, I see something is wrong. That's when you get your treasure. Nigei batim was a yesod of k'nega, nireli, uva lakohen. He comes running to the kohen. Something is a p'shnishgerecht. Something is not right. And it doesn't have to be mamash a nega, nireli, my boys. It could even be k'nega, like a nega, nireli, my boys. When a person doesn't learn, so it goes further and further, stubborn, to the point of uva lakohen. He still hasn't learned his lesson. Then there's no treasure waiting for you. I say, they told me over that Rabbi Yerucham used to say a shmuez. It's not in any of the sefarim. Why? Because it's a joke. And Rabbi Yerucham was very serious, so for him to say a joke, it never made it into the sefarim. But when he said, he holds shmuez about a certain type of joke, and that was that there was once a person who came into a restaurant. He came to a restaurant, and they put him out the meat on the table, and he gives a whiff. It wasn't fresh. So he calls the waiter, Waiter, come here. The meat, not fresh. So the waiter whispers in his ear, Let me give you good advice. Eat it. Eat it. Why? Because if you don't eat it today... With the meat, you'll get it tomorrow in the blintzes. If you don't eat it tomorrow in the blintzes, you'll get it the third day in the kreplach. So you can end up eating it anyway. So you might as well get it over and done with two days earlier. But it's not as bad; it's going to be in three days. Nigei batim, that's step one. You still didn't learn your lesson, then you get in the second day in the blintzes, nigei keilim. Yeah? You don't eat it in the nigei keilim, you're going to get it. Eventually you're going to eat this lesson. The shailah is, how much are you going to prolong it? But the lesson is going to come. So the person who learns the lesson right away is an oitzer. And what is that oitzer? So if it's physical and the parsha happened, so then we can come and say, Takah get, the Ribono Shel Olam gives you a matanah. But let's say we say it's droish v'kabel schar, never happened, nigei batim. So then what's the oitzer? What does it mean? So the truth is, if you look at the Gemara Horiyos, the Gemara Horiyos never talks about the oitzer. You know what the Gemara says? V'nasati — it's a besurah, ay, it's a nega, so you see even on bad it's shayach besurah. That's the Gemara Horiyos daf yud, that's the whole Gemara. The Rishonim come and say, Yeah, but...

It's bad? It's not really bad because you'll get an oitzer. But that's not what the Gemara is trying to prove. You look at Rav Schwab's sefer, Mein Beis HaShevi, he discusses this, that l'choira that's not what the Gemara wants. The Gemara is trying to say it's not good, and still it's called a... it's still called a besurah toiva, a good piece of news. What's the pshat? I'll tell you what the pshat is. When yisurim come and you don't know who gives it, it's very bad, the yisurim. But when the yisurim come and you know that it's the Eibishter talking to you, then it's called a besurah toiva. That's what it means, v'nasati. You're right, you're talking about nega tzaraas, but it still could be a besurah when you know, I believe that's the pshat, v'nasati. Just like v'nasati eretz achuzaschem, v'nasati nega tzaraas, it's the same v'nasati. It's that I'm giving it to you. The problem is when you see the yisurim and you don't know who's giving it to you. You don't see the Eibishter, that the Eibishter is talking to you, then it's very painful. That itself is the geres the oitzer. That's the drosh v'kabel schar in the nigei batim, because the person is learning, and that's only by nigei batim, because the person is learning that it's from the Ribono Shel Olam. Nigei adam is too late because the guy is denying, denying, denying, denying. So there's no oitzer in that. Then it becomes negaim, which is very painful, which is chashuv k'meis. That's chashuv k'meis. Nigei adam is called chashuv k'meis. A person who has tzaraas is chashuv k'meis, because the pshat is he's sick. Deathly sick, without seeing the Eibishter, so he's like a meis. The nigei batim is the person, the Ribono Shel Olam is talking to him. You know, Reb Shamshon Raphael Hirsch says, What's the taich of nega? What is the translation? He says it's loshon negiah. That the Eibishter touches the person, taps him. Wake up. Wake up, I'm talking to you. Hello, I'm here. Where are you? Loshon negiah, a nega. And that's the