Tag: lashon ha-ra – evil tongue – gossip and slander and divisiveness

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Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Born separated from God, made pure: How Israel’s offerings for childbirth and ‘leprosy’ teach us about Messiah’s cleansing of humanity (Leviticus 12–13)

Born separated, made pure: How Israel's offerings for childbirth and leprosy' teach us about Messiah's cleansing of humanity (Leviticus 12-13). Adobe Firefly-generated artwork shows an ancient Israeli woman holding a newborn girl.

People are often repulsed by the Torah descriptions of “leprosy” and skin diseases in Torah readings Tazria (Leviticus 12–13) and Metzorah (Leviticus 14–15) because they focus only on the physical aspects and miss the weightier spiritual lessons. This study explores how “leprosy” here represented a condition of spiritual rot from separation from God.

While unpleasant to consider physically, examining it spiritually reveals how humanity is born in a state of separation since Eden — also taught via the sin offering for childbirth in Tazria — and God’s gracious provision to redeem and purify people through faith in him. Messiah (Christ) takes this spiritual rot and separation upon Himself to cleanse all who trust in Him as Heaven’s lifeline to the world.

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Gossip and Slander Life With God

Like ripples from a pebble are injuries from an ‘evil tongue’: Lessons on gossip

water drop
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Gossip is a premeditated destruction of one human being by another. Scripture and James Foley’s “Drop a Pebble in the Water” poem teach that we need to let our “ripples” be encouraging and uplifting.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Good character is more than skin deep (Leviticus 13)

Good character is more than skin deep (Leviticus 13)

Some people studying the Torah portion תזריע Tazria (“she will conceive,” Leviticus 12–13) enjoy picking apart the descriptions of the צָרַעַת Tzaraat, commonly translated as “leprosy,” to see how they similar to or different from skin ailments that are known in our modern age.

But such speculations distract us from the most important lesson of Tzaraat: It was primarily a spiritual disease, not a physical ailment. God used it to correct those with לשון הרע lashon ha-ra the “evil tongue”: gossips and slanderers. Those actions came either temporarily, as He did to Miriam, the sister of Moses, or as a life sentence as he did to King Uzziah and Gehazi, the servant of Elisha.

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Questions

How believers can avoid succumbing to ‘cancel culture’ for ‘errant’ beliefs

How believers can avoid succumbing to cancel culture over others' 'errant' beliefs

We should not be too hasty to hit the “cancel” button on someone whose understanding of God is different from ours, even if the chasm between their understanding is very large and seemingly insurmountable. A little humility can go a long way in making us better people and better servants of the Kingdom.

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 14-15: Don’t tell God what He can and can’t do. Just don’t.

How did God deal with those who slander Him personally? Can such a person receive a pardon? The Torah defines the unpardonable sin as speaking evil against God. How does one speak evil against God? When one says that there is something that God doesn’t have the strength and power to do, that is speaking […]

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Discussions Torah

Genesis 32:3-36:43: God has sent us, but are we going?

A lady with long blonde wavy hair wearing a blue robe and walking sticks in both hands walks on a desert trail towards the horizon.

They were all sent: Patriarchs Abraham, Ya’akov and Yosef, prophet Moshe, Mashiakh Yeshua, apostle Peter and deacon Stephen. They were sent out with a message from the Holy One of Yisrael. So too, Yeshua has sent us to the people around us with the message that God wants reconciliation with humanity, and Yeshua’s atonement makes that happen. That’s the legacy these great figures in Scripture have passed to us. The following recorded discussion is on the Torah section Vayishlakh, which means “and He sent.” We explore the drama between Ya’akob and Eysau. It’s referred to throughout Scripture, and the conflict continues in our day.

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 19:19-34: Lessons from rules on bondservants, mixing of cloths and seeds

Richard Agee

Lev. 19:19-34 may seem like a disjointed collection of rules about managing servants, textiles and crops. But when we see that these are used as symbols elsewhere for characteristics of people, we can learn God’s lessons that transcend culture and time.