Last week’s parsha ended with Miriam wrongly speaking negatively about her brother Moshe and the punishment she received for it. Her sin is what we call in Hebrew “loshon hora”, lit. evil speech. This week’s parsha relates how those who spied out the land of Israel came back with a very negative report about the land claiming that the land was too hard to conquer and too dangerous to inhabit. This caused the Jewish people to reject the land of Israel. The spies were punished for their disparaging report about the land and the Jewish people who accepted their report were punished that they would remain in the desert until all men ages 20-60 would die before entering the land of Israel.

Rashi comments on the juxtaposition of these two episodes.It’s meant to bring out how Miriam was punished on account of the slander which she uttered against her brother, and these sinners witnessed it and yet they did not take a lesson from her (to learn the severity of loshon hora).

But how could they who spoke about a land be expected to learn from Miraim who spoke against another person? The prohibition of speaking loshon hora applies only to speaking about people, not objects!

After relating Miriam’s wrongful critique of her brother the Torah states:

וְהָאִישׁ מֹשֶׁה עָנָו מְאֹד מִכֹּל הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר עַל־פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה׃

The man, Moshe, was very humble, more so than any other human being on earth. (12:3)

The commentaries say that the point being made here is that even after Moshe heard his sister’s words he was not hurt by them whatsoever because he was so humble. If so, why was Miriam punished for what she said when no harm was done?

The answer is because the prohibition of Loshon Hora is not only about hurting someone else but about respecting them. Every person, even one that is flawed, has tremendous value as a person and that value must be upheld. When you speak loshon hora you are devaluing something of great worth.

Even though the prohibition of speaking loshon hora applies only to disparaging the value of a person, the spirit of the law can be applied to other things of worth as well. The holy land of Israel that was promised to our forefathers certainly deserved to be valued and spoken about accordingly. But the spies didn’t take this lesson from what happened to Miriam and instead tore down its value in the eyes of the Jewish people.

The ability to value others is greatly enhanced by the positive perspective we have about them. For example, a great rabbi once told a teacher to see his job as polishing diamonds. Every child is a diamond in the rough and the mission of a teacher (and of course a parent) is to make them shine.

Every person is a gem and we may never allow that perspective to be tarnished by speaking loshon hora about them.

Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak