Talmudology on the Parsha, Korach: Pittum Haketoret and Plagues

במדבר יז: 11-14

וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל־אַהֲרֹן קַח אֶת־הַמַּחְתָּה וְתֶן־עָלֶיהָ אֵשׁ מֵעַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְשִׂים קְטֹרֶת וְהוֹלֵךְ מְהֵרָה אֶל־הָעֵדָה וְכַפֵּר עֲלֵיהֶם כִּי־יָצָא הַקֶּצֶף מִלִּפְנֵי יְהֹוָה הֵחֵל הַנָּגֶף: וַיִּקַּח אַהֲרֹן כַּאֲשֶׁר  דִּבֶּר מֹשֶׁה וַיָּרץ אֶל־תּוֹךְ הַקָּהָל וְהִנֵּה הֵחֵל הַנֶּגֶף בָּעָם וַיִּתֵּן אֶת־הַקְּטֹרֶת וַיְכַפֵּר עַל־הָעָם: וַיַּעֲמֹד בֵּין־הַמֵּתִים וּבֵין הַחַיִּים וַתֵּעָצַר הַמַּגֵּפָה׃ וַיִּהְיוּ הַמֵּתִים בַּמַּגֵּפָה אַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר אֶלֶף וּשְׁבַע מֵאוֹת מִלְּבַד הַמֵּתִים עַל־דְּבַר־קֹרַח׃

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the fire pan, and put on it fire from the altar. Add incense and take it quickly to the community and make expiation for them. For wrath has gone forth from the Lord: the plague has begun!”

Aaron took it, as Moses had ordered, and ran to the midst of the congregation, where the plague had begun among the people. He put on the incense and made expiation for the people; he stood between the dead and the living until the plague was checked. Those who died of the plague came to fourteen thousand and seven hundred, aside from those who died on account of Korah.

Over the many centuries that Jews have recited prayers for protection against plagues and pandemics, the content of these prayers varied depending on the location, local custom, and the whims of the person compiling them. The one feature that remained fairly constant was that they often contained a section known as Pittum Haketoret [The Mixture of the Incense]. If you think back just a couple of years to the COVID pandemic, you yourself may have recited this passage to ward off the virus. But did you ever wonder why it was this passage that was chosen as a central part of our pandemic liturgy?

As we will learn, the origin of the custom to recite Pittum Haketoret to ward off a pandemic is found in this week’s parsha.

What is Pittum Haketoret?

Pittum Haketoret are the opening words of a list of ingredients that were used to make the incense for the Temple in Jerusalem, as recorded in the Talmud: 

How is the blending of the incense [Pittum Haketoret]) performed? Balm, and onycha, and galbanum, and frankincense, each of these by a weight of seventy maneh, Myrrh, and cassia, and spikenard, and saffron, each of these by a weight of sixteen maneh. Costus by a weight of twelve maneh; three maneh of aromatic bark; and nine maneh of cinnamon. Kersannah lye of the volume of nine kav; Cyprus wine of the volume of three se’a and three more kav, a half-se’a. If one does not have Cyprus wine he brings old white wine. Sodomite salt is brought by the volume of a quarter-kav. Lastly, a minimal amount of the smoke raiser, [a plant that causes the smoke of the incense to rise properly]. Rabbi Natan says: Also a minimal amount of Jordan amber…

There is nothing in this talmudic recipe to suggest any role for the incense as either a prophylactic or a cure for diseases. But there is a cryptic passage elsewhere in the Talmud that indicates just such a role.

The Ketoret as a Cure for Pandemics

In a fanciful discussion that takes place immediately before the Torah is to be given at Mount Sinai, the angels object. Human beings, they claim, are not worthy of such a sublime document; it should stay with them. Moses, who had ascended to heaven to receive the Torah, provided a series of clever answers. He asks God to give an example of something written in the Torah. Perhaps sensing an opportunity here, God replies with the very first of the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord your God who took you out from Egypt, from the house of bondage (Ex. 20:2).” Moses then asks the angels: “Did you descend to Egypt? Were you enslaved to Pharaoh? Why then should the Torah be yours?”  Moses asks for other examples. God mentions the fourth commandment, “to remember the Sabbath day,” but the angels do not work and so they have no need for a day of rest. The fifth commandment is to “honor your father and mother.” But the angels have neither a father nor a mother. How then, Moses asks rhetorically, could they be commanded to honor their parents? The angels quickly cede the case, “and they agreed with the Holy One, blessed be he” that the Jewish people deserved to be given the Torah. In fact, they were so impressed with Moses’ powers of persuasion that “immediately, each and every one of the angels became an admirer of Moses and passed something to him” as a gift. The Talmud only records one of those gifts, along with its donor.

