There is so much detail about medical matters in this week’s two portions that it is perfectly obvious that physical health is basic to the teachings of the Torah. Nonetheless the rabbis urged us to view the second portion in particular on a moral level, not just as rules about the treatment of leprosy but as a code of laws about how to
control our tongues. M’tzora, a leper, was taken as a hint of "motzi ra", a slanderer, one who utters evil talk. How are the two subjects to be linked? By regarding leprosy as the punishment for slander. Use your tongue wrongly, thus went the reasoning, and your body will suffer. You will feel as though you don’t want to live. The rabbinic
sages realised this when they put into G-d’s mouth the words, “The slanderer and I cannot live in the same world”. We can even go furtherand say that when linguistic leprosy abounds, the world itself cannot live, because no-one can be trusted and civilisation will crumble.
So how do we handle the scourge of evil talk? On every level we haveto obey the great words, “N’tzor l’shon’cha me-ra” – “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile” (Psalm 34:14). The most famous teacher of "sh’mirat halashon", “guarding one’s tongue”, was the Chafetz Chayyim, who was approached by a young rabbi with the complaint, “My sermons seem to be a waste of time: no-one takes any notice of what I say!” The Chafetz Chayyim replied, “But when they are listening to your sermons, at least they are not gossiping or spreading rumours. That is an achievement in itself!”
Using Your Brains
The haftarah of M’tzora (II Kings 7:3-20) is about four lepers who stood at the gateway of the city in time of famine and siege. The rule was that lepers were to stay out of the city, so they had no right to enter. Still they decided to 
Turning molehills into mountains is something that happens.
go in. There was no food in the city. The lepers themselves had no food. They reasoned that whatever they did
they would die – outside the city, inside the city, it made no difference. The inhabitants of the city were in a state of nerves, and when the lepers entered they thought it was “the noise of a great host” and they panicked and ran away. The result is that when the lepers entered the city, “behold, there was no man there” (verse 5). The question we ask is why the citizens exaggerated so much, stampeded, and thought the enemy was at the door and that they were doomed.
The answer is an exercise in human psychology. Turning molehills into mountains is something that happens. It is no use telling people to use their brains and not lose their balance. Good leadership should be capable of seeing the signs as they really are, but often there is a lack of good leadership and there is a fear amongst the people that
the leaders are appeasers who can’t see reality.
In our own day, the demagogues constantly exploit situations like this to the eternal detriment of everybody concerned. We could all learn from my French teacher at high school who had a habit of shaking a boy by the shoulders and saying, “Have some sense, boy, have some sense!” Teachers dare not shake their students any more, but “Have some sense, boy, have some sense!” is still good advice.