פרשת תזריע - מצורע תש"כ - צרעת

How is a house examined? (Leviticus 14:35) "The one who owns the house comes and tells the priest saying, Something like a Nega has appeared in my house." Even a learned person who knows that it is definitely a Nega, cannot declare and say, "a Nega has appeared in my house," but rather he must say, "Something like a Nega has appeared in my house." (Leviticus 14:36) "The priest commands the house to be emptied (before the priest comes to see the house so that everything in the house will not become impure and then the priest comes to examine the house"). Even bundles of wood and bundles of reeds, says Rabbi Yehuda. Rabbi Shimon says is he being kept busy emptying out his house? Rabbi Meir says, What of his property becomes impure? If you want to say his wooden utensils, his clothing, and his metal objects, he can immerse them and they will become pure. For which items was the Torah concerned? For his earthenware vessels, his small jugs and his oil dropper. If the Torah was so concerned for his less valuable objects, how much more so for his valuable objects. If so for his money, how much more so for the lives of his sons and daughters. If so for what belongs to a wicked person, how much more so for what belongs to a righteous person.

ולא יטמא כל אשר בבית THAT ALL THAT IS IN THE HOUSE BE NOT MADE UNCLEAN, for if he does not clear it out and the priest comes and examines the plague, it requires shutting up and all that is inside immediately becomes unclean. To what is it that the Torah has regard in orderiny these precautions to be taken? If it had in mind wooden or metal vessels that need only be rinsed in order to restore them to cleanness, he can immerse them and they will become clean (and there is no need to remove them from the house for fear that they will become unclean if he does not do so), and if it has in mind food and liquids, he can eat them during the time of his uncleanness (in which case also he suffers no loss since he may consume them at a time when he himself happens to be unclean). Consequently it follows that the Torah must have regard only to earthen vessels for which there is no means of purification by immersion in a ritual bath (cf. Rashi on Leviticus 11:35) and which therefore will remain unusable except in connection with ordinary food (חולין) (Sifra, Metzora, Section 5 12).

The Hebrew term for leprosy is a homonym embracing various meanings. The whiteness in a man's skin is called leprosy; the falling off of some hair on the head or the chin is named leprosy; and a change of color in clothing or in houses is referred to as leprosy. Now this change in clothes and in houses which the Torah has called leprosy, as a homonym, is not a natural phenomenon, but was deemed a sign and a wonder among the people of Israel to warn them against evil gossip. If a man dealt out malicious gossip, the walls of his house would change; if he repented, the house would become clean again. But if he persisted in his wickedness until the house was demolished, leather objects in his home upon which he would sit or lie would then suffer a change; if he repented, they would become clean again. But if he persisted in his wickedness until they had to be burned, the clothes which he wore would undergo a change; if he repented, they would become clean again. But if he persisted in his wickedness until they had to be burned, his skin would suffer a change and he would become leprous, and be set apart and exposed all alone, so as not to engage in evil talk, which consists of mockery and malicious gossip.
In warning against this, the Torah says: "In an attack of leprosy you shall be careful… Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the journey" (Deuteronomy 24:8-9). The Torah means to say: Consider what happened to Miriam the prophetess who spoke against her brother, even though she was older than he, and had nurtured him on her knees after having endangered her life to save him from the sea. Now she did not disparage him but made the only mistake in placing him on a level with other prophets, and he did not mind all this, as it is written: "Moses was a very humble man" (Numbers 12:3). And yet, she was immediately punished with leprosy. How much more then is this applicable to evil men, those fools, who keep talking arrogantly and boastfully.
It is therefore proper for the man who would steer his course of life aright to shun their company and refrain from talking with them, that he should not be caught in the net of evil and arrogant men. The company of wicked mockers follows this usage: At the outset, they indulge in much idle talk, as it is written: "A fool's voice comes with a multitude of words" (Ecclesiastes 5:2). Thereupon they fall into discrediting the upright, as it is written: "Let dumbness strike the lying lips that speak insolence against the just" (Psalm 31:19). Then they get into the habit of talking against the prophets and discrediting their words, as it is written: "They mocked God's messengers, despised his words, and derided his prophets" (II Chronicles 36:16). Then they come to speak against God and to deny the very principle of religion, as it is written: "The Israelites devised things that were not right against the Lord their God" (II Kings 17:9). It is written moreover: "They set their mouthings against heaven, and their tongue roams the earth" (Psalm 73:9). What caused them to set their mouthings against heaven? Their tongue, which first roamed the earth. Such is the conversation of the wicked, occasioned by their sitting at street corners, the meeting places of the ignorant, and the company of drunkards in the taverns. The conversation of worthy Jews, on the other hand, is permeated with words of Torah and wisdom. For this reason, God lends them aid and bestows wisdom upon them, as it is written: "When those who revered the Lord spoke to each other, the Lord heeded and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who revered the Lord and ahhered to him" (Malachi 3:16).

Another interpretation: "This shall be the law for a leper" - this is what is written (Psalms 36:13), "Who is the man who desires life?" There is a story of a peddler who would go around to towns that were close to Tzippori. He would shout out and say, "Who wants to buy the [potion] of life?" They would [all] cling to him. Rabbi Yannai was sitting and interpreting [texts] in his reception room [and] heard him shouting out, "Who wants to buy the [potion] of life?" [Rabbi Yannai] said, "Come down to here, sell [it] to me." He said [back] to him, "You do not need it and those like you do not [need it]." [Nonetheless,] he made the effort to come and go down to him. He took out a book of Psalms and showed him the verse, "Who is the man who desires life?" [The peddler said,] "What is written after it - 'guard your tongue from evil [...] Turn away from evil and do good' (Psalms 34:14-15)." Rabbi Yannai said, "Shlomo also shouted out and said (Proverbs 21:23), 'He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles.'" Rabbi Yannai said "All of my days I was reading this verse and I did not know how to interpret it until this peddler came and made it understood - 'Who is the man who desires life?'" Therefore, Moshe warns Israel and says to them, "This shall be the law for a leper (metsora)" - the law of the one that gives out a bad name (motsee shem) [to another].

Another interpretation: "This shall be the law for a leper" - this is what is written (Job 20:6), "If his height ascends to the heavens and his head reaches the clouds."