Metzora (Shabbat Ha-Gadol): I Thought I Knew What Gossip Can Do...

This week, I want to thank Andy Szabo - a congregant, former Ohev president, and a good friend - for blowing my mind regarding this week's Torah portion. But I'll get to that

in a sec. The ancient rabbis did a very silly thing with our parashah. You see, we've arrived at one of (if not) the most cringe-worthy and unpleasant sections of the entire Torah. Metzora tells us about skin diseases, bodily discharges, and weird growths. It ain't pretty, folks. The Torah also gives us all kinds of sacrificial and purification rituals to employ in a Temple-based society to "cure" these afflictions. But even our most ancient rabbinic leaders were living in a post-Temple world, and they - like us - had no context for these funky ceremonies either! So they just "passed over" it altogether (Ha, ha!). They say that the name, Metzora, is a contraction of the Hebrew phrase, "Motzi-Sheim-Ra," which means "to draw out a bad name," i.e. gossip. Therefore, they assert, what we're really talking about here is punishment for slanderous speech. Physical illnesses were Divine penalties for inflammatory and/or defaming rhetoric. Well, that just doesn't sound right, does it?

Every year, this seems like such a cop-out to me. They just didn't want to talk about yucky rashes! The rabbis engineered the text to say something else entirely; what cheaters! And besides, we know that physical ailments do not come from gossiping; that's just silliness. That's not how life works;

nor is it how illness and health work... right? Enter Andrew Szabo... Andy wrote to me and also acknowledged the patently false statement that Lashon Ha-Ra, malicious speech, causes skin diseases: "Today, science has taught us to know better." But then, Andy pointed out the current national crisis of anti-vaccinations, or the groups sometimes referred to as "anti-vaxxers." He wrote: "Yet in today's world, the gossip of anti-vaccers [sic] are causing another form of leprosy, [namely] measles and mumps and chicken pox." And indeed, I completely concur, and I am so grateful to Andy for this fabulous insight. Gossip isn't just limited to "I saw so-and-so cheating on a test!" There is also a much, much more insidious form of gossip, and it is plaguing us all right now.

I find it tremendously upsetting and infuriating to hear about some of the misinformation that has been willfully spread about the "dangers" of vaccines. These range from

injections causing autism, to tissue from aborted fetuses being used in vaccines, to monkey, rat, and pig DNA being part of the serum injected into children. What is particularly toxic is that there sometimes is a kernel of truth somewhere deeeeeep inside this propaganda, which is then magnified into a massive conspiracy, often specifically targeted at enclave communities that are distrustful of outsiders and not always well-educated. This health crisis is indeed a real-life, modern-day manifestation of the rabbinic idea of "Motzi Sheim Ra" leading to Metzora! Hard to wrap your head around, I know, but here we are. The spreading of lies, misconstrued data, and debunked myths have indeed led to physical diseases. I won't list here all the reasons why the anti-vaxxer movement is incredibly dangerous and scary, but please do read about it online, if you aren't already familiar or aren't sure what to think.

Perhaps the most important lesson from Metzora is that we all live in a society. Our decisions affect what happens to others. We increase everyone's opportunities to survive and thrive when we work together.

We can do SO much good! And we can cause tremendous harm as well... especially when selfish behavior leads to disastrous decisions. Remember that we share our communities, and we share this planet. It doesn't just matter what's best for YOU and YOUR family. We all rely on one another, and we need to take that responsibility very, very seriously every, single day. This is also a startling, yet important, reminder that our words MATTER. What we say and share and post and tweet and promulgate; these can have real-life, direct, and serious consequences. Our definition of "gossip" needs to change, and so does our vigilance against allowing it to spread... and we need to start right now.


CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
1. mohamed hassan on pxhere.com
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wikimedia Commons
3. pixnio.com
4. Cavernia on Wikimedia Commons - picture of how "herd immunity" works...