I am sure that very few of us have ever visited a nuclear facility, but have probably seen depictions on TV, in movies, documentaries, etc. Before entering a nuclear facility, you are required to wear a special detector to monitor your exposure to radiation. These detectors vary in form, either displaying a numeric value of the radiation level on a screen, or a green/yellow/red scale, or some other kind of color scheme – to show the level of radiation you have been exposed to. Since radiation is invisible, unless you have such a detector, you will not know if you have been exposed to it until it is too late. Such detectors are even readily available commercially, like on Amazon, for example.
Now imagine if Amazon sold another type of detector, that could monitor your level of speaking lashon hara. Imagine, a wearable type of necklace or bracelet that would monitor your speech during conversations with friends, family, work colleagues, etc., identifying if and when you begin to speak lashon hara and alerting you with a different color depending on the severity.
It is not so far-fetched. Have you ever noticed that after having a conversation with someone about something (for example, which baby clothes to buy for your newly born grandchild) with your smart phone present (even simply with the phone sitting in your pocket), you start to see adverts pop up in your Facebook and other social media pages for baby clothes. It is actually quite scary. Our smart phones are secretly monitoring everything we say, relaying the information to some company for the purpose of sending us targeted advertising – and who knows what else. A lashon hara app is not so far removed from that.
The amazing thing is that this technology (which has not literally been engineered yet, to the best of my knowledge) already exists, or more accurately – existed – in biblical times. It is mentioned in our parsha!
Tazria-Metzora discuss the various blemishes that afflict a person’s home, garments and skin which are a direct result of speaking lashon hara. G-d genetically encoded a detector into our DNA that would identify if we spoke lashon hara and send an alert message to the body to warn us, in the form of a blemish.
G-d does not immediately punish us or strike us down with a bolt of lightning if we speak lashon hara. He warns us in stages. First the warning signs appear on the walls of our homes in the form or stains/blemishes. If we fail to heed these warnings, the blemishes move closer to home, to our clothing and if we still fail to heed the warning, to our bodies – our skin/hair.
It is interesting to note the colors of these blemishes – yellow, red, green (also black and white). What do those colors remind you of? A traffic light! The people who invented and designed traffic lights in the late 19th and early 20th century obviously chose those colors for a specific reason. Why does red mean stop, green mean go, and yellow mean caution? Supposedly their selection was the result of consultation with experts in psychology who associate certain colors with emotions and with ophthalmologists who advised them which colors were more visible, etc. It is interesting though that these are the very colors mentioned in our parsha and their association is uncannily similar. The blemishes were a kind of a traffic light, telling us how to proceed.
If someone saw a blemish on their wall, coat or arm, they did not consult with a plasterer, a tailor or a doctor – they consulted with a Kohen. The blemishes were not malfunctions of construction, clothes making or poor diet – they had spiritual origins (speaking lashon hara). The spiritual expert was the Kohen.
Today we do not have these blemishes, they existed only in biblical times. Our body and neshama are not as in tune with G-d as when we were in the desert with Moshe Rabbeinu. When we speak lashon hara, we get no overt warning signs. The damage is the same as it was back then, but we are less aware of it. Perhaps that is why lashon hara has recently skyrocketed to such a frightening degree in Am Yisrael.
We have just celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut in Israel. “Celebrated” is not exactly the appropriate word, because recent events have cast a shadow on the celebrations. The ongoing seven-front war with our enemies, the unprecedented level of toxic lashon hara in the media and in the streets, between factions within our nation, in Israel and abroad.
If the most severe indicator on a traffic light is “red,” we have long passed this level and all accepted norms have gone out the window. We have passed the level of the different warning shades of color and are entering the territory of “black and white.” This is a blemish, not on our skin but on our nation and if we don’t wake up soon, reverse the toxic slander to a more manageable, tolerable level, with the end goal being to eliminate it altogether, we will be headed for disaster.
We need to take the initiative by duplicating the process mentioned in our parsha. The silent, sane, “responsible adult” majority in our nation can be silent no longer. We need to ostracize the small (but loud) minority of offenders (out of the camp) and at the same time daven for them to do teshuva. We need to take a step back from the brink and not repeat the mistakes of history, when our nation was torn apart and destroyed by hate two thousand years ago, resulting in two millennia of persecution and suffering.
G-d has given us a second chance, returned us to our ancestral homeland, gathered up our exiles and is helping us vanquish our enemies. Let’s not muck it up this time!
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: What was the “strange fire” that caused the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aharon?
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: The first pasuk in Shemini refers to the “eighth day?” Which “eighth day” is it referring to? The eighth day after the seven days of inauguration of the Mishkan.