שבת פט, א

 מִיָּד כל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד נַעֲשָׂה לוֹ אוֹהֵב וּמָסַר לוֹ דָּבָר… אַף מַלְאַךְ הַמָּוֶת מָסַר לוֹ דָּבָר, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וַיִּתֵּן אֶת הַקְּטֹרֶת וַיְכַפֵּר עַל הָעָם״, וְאוֹמֵר: ״וַיַּעֲמֹד בֵּין הַמֵּתִים וּבֵין הַחַיִּים וְגוֹ׳״ — אִי לָאו דַּאֲמַר לֵיהּ מִי הֲוָה יָדַע?

Even the Angel of Death gave him something, as Moses told Aaron how to stop the plague, as it is stated: “And he placed the incense, and he atoned for the people” (Numbers 17:12). And the verse says: “And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped” (Numbers 17:13). If it were not that the Angel of Death told him this remedy, would he have known it?

And so according to the Talmud, the secret that the holy incense, the ketoret, can cure a plague was delivered to Moses by none other than the Angel of Death, who surrendered the means to thwart mortality itself. This is the earliest Jewish reference connecting the incense with pandemics.

 Pittum Haketoret in the Siddur of Amram Gaon

It was Amram Gaon (d. 875), the ninth century leader of the Jewish community of Sura in Babylon who first formally arranged the prayers that became the standard Jewish liturgy who included Pittum Haketoret. It was to be recited towards the end of the daily morning and evening prayers “because this was the commanded time” to make the incense. But he made no mention of reciting this passage to prevent plagues.

Ramban on the Ketoret

That connection was made later, and among the earliest rabbis to ascribe magical healing powers to the incense was the Spanish exegete Nachmanides, Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, (c.1194–c.1270), known best by his acronym Ramban. He noted that in the description of the construction of the Mishkan, (the Tabernacle) and its many vessels found in the Book of Exodus, the command to build an Altar of Incense was not written with the commandments to build the other objects. Commenting on the verse in the Torah (Exod. 30:1) that reads “You shall make an altar for burning incense; make it of acacia wood,” Ramban wrote that this altar had an additional task, beyond that of burning the incense. It was somehow to sanctify the glory of God, and in so doing it was endowed with special power:

  רמב’ן על התורה שמות 30:1 

אמר כי עוד יתחייב להם שיעשו מזבח מקטר קטרת להקטיר לכבוד השם. וזהו רז שנמסר למשה רבינו שהקטרת עוצרת המגפה (שבת פט.), כי הקטרת במדת הדין (זוה''ק ויקרא יח), שנאמר ישימו קטורה באפך (דברים לג י), 

Therefore, he now said that they will yet be obliged to make an altar for the burning of incense, to burn it for the glory of God. This was a secret which was transmitted to Moses our Teacher, that the incense stops the plague…

In support of this claim, Ramban cited another passage from the Torah - the one in this week’s parsha. In the aftermath of the Korach-led rebellion against Moses, “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all Korah’s people and all their possessions.” But while this destroyed the rebel leadership, it did nothing to quell the uprising, and so God next brought a plague [nagef] against the rebels. And then comes the passage with which we opened:

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the fire pan, and put on it fire from the altar. Add incense and take it quickly to the community and make expiation for them. For wrath has gone forth from the Lord: the plague has begun!”

Aaron took it, as Moses had ordered, and ran to the midst of the congregation, where the plague had begun among the people. He put on the incense and made expiation for the people; he stood between the dead and the living until the plague was checked. Those who died of the plague came to fourteen thousand and seven hundred, aside from those who died on account of Korah.

 What Happens when there are no more Ketoret?

But just knowing that the incense could cure a plague was not helpful, for two reasons. First, the precise identification of its ingredients had long since been lost, and second, even had they been known, it was strictly forbidden for outsiders to create the incense used in the Temple. The solution came with the creation of a brand-new approach in which merely reciting the section of the Talmud called Pittum Haketoret would end a pandemic.

This next step was made by the Zohar [Book of Splendor], the central work of Jewish mysticism. It was written by the Spanish rabbi and kabbalist Moses de Leon (c.1240-1305) who himself attributed it to the second century talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai. Despite its murky origins, it quickly became widely read in Europe and beyond. And it is in the Zohar (Midrash Hane’elam, 200) that we find the following passage about the power of Pittum Haketoret to halt a plague.

