After We Hit the Jackpot

What is a metzora?

Most would interpret the Hebrew word as “leper,” somebody afflicted with what is known as Hansen’s disease. The dictionary describes this as a bacterial infection with an incubation of up to 20 years that can damage everything from nerves, skin, lungs and eyes. Often, the facial skin thickens followed by lesions. Perhaps the worst part is that the victim no longer feels pain and is unaware of the injuries and infections that can destroy his arms and legs.

But that doesn’t adequately define the disease of a metzora, known in Hebrew as tzaraat. Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz,the 16th Century sage known by his commentary Kli Yakar, says tzaarat is a compound word — motzi rah, or “projecting evil.” “…the expunging of all the “hidden evil from the inside to the outside to expose the evil to the public.”

What is this hidden evil that turns a healthy man into a total mess? Shlomo Yitzhaki, or Rashi, does something highly unusual. In this week’s Torah portion of Metzora, the 11th Century sage addresses the causes of tzaraat in two consecutive commentaries on the same verse. And the reasons differ. In the first explanation, tzaraat is attributed to evil speech, known in Hebrew as lashon hora. In the second explanation, the cause of tzaraat stems from coarse behavior, or gaas ruach.

The Talmud usually associates lashon hora with one who betrays another to the authorities. Informing on friends and neighbors is as old as mankind and the backbone of a police state. But that doesn’t fit the context of this week’s Torah portion. Lashon hora could be described just as easily as idle chatter, such as “I hear Jim’s daughter got arrested last week for selling weed.” Unpleasant yes, but not dangerous.

Still, the tell-tale signs of idle chatter can grow to dangerous proportions. The rumors of Jim’s daughter’s arrest could transform into allegations that she’s cultivating peyote, a federal offense in the United States that carries a sentence of up to 30 years. That’s far more serious than the gossip around the water cooler.

Then there is the second cause of tzaarat — coarse behavior. Rashi doesn’t explain but the 17th Century Polish-born scholar Shabtai Bass does in his work Sifsei Chachamim, or the Lips of the Wise. The rabbi, whose family name was Shtrum, gives the background to a person with gass ruach. In this scenario, found later in the Torah portion of Metzora, the Israelites enter the Land of Canaan and defeat their enemies who abandon their homes. The Jews take up residence and find that the buildings contain tzaraat, a discoloration of the bricks that require their removal. What sin could possibly be the cause of such an affliction is unclear. But the Jew does his duty, summons the priest and the afflicted bricks are removed, revealing a treasure left by the fleeing Canaanites. This was G-d’s way of welcoming the Chosen People to their biblical homeland.

Sounds great. The Jews have hit the jackpot. They have homes, fields and now plenty of gold and silver. But there is danger lurking. Now, the Jews are wealthy, and they become haughty and crass. They replace devotion to the Almighty with an obsession for the almighty dollar. Friends, life and love are determined by a bank account. Here’s how the Sifsei Chachamim puts it:

He who has lots of money becomes coarse [gass ruach]. … [The Torah says] “Do not become coarse because of the great riches that I sent you in the walls of the house.”

Jack Whittaker lived this lesson. At 55, he had been a successful building contractor when he won $315 million in a lottery in West Virginia in 2002. Four years later, his life fell to rock bottom. He went bankrupt; his daughter and granddaughter died of drug overdoses. He was robbed of $545,000 outside a strip club. In the end, he wished he had torn up the lottery ticket.

“I don’t like Jack Whittaker,” he said in television interview. “I don’t like the hard heart I’ve got. I don’t like what I’ve become.”

What can vast wealth do to a little country. In 2024, Israel was ranked No. 52 in the world’s richest countries, beating out Japan and New Zealand — and this in the middle of a multi-front war. But the wealth accumulated by the top one percent left the majority of Israelis scrambling to make ends meet. Greed drove the cost of housing beyond the reach of young people. The rich became billionaires by selling their hi-tech companies to the Americans, gutting local industry. The gap in salaries became wider, with the top one percent earning up to 19 times that of the bottom 50 percent.

Overall, income inequality has remained at a very high level in Israel over the past 30 years. Liberalization reforms of the mid-1980s and 1990s led to a marked increase. While inequalities have slightly decreased since 2012, they remain at a very high level, in the context of a highly segregated society. [World Inequality Report 2022]

Great wealth without great responsibility turns people ugly, uncaring and unfeeling. That’s where tzaraat catches up to you. Your body might be slim; your hair dyed a youthful blonde. Your clothes flash the height of style. But your face exposes the symptoms of a life mired in greed. Leprosy could be cured by months or years of antibiotics. But the only remedy for tzaraat is remorse and humility. The Torah tells us to watch our tongue and respect our fellow man. Striking the jackpot is simply no excuse.