{"id":45210,"date":"2018-12-04T18:23:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T16:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45210"},"modified":"2022-06-29T11:54:31","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T08:54:31","slug":"shaming-those-who-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/shaming-those-who-shame\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaming Those Who Shame"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[354,377],"acf":{"old_id":"45210","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"104","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Punishing perpetrators of a social not a medical disease","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Tsara\u2019at<\/em>, the condition dealt with at length in last week\u2019s parsha and this, has been variously translated as leprosy, skin disease, or scaly infection. Yet there are formidable problems in identifying it with any known disease. It affects not only human beings but also the walls of houses, furniture and clothes. There is no known medical condition that has this property.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sages decoded the mystery by relating our parsha to the instances in the Torah where someone was actually afflicted by <em>tsara\u2019at<\/em>. One happened when Miriam spoke against her brother Moses (Num. 12:1-15). Another occurred when Moses at the burning bush said to God that the Israelites would not believe in him. His hand briefly turned \u201cas leprous as snow\u201d (Ex. 4:7). The sages regarded <em>tsara\u2019at <\/em>as a punishment for <em>lashon hara<\/em>, evil speech, speaking negatively about or denigrating another person.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How are we to understand this? Why was \u201cevil speech\u201d regarded as so serious an offence that it took these strange phenomena to point to its existence? And why was it punished this way and not another?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The punishment for <em>lashon hara <\/em>was to be temporarily excluded from society by public exposure (the signs that appear on walls, furniture, clothes and skin), stigmatization and shame (the torn clothes etc.) and ostracism (being forced to live outside the camp). It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to punish the malicious gossiper using the normal conventions of law, courts and the establishment of guilt. This can be done in the case of <em>motsi shem ra<\/em>, libel or slander, because these are all cases of making a false statement. <em>Lashon hara<\/em> is more subtle. It is done not by falsehood but by insinuation. There are many ways of harming a person\u2019s reputation without actually telling a lie. Someone accused of lashon hara can easily say, \u201cI didn\u2019t say it, I didn\u2019t mean it, and even if I did, I did not say anything that was untrue.\u201d The best way of dealing with people who poison relationships without actually uttering falsehoods is by naming, shaming and shunning them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That, according to the sages, is what <em>tsara\u2019at<\/em> miraculously did in ancient times. It no longer exists in the form described in the Torah. But the use of the Internet and social media as instruments of public shaming illustrates both the power and the danger of a culture of shame. Only rarely does the Torah invoke it, and in the case of the <em>metzora<\/em> only by an act of God, not society. Yet the moral of the <em>metzora<\/em> remains. Malicious gossip, <em>lashon hara,<\/em> undermines relationships, erodes the social bond, and damages trust. It deserves to be exposed and shamed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Never speak ill of others, and stay far from those who do.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69688,"id":69688,"title":"jer9-snake tongue","filename":"jer9-snake-tongue.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/warning-your-tongue-is-a-deadly-weapon\/jer9-snake-tongue\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer9-snake-tongue","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69687,"date":"2020-02-04 14:28:37","modified":"2022-06-29 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