Evil Speech: Being Placed Outside the Camp

Tzara’at Punishment
The punishment for tzara’at was to be isolated outside the camp. If a person was immediately declared unclean, the exile was permanent. However, if the priest was not sure if the person did or did not have tzara’at, the person was isolated seven days and potentially seven more days. If the person was declared clean, he was allowed to go back into the camp. If he was declared unclean, his isolation was permanent (until he was declared clean by the priest, brought offerings, cleansed himself and did the other obligations set forth by the Torah).

Many believe if the lashon hara was severe, only then would the person be immediately declared unclean with tzara’at. However, most lashon hara is done without much conscious thought. For this reason, many believe that is why there is a waiting period of up to two weeks before being given a definite decision about having or not having tzara’at. During this time, the person was outside the camp. He had time to think about his actions. If he repented, it is believed the tzara’at would not spread. If he was starting on the path to change his heart and ways, God would allow the person to continue the process back in the camp. If the person was not going to repent, God would make the isolation permanent.

What does it mean to be outside the camp
Being outside the camp meant a person was in exile. People inside the camp were not allowed to go to the people outside the camp and socialize with them. Being outside the camp was punishment. The people were not allowed to attend worship services or festivals. Being placed outside the camp was supposed to give the person time to reflect on his actions. If he repented, turned back to God and changed his ways, he would have to seek out leadership and ask to be re-instated in the camp.

Some examples of being set outsider the camp:

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. (Exodus 12:15)

Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land. (Exodus 12:19)

“For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, ‘You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.’ (Leviticus 17:14)

‘As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. (Leviticus 20:6)

If there is a man who lies with a menstruous woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her flow, and she has exposed the flow of her blood; thus both of them shall be cut off from among their people. (Leviticus 20:18)



Once declared clean, offerings and rituals
Once a priest declared someone free from tzara’at, the person has to bring a number of offerings and go through 8 days of specific tasks.

1Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2“This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest, 3and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. Thus the priest shall look, and if the infection of leprosy has been healed in the leper, 4then the priest shall give orders to take two live clean birds and cedar wood and a scarlet string and hyssop for the one who is to be cleansed. 5The priest shall also give orders to slay the one bird in an earthenware vessel over running water. 6As for the live bird, he shall take it together with the cedar wood and the scarlet string and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slain over the running water. 7He shall then sprinkle seven times the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the live bird go free over the open field. 8The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days. 9It will be on the seventh day that he shall shave off all his hair: he shall shave his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair. He shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and be clean.

10“Now on the eighth day he is to take two male lambs without defect, and a yearling ewe lamb without defect, and three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil; 11and the priest who pronounces him clean shall present the man to be cleansed and the aforesaid before the Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 12Then the priest shall take the one male lamb and bring it for a guilt offering, with the log of oil, and present them as a wave offering before the Lord. 13Next he shall slaughter the male lamb in the place where they slaughter the sin offering and the burnt offering, at the place of the sanctuary—for the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; it is most holy. 14The priest shall then take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 

15The priest shall also take some of the log of oil, and pour it into his left palm; 16the priest shall then dip his right-hand finger into the oil that is in his left palm, and with his finger sprinkle some of the oil seven times before the Lord. 17Of the remaining oil which is in his palm, the priest shall put some on the right ear lobe of the one to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the guilt offering; 18while the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s palm, he shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf before the Lord. 19The priest shall next offer the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness. Then afterward, he shall slaughter the burnt offering. 20The priest shall offer up the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be clean.

21“But if he is poor and his means are insufficient, then he is to take one male lamb for a guilt offering as a wave offering to make atonement for him, and one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil, 22and two turtledoves or two young pigeons which are within his means, the one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. 23Then the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, at the doorway of the tent of meeting, before the Lord. 24The priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall offer them for a wave offering before the Lord. 25Next he shall slaughter the lamb of the guilt offering; and the priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 

 

26The priest shall also pour some of the oil into his left palm; 27and with his right-hand finger the priest shall sprinkle some of the oil that is in his left palm seven times before the Lord. 28The priest shall then put some of the oil that is in his palm on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the guilt offering. 29Moreover, the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s palm he shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed, to make atonement on his behalf before the Lord. 30He shall then offer one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, which are within his means. 31He shall offer what he can afford, the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. So the priest shall make atonement before the Lord on behalf of the one to be cleansed. 32This is the law for him in whom there is an infection of leprosy, whose means are limited for his cleansing.” (Leviticus 14:1-32)

Things to note:
One the first day, the person had to go through a special ceremony of being sprinkled with the blood of a bird. The man has to wash his clothes and bathe in water. He is now free to come back into the camp. However, he cannot enter his tent. He must remain outside his tent for seven days.

On the seventh day, he must shave off all his hair, wash his clothes and bathe. Then he is clean. Now he can go back to his tent.

In the eighth day, the cleansed person now makes offerings. Eight represents new beginnings. Making these offerings signifies a new start to this person. He overcame tzara’at and thus he hopefully learned how to better guard his speech. Also, a person must be declared clean to making offerings. Thus, the person cannot make an offering before day 8, or he will have offered them while unclean and violated the Torah.


Cedar and Hyssop
The Torah prescribes an elaborate ritual for the cleansing of a leper after his symptoms have abated. The ritual involves several components including two live birds, scarlet wool, living water, hyssop and cedar wood. Jewish tradition provides meanings for each of the symbols.

Why did the cleansing of the leper require cedar wood? Rashi suggested that the purification ceremony employed cedar wood because the cedar, as a tall and lofty tree, represents the haughty spirit. The metaphor of a cedar as a haughty person comes from the words of the prophet Isaiah.
The LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased. And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up. (Isaiah 2:12-13)

A haughty spirit finds it difficult to tolerate other people's character flaws. The haughty person fails to recognize his own shortcomings. Instead, he focuses on the shortcomings of others. Most often, when we speak ill of others, it is because we are defending our own pride. People elevate themselves by stepping on other people. By putting someone else down, we think we are lifting ourselves up. 

 

The Proverbs contrast two kinds of people: a person who guards his words and a person with a haughty spirit:
He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles. "Proud," "Haughty," "Scoffer," are his names, who acts with insolent pride. (Proverbs 21:23-24)

The Psalms also equate haughtiness with evil speech. Psalm 101 warns that God punishes the slanderer and does not endure haughtiness:
Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; no one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure. (Psalm 101:5)

The big, tall, haughty cedar is the most likely tree in the forest to be cut down. As the saying goes, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling" (Proverbs 16:18). The Bible says that God's "eyes are on the haughty to bring them low" (1 Samuel 22:28).

In our attempts to elevate ourselves by stepping on others, we inevitably lower ourselves. This is part of what Jesus meant when He taught that if a man lifts himself up he will be humbled, but if he humbles himself he will be lifted up.

Hyssop is also used in the ceremony. Hyssop is a plant which lies close to the ground. It is believed hyssop represents being lowly and humbled. The person with tzara’at was sprinkled with the hyssop to remind him that he should be lowly and humble like the hyssop.