Rabbi Pinhas said. I was once walking when I met the prophet Elijah. I said to him “could my master tell me something that will be good for people’s health [ma’aley leberiasah]?” He replied…“when there is a pandemic, a decree is made to the heavens that if everyone enters the House of Prayer or the House of Study and recites the passage about the Making of the Spices [Ketoret Hasamim] with great concentration and intention, the plague among Israel will end.

One who is being pursued by Justice needs this incense…for it helps to remove the claims of Justice against him, and in this way he rids himself of it. Other passages from the Zohar suggests a similar power:

זוהר פנחס 224א

מַאן דְּיֵימָּא פִּטּוּם הַקְּטֹרֶת, בָּתַר תְּהִלָּה לְדָוִד, בָּטִיל מוֹתָנָא מִבֵּיתָא

No harm will befall one who recites Pittum Haketoret after [Psalm 145 that begins with the words] “A Psalm of David” [in the morning service], neither to him nor his family.

Hayyim Vital, The Safed Circle, and Pittum Haketoret

These passages from the Zohar played a central role in the later adoption of the custom to recite Pittum Haketoret during a pandemic. They were popularized by the kabbalist Hayyim Vital (1542-1620) who lived in Safed in northern Israel. He was the most important and influential student of the mystic Isaac Luria, who himself died during a plague in 1572 at the age of only thirty-eight. Vital recorded Luria’s teachings in many manuscripts. These were later edited by Vital’s son Shmuel, who organized them thematically into a work known today as Shemonah She’arim [The Eight Gates]. Shemonah She’arim remained unpublished until it was eventually brought to the printing press in Jerusalem between 1850 and 1898.

In Vital’s mystical universe there were layers of interposing kellipot or shells of evil that prevented God’s divine light from properly illuminating the word.These shells also played a role in pandemics and plagues.

 These kellipot...are responsible for infecting and attacking a person during a plague. And they do not leave a person after attacking him, but remain attached to him and surround him in every direction. Furthermore, they remain in the neighborhood where there are sick people, and are even found in pots and pans and clothes. Anyone who ventures there can be contaminated through these very same kellipot…

But there was hope; Pittum Haketoret had the mystical ability to intervene:

 The eleven ingredients of the ketoret are that which remains inside the kellipot…they correspond to the eleven lights of holiness which animate the kellipot. And when they [the ingredients] rise up [to the celestial heights] they remove the lights from the kellipot which are left without any life. They die, and can no longer do any damage…

Hayyim Vital made the recitation of Pittum Haketoret part of his innovative nightly ritual of prayer and study called Tikkun Hatzot [The Midnight Order]. He encouraged it to be recited in a minyan [quorum] of ten Godfearing men, because that is when “it will make the greatest impact above.”

There were others in the Safed circle who also adopted the custom of Pittum Haketoret. Moses di Trani (known by his acronym Mabit,1505-1585) was appointed as a rabbi in Safed in 1525 and was a contemporary of and knew Hayyim Vital. In his Bet Elohim [House of God] published in 1576, Mabit wrote that Pittum Haketoret was to be recited twice a day “for it has a special power [mesugal] over plagues.” In a demonstration of his exegetical skills he focused on one of the eleven ingredients called helbona, (usually translated as galbanum,) which was the only one to have an unpleasant taste and smell.

The foul smell of the helbona is mixed with the other ingredients until it smells as agreeable as they do. This is an allusion to the Angel of Death who resembles the helbona and who hides among people…when the people are good and honest in their hearts, and when they truly repent, the Angel of Death cannot overpower them. In fact, it is they who can overpower the Angel of Death…just like the helbona whose foul smell cannot be detected when it is mixed with the other ten ingredients…

The Italian Jewish physician Abraham ben Hananiah Yagel (1553-c.1624) also emphasized the importance of Pittum Haketoret, in his work on the etiology and treatment of plagues called Moshia Hosim [The Savior of Those Who Seek Refuge]:

I heard from the mouth of the great sage our teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Judah Moscato, (may his Rock protect him), that when our eyes are opened to the incense offering [ma‘aseh ketoret], and when we see all the elements in it one by one, we will see that all of them are beautiful and treasured [and work] by natural means to stop a plague or devastation, for by their strength the air will be purified.

