At the end of this week’s Torah portion “Beha’alotecha” Miriam, the prophetess and sister of Moses and Aaron, speaks critically about Moses to Aaron regarding his divorce from his wife Tzipora. Because of this she was afflicted with “Tzara’as” (a spiritual malady that resembles leprosy which was contracted by those who spoke lashon hara ‘evil speech’).
Miriam had to be put in quarantine outside the camp for seven days. In her honor the Jewish people waited to travel until she had recovered from the Tzara’as.
Let’s understand why commenting about Moses divorce would be considered Lashon Hara. Miriam was not a regular woman, she was a prophetess and was in a very high spiritual level. She knew that Moses never did anything that H”S wouldn’t ask him to do, so the comment was out of place and considered idle talk. She was judged harshly by H”S to teach us a lesson, even so more we are commanded every day to remember what happened to Miriam in the desert.
Also we learn from this portion that she was honored and the people waited for her seven days to continue their journey.
When Moses was an infant, Miriam saved his life by putting him in the river, she waited to see and make sure that Batya, Pharaohs daughter, would rescue him and she made sure to get her a Jewish wet-nurse for her brother. So H”S pays us “Mida Keneged Mida” (measure for measure). Let’s learn from the lesson of Miriam on how careful we have to be when we speak about others, most of the times we should bite our tongues and say some words of Torah, for sure this great effort won’t go unnoticed and it will be rewarded at its right time.
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