52 | APRIL 11 • 2024
J
N
H
annah Smith was
a 14-year-old
schoolgirl living in
Lutterworth, Leicestershire.
Bright and outgoing, she
enjoyed an
active social life
and seemed to
have an exciting
future ahead
of her. On the
morning of Aug.
2, 2013, Hannah
was found
hanged in her bedroom. She
had died by suicide.
Seeking to unravel what
had happened, her family
soon discovered that she
had been the target of
anonymous abusive posts
on a social network website.
Hannah was a victim of the
latest variant of the oldest
story in human history: the
use of words as weapons by
those seeking to inflict pain.
The new version is called
cyber-bullying.
The Jewish phrase for this
kind of behavior is lashon
hara, evil speech, speech
about people that is negative
and derogatory. It means,
quite simply, speaking badly
about people, and is a subset
of the biblical prohibition
against spreading gossip.
Despite the fact that it
is not singled out in the
Torah for a prohibition in
its own right, the Sages
regarded it as one of the
worst of all sins. They said,
astonishingly, that it is as
bad as the three cardinal
sins — idolatry, murder and
incest — combined. More
significantly, in the context
of Hannah Smith, they said
it kills three people, the one
who says it, the one he says
it about and the one who
listens in.
The connection with
this week’s parshah is
straightforward. Tazria
and Metzora are about a
condition called tsara’at,
sometimes translated as
leprosy. The commentators
were puzzled as to what
this condition is and why
it should be given such
prominence in the Torah.
They concluded that it was
precisely because it was a
punishment for lashon hara,
derogatory speech.
Evidence for this is the
story of Miriam (Numbers
12:1), who spoke slightingly
about her brother Moses
“because of the Ethiopian
wife he had taken.” God
himself felt bound to defend
Moses’ honor and, as a
punishment, turned Miriam
leprous. Moses prayed
for God to heal her. God
mitigated the punishment to
seven days but did not annul
it entirely.
Clearly, this was no minor
matter, because Moses singles
it out among the teachings
he gives the next generation:
“Remember what the Lord
your God did to Miriam
along the way after you came
out of Egypt.” Deut. 24:9.
Oddly enough, Moses
himself, according to the
Sages, had been briefly
guilty of the same offense.
At the Burning Bush when
God challenged him to lead
the people, Moses replied,
“They will not believe in
me” (Ex. 4:1). God then gave
Moses three signs: water that
turned to blood, a staff that
became a snake and his hand
briefly turning leprous. We
find reference later in the
narrative to water turning to
blood and a staff turning into
a serpent, but none to a hand
that turns leprous.
The Sages, ever alert to
the nuances of the biblical
text, said that the hand that
turned leprous was not a sign
but a punishment. Moses
was being reprimanded for
“casting doubts against the
innocent” by saying that the
Israelites would not believe
in him. “They are believers,
the children of believers,”
said God according to the
Talmud, “but in the end you
will not believe.”
THE DANGERS OF
LASHON HARA
How dangerous lashon
hara can be is illustrated by
the story of Joseph and his
brothers. The Torah says that
he “brought an evil report”
to his father about some of
his brothers (Gen. 37:2). This
was not the only provocation
that led his brothers to plot
to kill him and eventually sell
him as a slave. There were
several other factors. But his
derogatory gossip did not
endear him to his siblings.
No less disastrous was
the “evil report” (dibah: the
Torah uses the same word as
it does in the case of Joseph)
brought back by the spies
about the land of Canaan and
its inhabitants (Num. 13:32).
Even after Moses’ prayers
to God for forgiveness, the
report delayed entry in the
land by almost 40 years
and condemned a whole
generation to die in the
wilderness.
Why is the Torah so severe
about lashon hara, branding
it as one of the worst of sins?
Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks
SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH
The Price
of Free Speech
PHOTO BY TAYLOR GROTE