Good People in A Rotten System

The weeks leading up to Passover were incredibly hectic for me, and I didn’t have time to follow the news. Several weeks in, I realized that I was much more relaxed as a result. The news cycle is so filled with negativity that it seeps into our bones and mindset. Living in a bubble was an exquisite relief.

I am not just talking about the terrible news surrounding Israel over the last year and a half. I am also talking about the toxic atmosphere of the political culture. The old refrain is that bad news sells. Today, editors don’t need to cherry-pick bad stories. It seems like every story is terrible.

If one leader does something good, another leader will inevitably cast it in a bad light. Politicians routinely say good is bad and bad is good, all in the interest of getting ahead. They lie outright about facts and morality to win elections. Instead of putting their vision forward, they castigate and vilify others.

It often leaves me seething. I can see the lie in their words, but they phrase it in ways that make them look good and others look bad. If I can see through it, so can the media, why don’t they point it out? All this tension was gone when I was living in my no-news bubble. After Passover, I turned on the news and immediately felt the tension again. I asked myself, why go back there? Stay in the bubble!

Outing The Bad

Is it not timely that we read in the Torah this week about slanderers who are punished with skin blotches, the Torah calls tzaraat? Our sages explained that the name metzora is an abbreviation for motzie ra—outing the bad. Slanderers endeavor to make themselves look good by making others look bad. If they are good at their task, the community thinks they are righteous, and their targets are wicked. This is precisely what modern politicians seek to do. It is crass and craven, but they are too slick to let it show.

The tzaraat is motzie ra, it exposes the evil in slanderers and gossips. It is the mark of Cain. The gig is up when they appear in public with blotches on their skin. The whole world can tell the truth. It is so noticeable that even the colluding media can’t cover it up. The truth strikes you between the eyes. Here walks a gossip and a slanderer. Why would you believe anything they say?

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, also known as the Chafetz Chayim, wrote extensively on this topic. He once wrote that when people speak negatively of others, it is foolish to believe them. Those they slander are innocent until proven guilty, but the slanderers are known sinners. They are known to be guilty of the sin of gossip. Why would you believe the words of a sinner?

The answer is that gossips and slanderers play on our voyeurism—our curiosity about other people’s private, shameful affairs. They satisfy our curiosity, so we are grateful and loath to think ill of them. As eager consumers, we are complicit in their sin. We want to believe them, but when they appear with blotches on their face, we can’t believe them. Even the complicit media is forced to admit it.

Out With the Bad

I am as guilty as the next person if you think about it. I just castigated two entire industries, politicians and media, and I came out looking good in the process. Do you see how insidious gossip is? Even as I castigate those who gossip, I am gossiping. You didn’t realize it, and neither did I. My essay, to this point, made me look good and others bad. How am I different than your average gossip?

Oh, I know what you are thinking. I am different because my goal is to put a stop to gossip. Hmmm, but doesn’t every gossip have an excuse? Don’t they all justify their gossip as a means to a greater end?

So let’s talk about these excuses. The plain truth is that gossips really don’t believe the things they say. Politicians don’t really think that the politicians across the aisle are bad. In fact, they are often friends with those they castigate. And those friends return the favor. It is all a game. On the surface, they spew vicious toxicity about each other, but under the surface, they are tight friends who admire each other.

This, too, is part of the message of tzaraat. The blotches are skin deep. They are only on the surface. They don’t really believe the things they say, they are not really angry at the people they rant about. It is just for show. It is all on the surface.

They are not bad people. They are inherently good people who want to win the next election. They are good people playing in a bad system. Sadly, in our toxic environment, people get ahead by tearing others down. They take no pleasure in it and are likely disgusted by their own words because they are good people. If they want to win an election, what choice do they have?

Their malware is skin deep, just on the surface. Underneath, they are reasonable, righteous, and pure. If you joined them for a dinner party, you would find them perfectly delightful, humble, and filled with praise for others. They slander only to gain votes or, in a social circle, attention. To gain a laugh at the expense of another. They use it for clickbait.

The blotches on their skin inform us that they don’t believe the gossip they peddle, and we shouldn’t either. Don’t be taken in by the glib charm; it is surface deep. Internally, they think highly of the people they besmirch, and we should too.

Quarantine

The problem is that what is surface-deep for the gossip is deeply painful for his or her victims. It is not a victimless exercise in fun. They are playing with well-aimed poison-tipped bullets designed to inflict maximum damage. They don’t just win elections and attention. They destroy people they admire and like who happen to stand in their way. This is not a sustainable path.

The solution is to quarantine. Let them enter the bubble I enjoyed in the weeks leading up to Passover. Let them shed the toxins and experience the blissful calm that comes from being free. Let them breathe deeply and purely and revel in the wholesomeness of truthfulness; of matching their external thoughts to their internal beliefs. Of putting their charm to work for the purposes of goodness and wholeness.

When they emerge from this bubble cleansed of the tzaraat blotches, they will be loath to reenter the viper’s nest. They will hopefully find gainful employment that maximizes their strengths and doesn’t require them to sink back into the pit.

Of course, they still have free will. They can always choose to reenter the pit and return to their harmful ways. Many do just that, but the Torah’s solution gives them a chance to start again.

Modern Equivalence

We don’t have tzaraat blotches in the modern day, but the dynamics haven’t changed. While many things change, history repeats itself because human nature never changes. We still throw zingers at others with no intention of harming them, only of gaining attention. The solution of yesteryear works well today. Step away from the crowds whose attention and adulation you seek, and dwell internally for a while.

Think deeply about your life goals and their purposes. Ask yourself if the means you use to achieve your ends are justified. Ask yourself if those ends are sullied by the means you employ. Experience the serenity of embracing others and their quirks and allowing yourself to be embraced on your merits, not your sharp tongue. Discover the bliss of true acceptance and the contrasting emptiness of the gossip’s life.