A man once approached a rabbi and asked how to become less judgmental. Despite his good intentions, he found himself forming harsh judgments about people almost immediately.
The rabbi handed him a piece of paper and instructed him to spend five minutes writing down everything he knew about himself. Then he left the room.
Five minutes later, he returned. The page was blank.
“I couldn’t do it,” the man admitted. “There’s simply too much.”
The rabbi smiled. “If you cannot write down everything about yourself in five minutes, how can you expect to know enough about another person to judge them after five seconds?”
Parashot Tazria and Metzora describe someone who develops tzara’at, a mysterious affliction, and is brought to the priest for examination. Tradition understands this condition as a spiritual consequence of lashon hara, harmful speech.
Drawing on this affliction, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks described Judaism as “a religion of holy words.” God created the world and revealed Himself at Sinai through words.
This is why the sages warned about the great danger of lashon hara. The philosopher Maimonides (1138–1204) writes that harmful speech is comparable to idolatry, illicit relationships, and bloodshed combined.
Strikingly, tzara’at does not appear only on a person’s body. It can appear on clothing and even on the walls of a home. Words rarely remain contained to the speaker. They spread outward, shaping our relationships, our reputations, and the atmosphere of entire communities. Harsh speech about those who differ from us—politically, religiously, or culturally—deepens polarization. In such an environment, people become afraid to speak honestly.
Rabbi Sacks therefore urged not only restraint from harmful speech but the cultivation of what he called lashon hatov—language that builds rather than destroys.
Tazria and Metzora invite us to recognize the moral weight of our words. Just as God created the world and revealed Himself through speech, human speech shapes the moral environment in which we live. Because words carry such power, the Torah warns us to speak with humility and care. We rarely know enough about another person to judge them quickly or harshly.
In a world so quick to condemn, choosing lashon hatov—language that builds rather than destroys—is one of the most powerful ways we can help create a more understanding and compassionate community.
Rabbanit Jennifer Raskas currently serves as the inaugural Community Scholar at Shir Hadash in Jerusalem, where she offers teaching, drashot, and pastoral counseling. Rabbanit Raskas is a founder of the Ohr Torah Stone International Halakha Scholars Program and a faculty member at Midreshet Lindenbaum. Additionally, she is on the leadership team of The Orthodox Leadership Project and a trained facilitator for Resetting the Table, promoting courageous dialogue across differences.
Rabbanit Raskas previously served as the Washington DC Director at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America where she spearheaded the institute’s efforts to provide Washington-based leaders with Jewish thought leadership, including White House staffers, Members of Congress, think tank analysts, executive directors, senior clergy and philanthropists. While at Hartman she also directed the Institute’s year-long Seminar and Writer’s Workshop for Journalists, the publishing of the Institute’s North American Hitkansut Haggadah L’Yom HaShoah, and she served as a Co-Director of the Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative from 2022-2024. A graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Columbia University, Rabbanit Raskas is an active writer and speaker across diverse Jewish platforms.
This essay was written as part of our collaboration with The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Sacks Scholars.
