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Metzora
Metzora
“When you arrive in the land of Canaan that I give you as a possession, and I will place a tzaaras affliction upon a house in the land of your possession;” (14;34).
Rashi (14;34) states that Hashem would place tzaaras on the houses of the Jews as a good tiding as “the Amorites hid treasures of gold in the walls of their houses all forty years that Israel were in the desert, and as a result of the affliction, he breaks down the house and finds them.”
However, why did the Jews deserve to such great reward of golden treasures for committing such a terrible sin of lashon hara (as people would receive tzaaras on account of lashon hara)?
Additionally, the Amorites lived in the land of Canaan long before the Jews were in the desert for 40 years. We could therefore assume (presumably) that they also hid treasures of gold in their walls from even before the Jews were in the desert. Thus, why did the Jews only find the gold treasures that were hidden by the Amorites while they were in the desert and not the treasures that they presumably hid there before?
Furthermore, the pasuk (14;34) refers to the land as the land of “Canaan” and yet Rashi refers to the people as the “Amorites” instead of the “Canaanites” (the name which is usually given for the people living in that land). What’s the reasoning for this? Why does Rashi not refer to the people as “Canaanites” if even the Torah refers to the land as the land of “Canaan”?
Rabbi Yochanan Zweig explains that Hashem told Avraham (Bereishis, 15;16) that the fourth generation after him would merit to enter the land of Israel. And why would the Jews have to wait that long before meriting entering the land of Israel? Hashem explained: (15;16) “for the iniquity of the Amorite will not yet be full until then.” Rashi (15;16) explains that “Hashem does not exact punishment from a nation until its measure is full.” Meaning, Hashem would not throw out the Amorites from the land of Israel until their measure was full and they showed that they no longer deserved to live there. Now, the generation which left the land of Egypt was the fourth generation after the time of Avraham. They were therefore supposed to go straight to the land of Israel-as Hashem promised Avraham that his people would merit entering the land of Israel four generations after him. However, although the Amorites, as expected, had showed that they were not deserving to live in the land of Israel-the nation of Israel nevertheless had to wait another 40 years before entering the land due to the incident of the spies speaking negatively about the land. As a result, all the wealth in which the land of Israel produced during the 40 years that they were in the desert really belonged to the Jews-as they were supposed to have been in the land at that time (as Hashem promised Avraham) and the Amorites showed that they deserved to be thrown out.
Rabbi Zweig therefore explains the nation of Israel only found the golden treasures that the Amorites hid during the 40 years in which they were in the desert as only those treasures really belonged to them. All the treasures in which the Amorites hid prior to then still belonged to them (the Amorites) as they had a right to live in the land of Israel during that period of time (as Hashem does not exact punishment against a nation until their measure is full-Rashi, 15;16). Similarly, since the golden treasures really belonged to the Jews it comes out that Hashem really wasn’t rewarding them for speaking lashon hara with the golden treasures; rather, He was simply giving the Jews what belonged to them.
Further, Rabbi Zweig explains that since the Amorites showed that they no longer deserved to live in the land of “Canaan” Rashi therefore refers to them as the “Amorites” instead of “Canaanites.” For this reason the Torah (Bereishis, 15;16) relates that Hashem referred to the nation as “Amorites” when promising Avraham that the Jews would merit entering the land of Israel four generations later as by that time the “Amorites” would have shown that they deserved to be thrown out of the land and in the process lose their status as “Canaanites.”
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