This week’s Torah portion, Metzorah,(Leviticus chapters 14 through 15) is essentially part 2 (of 2) in that sequence on “leprosy” that most who would prefer to ignore it can’t even get the name right.
And this week, referencing Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective Sherlock Holmes, the key is in “the dog that did not bark.”
The actual “plague” described in Scripture as ‘tzaraat‘ literally hasn’t been seen for centuries, but it’s not like Yahuah did warn us – more than once – that He would “hide His face,” given the level of rebellion that has now gotten so bad that even Disney has given up trying to hide it.
Still, it has been suggested that this plague — which never REALLY was “leprosy”, or Hansen’s Disease, to begin with — was once associated with the Hebrew words “lashon hora,” for the “Evil Tongue.” And there’s actually a pretty good case to be made on that score.
But there’s an equally valid case to be made that the lesson of the “dog that did not bark,” is telling us something even more vital — in a time where we should heed that warning.
First, the Erev Shabbat survey of the entire parsha:
During the Sabbath day teaching, Mark asks a different question, for “such a time as this”:
IF tzaraat WAS a punishment, or ‘plague’, given by Yah to chasten His people for lashon hora – the ‘Evil Tongue’ – then Why, OH, WHY, doesn’t He today punish far more unbelievably Evil “Lies that KILL?”
Is the Whole Fetid WORLD so far gone and unclean that no one even merits chastening now? Has He ‘changed His mind” and decided to tolerate Evil Speech that is intended to kill literally billions? Or could it be that – as promised – He has “hidden His face?”
Mark suggests in this midrash that the Creator seemed to use tzaraat to chasten, to teach, and even to restore ‘right relationship.’
As the lessons of Scripture are ignored, it is educational – even shocking – to observe that we have moved SO far toward “calling Evil ‘good'” (and vice-versa) and so far beyond merely the ‘evil tongue’ to tongues that kill – en masse.
“Metzorah: Has He ‘hidden His face” EVEN from Lies That KILL?”
The combined two-part podcast is here, via Hebrew Nation Radio.