pshat, k'nega nirah li babayis. I see that the Eibishter is talking to me. I don't know what. They say over that Reb Eliyahu Lopian once fell. Once fell. So they wanted to help him to get up. He said, No, I'm okay. I can get up myself. They said, So why aren't you getting up? You look like you're just laying there. He says, I'm not going to get up till I understand why the Ribono Shel Olam made me fall. Ribono Shel Olam is talking to me. Ribono Shel Olam is saying something. What? And a person has to learn to live that way. And when he learns to live that way, v'nasati, that the Eibishter is giving him a nega, b'veis eretz achuzaschem, that itself is the greatest oisher. That itself is the biggest reward, the biggest treasure that a person could live with. You don't listen to that, the Ribono Shel Olam will give you further and more pach and more pach and more pach till the end. You're going to have to be forced. That's choshech k'meis. Then the yisurim become unbearable for you. You know, it says in the pasuk, U'pinu es habayis. U'pinu es habayis. Who does it? So the Even Ezra says it doesn't say he, but it says, u'pinu lashon rabim, him and the bnei habayis, which means that the baal habayis, the person, and the people in the house also should clean out the house. Says that why? Because it's like this will go quicker. It's interesting. In my house, if I ask any of my children to do anything, it takes much longer. You're better off to send them out of the house and let the cleaning lady do it. U'pinu has avayis because everybody helps. I'm joking, but the point is it's possible that there's another reason why pinu, that everybody in the home has to be involved. And the pshat, rabosai, is because everybody is involved. The Ribono Shel Olam gives a nega in a house, He's talking to everybody in the house. You think that, let's say, one person speaks lashon hara, yeah? So he's the baal habayis, he got punished. The people around him are also being taught a lesson, because the Ribono Shel Olam is teaching everybody. And I'll tell you where I got this from. The Siforno says a megedike zach: Beterem yavo hakohen el habayis, before the kohen comes to the house, they clean up the house. Says the Siforno, he comes slowly. The kohen shouldn't rush. Why not?

Says it's important to give the person time l'hispalel, the lashon of teshuva, v'gam lakohen l'hispalel. It's giving time for both the person who owns the house, he should daven and do teshuva, as well as the kohen should daven. So I was thinking, who's he davening for? What, he's davening maybe, maybe he's davening for the other, for the person that unfortunately might lose his house. Is that what it means? Tell me, could the kohen come and daven and it'll be ois nega? I mean, what's he davening for? I don't understand what the... Bishlema the person, he's davening teshuva. He's in trouble. But what's the kohen davening? Ella mai, maybe the kohen davening that it shouldn't be a nega, it'll change? Maybe. There's a whole Chazon Ish, could a person daven for yenem's ruchniyus? Whole shaila about it. Why? Because since it's talui b'lev adam, so how could I daven that he should be okay in ruchniyus? Maybe this is what the kohen's davening, that the person should do teshuva. That just like the person is davening and doing teshuva, the kohen's davening with him that he should be chozer b'teshuva. Maybe. Oi dilma, we could say another pshat. The kohen who sees this is also affected. The Ribono Shel Olam is talking to the kohen too, that he had to see this. He also has to daven. There's a ma'aseh from the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov was walking in the street, and he saw chilul Shabbos, and he said, Why? Ribono Shel Olam, what are You showing me with this? Why did I have to see chilul Shabbos? He said, I was never mechalel Shabbos. It has nothing to do with that. But we know a Talmud Chacham is bechinas Shabbos, and all the zohar and all the Kabbalah, Talmud Chacham is called Shabbos. Maybe I was mevazeh a Talmud Chacham, and therefore the Ribono Shel Olam is teaching me a lesson that I saw chilul Shabbos, to learn to be me'orer me, that I should misaken this nekudah. The kohen who's involved, who has to come and see the nega, he also has to daven, because he has to be nisragesh in his sor from what he saw, because the Ribono Shel Olam is talking to him too. That's the pshat. Otherwise, what's he