Chofetz Chaim says that we still have tsaraas-but that it’s on our soul.

If a person contracted tsaraas he was separated from k'lal Yisrael-he was forced to reside michootz lamachane-thru this isolation outside the camps he was forced to contemplate the harm caused by his sin and hopefully to do tshuva.

The separation also was intended to benefit

With so much said and written these days about Pesach, with all of us so focused on ridding our homes of bread, I’d like to tell you today about a different, albeit related topic, that has important messages involving derech eretz. I’m going to tackle the difficult topic of the Metzora.

A Metzora is a person with an affliction of the skin-a metzora which is an acronym for motzi ra-one who spreads slander. Tzaraas is not a bodily disease per se, it's not leprosy.

There are many proofs showing that tzaraas is not leprosy:

1) only Jews could contract it
2) only in cities with walls around them was a quarantine ever imposed-if this were a contagious skin disease like leprosy unwalled cities wd be the bigger concern
3)during the pilgrimage festivals when Yerushalayim was packed with people, any suspected case of tzaraas was ignored

Perhaps the word psoriasis comes from tsaraas-a chronic, non-contagious skin disease characterized by inflammation and white, scaly patches-the dictionery says it comes from Greek.

Rather it's a physical manifestation of a spiritual malaise-a punishment designed to show the person that he must mend his ways.

It's a feedback mechanism to help the person correct behavior-so while we may feel fortunate today that we don’t contract tsaraas-is it really such a good thing or is it a loss to us that we no longer have this direct feedback mechanism.

The Chofetz Chaim says that we still have tsaraas-but that it’s on our soul.

If a person contracted tsaraas he was separated from k'lal Yisrael-he was forced to reside michootz lamachane-thru this isolation outside the camps he was forced to contemplate the harm caused by his sin and hopefully to do tshuva.

The separation also was intended to benefit

ch is an acronym for motzi ra-one who spreads slander. Tzaraas is not a bodily disease per se, it's not leprosy.

There are many proofs showing that tzaraas is not leprosy:

1) only Jews could contract it
2) only in cities with walls around them was a quarantine ever imposed-if this were a contagious skin disease like leprosy unwalled cities wd be the bigger concern
3)during the pilgrimage festivals when Yerushalayim was packed with people, any suspected case of tzaraas was ignored

Perhaps the word psoriasis comes from tsaraas-a chronic, non-contagious skin disease characterized by inflammation and white, scaly patches-the dictionery says it comes from Greek.

Rather it's a physical manifestation of a spiritual malaise-a punishment designed to show the person that he must mend his ways.

It's a feedback mechanism to help the person correct behavior-so while we may feel fortunate today that we don’t contract tsaraas-is it really such a good thing or is it a loss to us that we no longer have this direct feedback mechanism.

The Chofetz Chaim says that we still have tsaraas-but that it’s on our soul.

If a person contracted tsaraas he was separated from k'lal Yisrael-he was forced to reside michootz lamachane-thru this isolation outside the camps he was forced to contemplate the harm caused by his sin and hopefully to do tshuva.

The separation also was intended to benefit

wd be the bigger concern
3)during the pilgrimage festivals when Yerushalayim was packed with people, any suspected case of tzaraas was ignored

Perhaps the word psoriasis comes from tsaraas-a chronic, non-contagious skin disease characterized by inflammation and white, scaly patches-the dictionery says it comes from Greek.

Rather it's a physical manifestation of a spiritual malaise-a punishment designed to show the person that he must mend his ways.

It's a feedback mechanism to help the person correct behavior-so while we may feel fortunate today that we don’t contract tsaraas-is it really such a good thing or is it a loss to us that we no longer have this direct feedback mechanism.

The Chofetz Chaim says that we still have tsaraas-but that it’s on our soul.

If a person contracted tsaraas he was separated from k'lal Yisrael-he was forced to reside michootz lamachane-thru this isolation outside the camps he was forced to contemplate the harm caused by his sin and hopefully to do tshuva.

The separation also was intended to benefit

al manifestation of a spiritual malaise-a punishment designed to show the person that he must mend his ways.

It's a feedback mechanism to help the person correct behavior-so while we may feel fortunate today that we don’t contract tsaraas-is it really such a good thing or is it a loss to us that we no longer have this direct feedback mechanism.

The Chofetz Chaim says that we still have tsaraas-but that it’s on our soul.

If a person contracted tsaraas he was separated from k'lal Yisrael-he was forced to reside michootz lamachane-thru this isolation outside the camps he was forced to contemplate the harm caused by his sin and hopefully to do tshuva.

The separation also was intended to benefit

Chofetz Chaim says that we still have tsaraas-but that it’s on our soul.

If a person contracted tsaraas he was separated from k'lal Yisrael-he was forced to reside michootz lamachane-thru this isolation outside the camps he was forced to contemplate the harm caused by his sin and hopefully to do tshuva.

The separation also was intended to benefit the inhabitants of the camps by removing from their midst one who spread discord thru evil talk-not physically contagious notion of tsaraas being spiritually contagious.

The purification process began with the bringing of korbonos -- 2 live kosher birds.

Rashi says that since tsaraas comes about because of malicious talk, birds that constantly twitter with the chirping of sound were required for the metzora’s purification.

In Biblical times a person who spoke slander tore a gaping hole in the spiritual fabric of the nation. This vacuum, emptiness enabled the spiritual malady of tsaraas to take over.

Nowadays when the spiritual fabric of our nation is unfortunately tattered, one more gash does not make so much of a difference (not sensitive to the kedusha/not aware of vacuum) there is no kedusha vacuum-there is nothing to create an attraction for the forces of tuma.

So we can begin to understand why these days no one gets tsaraas. It was only following Matan Torah when k'lal Yisrael was at an extremely high spiritual level that tsaraas was a possibility