By Ezra N. Rich

“Go to your room! Now!”

While children may be forced to sit and reflect on their actions during a timeout or detention, adults are often too busy to intentionally choose some silence.

This week’s double-parshah (Torah portion) of Tazria-Metzorah features the laws of tzarat (often translated as leprosy, but actually different from the disease), a condition that could manifest itself on a person’s skin, clothes, or walls. In addition to the different ways tzarat could present itself, the Rabbis understand this as an ailment one experiences due to their poor spiritual rather than physical health.

Shame vs. Guilt

In Studies in Spirituality, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z”l, observes that the Rabbis note that Miriam received tzarat when she said insinuating words about her brother Moshe (Moses). She was afflicted because she engaged in lashon harah, evil speak and her punishment was tzarat and it required her to quarantine outside the camp. 

Delving into this interesting affliction and punishment, Rabbi Sacks cites the anthropologist Ruth Benedict and her work comparing shame cultures (such as Ancient Greece and Japan) to guilt cultures (including Judaism and the religions it has influenced).

He writes, “In shame cultures, what matters is the judgement of others… you follow society’s conventions. If you fail to do so, society punishes you by subjecting you to shame, ridicule, disapproval, humiliation, and ostracism. In guilt cultures, what matters most is not what others think but what the voice of conscious tells you. Living morally means acting in accordance with internalized moral imperatives: ‘You shall’ and ‘You shall not.’ What matters is what you know to be right or wrong… Shame cultures are collective and conformist. By contrast, Judaism, the archetypal guilt culture, emphasizes the individual and his or her relationship with G-d. What matters is not whether we conform to the culture of the age but whether we do that is good, just, and right.”

As the exception that proves the rule, Rabbi Sacks notes tzarat as one of the rare examples of the Torah selecting a punishment by shame rather than by guilt, one where the one afflicted with tzarat was forced to temporarily live outside the bounds of the community. Alone in silence. They broke both the social code and didn’t behave they way one should before G-d. They had to face their guilt with the shame of separation.

While we don’t have tzarat nowadays, may its legacy motivate us to live proud Jewish lives with our guilt culture. May we always strive to do the right thing, knowing it is what G-d expects of us even if it isn’t in line with the style of the day.

Here’s to a restful Shabbat with time for silent contemplation.

Ezra N. Rich is Secretary of the Buffalo Jewish Federation and active with Temple Beth Tzedek.

In advance of observing Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day next week, he dedicates this Jewish Thought to his family and friends who have made Aliyah, those living in Israel, and his cousins and their peers currently serving in the IDF. Am Yisrael Chai.