davening? Why davening? It shouldn't be a nega, or maybe he's davening for the poor guy who's going to lose his house. I hear all that. Maybe it's all together, that the person davens, and he does teshuvah, and the kohen davens with him, because he has to be nisor; something is here. Chazal tell us, if you look further, how does it work? They break the stones and they put afar, right? Who does all this? It doesn't say who does it. So Chazal tell us, the shecheinim, the neighbors, have to take the afar and fill up the house. Says the Chazal, where does this come from? Oil rachash oil l'shecheinai. I think the pshat, rabosai, is the same deher. When the tzaraas happens to a neighbor, it's not only the neighbor that's getting this lesson. The tzaraas is for everybody to learn. The Ribono Shel Olam is talking to everybody in the vicinity. That's pshat, oil rachash oil l'shecheinai. So they're also part of it. They're also a chelek of it, because the Ribono Shel Olam talks klaliyus to everybody, to everybody. These are the lessons of tumas tzaraas. These are the lessons of tzaras habegadim, tzaras habatim. A person was supposed to learn. In lashon hara, you want to know something? The Gemara says it's הורג שלושה, kills three people. Who does it kill? The sayer, the listener, and the person you said it about. I'm thinking to myself, what other aveirah does everybody get included? Not a peldig is that. What other aveirah could you do that every person I speak against the neighbors, to the neighbors, so the whole neighborhood is nagua in lashon hara. This is the lesson, that the tzaras doesn't happen to one person. Tzaras happens to the entire machaneh. Tzaras happens to the entire neighborhood. The lessons of the tzaras might be physically, we don't have it today. Physically, we don't have it today. I want you to know how far it goes. It's interesting, we said that the whole inyan of the tzaras of batim is doresh mekabel schar. The goyim says that merumaz in this inyan of nigei batim is gilgulim. He says that a person only comes down three...

Gets only three chances. By the fourth time, you don't get a chance anymore. And he says, this is nigei batim. There's three weeks. They keep on breaking the stones, and by the fourth time it's finished. He says, V'hu yesod hagilgulim, merumaz d'inyan of gilgulim. You look at the Sefurna. Sefurna says merumaz for the three batei Mikdash: the first one, then the second one, and then the third one, which will be the ultimate taharah, he says. So I'm thinking to myself, what's the remez of gilgulim, and what's the remez of Beis HaMikdash? And I'll tell you, meirdik, because with this we'll end. The Gaon learns that if you take a look, there's a certain tumah tzaraas, right? What's the tumah tzaraas? The lashon hara. Says the Gaon, Adam, the whole metzius of Adam is that he talks. So when you mevatel Adam, he's like a meis. What makes Adam? It's a Gaon, famous Gaon. Therefore, the chet halashon causes mamash like misa, like tzaraas, like you're dead. You're not Adam anymore. We also know that the Beis HaMikdash was charev because of the inyan of sinas chinam. So I believe that Chachamim are telling us that in the nigei batim, it's merumaz the two inyanim. One is the Adam, gilgulim, the tikkun haAdam. Why do we come to this world? We come to this world to be mashlim Adam, to fix what we destroyed. And we weren't mekayem the first time. In chet ha-lashon is make it or break it of Adam. Also, the inyan of the sinas chinam, the inyan of the sinas chinam was machriv the Batei Mikdash. So according to Seforno, in the nigei batim, which comes from lashon hara, is merumaz the churban habayis also. So you see, nigei batim is tremendous lessons, that yesod ha'adam and yesod haMikdash is תלויה in the parsha of nigei batim. And this all linked in, הישמר לך בנגע הצרעת, to be misbonen, to see and understand the lesson of the drash v'kabel sachar, the inyan of nigei batim. Let's taka take the lessons. You know, shmiras halashon. What is shmiras halashon? It's Adam. It's who the person is. With it, you have shleimus of a person. Without it, churban, meis. It's k'mat like you're not alive anymore, to the point that we're meramez the inyan of gilgul, that you have to come back down again, l'saken, in the inyan over here by nigei batim, by lashon hara. This, l'choira, is the lessons of the lashon hara. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.