Is Hate Speech Like a Disease?

When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession, the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, “There seems to me to be some sort of disease in my house.” (Lev. 14:34-35)

In the Hebrew Scriptures the term tzara’at can refer to a variety of skin ailments (translated in various ways, e.g., ‘scaly skin’, ‘leprosy’). To the biblical mind it is not just a disease; it is associated with divine displeasure. It smites like a plague (Hebrew: nega) and causes ritual defilement that calls for a process of purification.

Which brings us to our focus for this week’s Torah portion, Leviticus 14:33-35. Here we find a great example of the creative genius of traditional Jewish approaches to the Bible, and how the sages are able to draw moral lessons from a single word or letter of the sacred text. One traditional interpretive approach has been to ponder the similarity of the Hebrew words m’tzora (‘leper’) and motzi ra (‘slanderer’). Thus, over time, this section of the Torah became an opportunity for Jewish rabbis to preach against the evils of gossip, slander and the misuse of speech to denigrate, hurt and destroy.

This section of the Torah became an opportunity for Jewish rabbis to preach against the evils of gossip, slander, and the misuse of speech to denigrate, hurt and destroy.

When I was growing up, the popular wisdom passed on to children was: 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.' This saying was well-intended, to encourage inner resilience in children in the face of playground bullies. However, the actual content of the saying is questionable.

As we know, nasty name-calling does indeed hurt, and can even destroy. Words aimed at humiliating or denigrating another human being diminishes not only the victim, but the perpetrator and the wider community as well. In a social media age, that harm is magnified beyond compare.

Further, as the history of antisemitism has shown time and again, violent words lead to violent actions. Whether it be Christians defaming Jews as ‘Christ-killers’, Nazi propaganda depicting Jews as ‘parasites’, or masked extremists and student protesters hurling abuse such as ‘Zionist scum’, hateful speech patterns - whether framed in religious, racial or political terms - have given rise to terrible acts of violence against Jews. Antisemitism, ‘the world’s oldest hatred’, can surely be thought of as a ‘plague’, as can the propensity for all forms of prejudice, racism and bigotry. It is fitting that this point come to mind today in the light of rabbinic interpretation of Leviticus 14:34-35.

Observes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:

“What an astonishing insight it was to see leprosy – that disfiguring disease – as a symbol and symptom of evil speech. For we truly are disfigured when we use words to condemn, not communicate; to close rather than open minds; when we use language as a weapon and wield it brutally. The message of Metzora [this week’s Torah portion] remains. Linguistic violence is no less savage than physical violence, and those who afflict others are themselves afflicted. Words wound. Insults injure. Evil speech destroys communities. Language is God’s greatest gift to humankind and it must be guarded if it is to heal, not harm.” •

Bibliography: Leibowitz, New Studies in Vayikra, (Jerusalem,1993); Plaut, The Torah. A Modern Commentary (New York, 2006). Sacks, ‘The Plague of Evil Speech’, Covenant & Conversation – Studies in Spirituality, Metzora, online Torah commentaries, 2007, 2015. Scripture: NRSV.

© Teresa Pirola, 2012, 2025. lightoftorah.net  Reproduction for non-commercial use permitted with acknowledgement of website.

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Light of Torah is a Sydney-based grassroots work, encouraging Christians to reflect on Torah with the help of Jewish insights. More...  The reflection above refers to this week's double Torah portion, Parashat Tazria-Metzora (Leviticus 12:1 - 15:33), read for this Sabbath in the Jewish liturgical cycle. Shabbat shalom!