The Pivotal Role of Ma’avar Yabok

About forty years after Yagel’s book was published, another work highlighted the importance of Pittum Haketoret. It was called Ma’avar Yabbok [Crossing the Yabbok], and was written by another Italian Jew named Aaron Berahia Modena. The book contained all the rituals, prayers, customs and practices that surrounded the process of dying, death, burial and mourning. It is a lengthy but extremely popular book that has been republished in more than forty editions over the last three hundred years. The author began a section dedicated to the mystical properties of reciting Pittum Haketoret by reminding his readers that while it was no-longer possible to offer the incense in Jerusalem, by the study of the ingredients and the words of the recipe “the light of the Upper World is revealed.” He continued with what is perhaps the strongest exposition of the power of Pittum Haketoret to heal found in all of early modern Jewish literature.  

Aaron Berachia Modena, Ma’avar Yabbok. Mantua: Yehudah Shmuel Maphrosha and Sons, 1626: 117b.

When a person studies the regulations about the sacrifices [torat korbanot] with the intention to leave the impure qualities that caused his [sinful] actions, there is no doubt that these very letters [of the words that he is studying] will intervene above and cause wonderous things. And through repentance he can expel the Destroyer, and in the place of a spirit of distortion,[iv] a pure spirit will enter his soul. Through the power of these letters Divine Providence will be stirred to lighten the places darkened by his sins…Therefore some of these passages about the sacrifices are said early in the morning and in the evening, in order that a person will be purified by them.

In this passage in Ma’avar Yabbok we find articulation of the paradigm shift regarding Pittum Haketoret that began with the Zohar. It was no longer the now unobtainable incense that could cure. Instead, reciting their ingredients could do so. For moderns, it is as if penicillin was no longer needed to fight infection; it was now enough to read the ingredients on the side of the bottle.

This then is the lengthy evolution of the ability of Pittum Haketoret to fight pandemics. It began in this week’s parsha with the miraculous story Aaron running through the Israelite camp with a pan of incense to end the plague caused by the rebellion of Korach. It ended with another miraculous story: that just by reading the ingredients of the incense, their power to cure end pandemics could be triggered.

The Best Segulah - listen to the Health Authorities

In his book published in response to the COVID pandemic, Rabbi Asher Weiss addressed the question using special remedies (segulot) to prevent illness.  Rav Weiss, who was born in the US in 1953 and lives in Israel, is the author of several works and responsa, is now the posek  for Shaarei Zedek hospital in Jerusalem.

His answer was brief but unequivocal. The first response during a pandemic was “to obey all of the instructions issued by the [Israeli] Ministry of Health: to be careful with social distancing and the like.”

Next, Rabbi Weiss recommended the increased study of the Torah accompanied with prayers and the recitation of psalms which would arouse “Heavenly mercy.” This should be accompanied with more acts of interpersonal kindness, “because being kind is an especially important remedy [segulah] to end a plague. Despite the ease with which these additional measures may be carried out, Rabbi Weiss noted with regret that “people continue to ask for special remedies (segulot meyuhadot) during the pandemic.”  

In truth, we are a generation that runs after these remedies. Innocent and honest people seek out all kinds of mystics [mekubalim leminehem] asking for remedies for everything. To our great sadness, the more bizarre the remedy, the more people want it. 

Bava Basra 3b ~ How to Mellify a Corpse

Herod the Weird

Today's page of Talmud contains a bizarre account of the sexual proclivities of Herod the Great, the Jewish Roman King who died in 4 BCE. Herod took a fancy to one of the women in the House of the Hasmoneans, where he was a slave. He led a rebellion, killing all members of the Hasmonean house but the one woman of his desires. Then comes this:  

בבא בתרא ג, ב

 כי חזת ההיא ינוקתא דקא בעי למינסבה סליקא לאיגרא ורמא קלא אמרה כל מאן דאתי ואמר מבית חשמונאי קאתינא עבדא הוא דלא אישתיירא מינייהו אלא ההיא ינוקתא וההיא ינוקתא נפלה מאיגרא לארעא טמנה שבע שנין בדובשא איכא דאמרי בא עליה איכא דאמרי לא בא עליה

When she saw that he [Herod] wanted to marry her, she went up on to a roof and cried out "...I am throwing myself down from this roof." He preserved her body in honey for seven years. Some say that he practiced necrophilia with her, others that he did not...

While studying Bava Kamma we discussed the medicinal properties of honey. We noted that although the Talmud described honey as being harmful to your health, it is in fact very good for you. It has antibiotic and antiviral properties, helps with a cough, and has been claimed as a therapy for dozens of medical conditions.  In today's page of Talmud we can add another use for honey: to preserve body parts. Or even whole bodies.

Honey as a MEDICAL Preservative

Dr. Shankargouda Patil is a senior lecturer at the Ramaiah Dental College in Bangalore, India, and has published two papers on honey as a preservative. In one experiment Dr. Patil took "commercially available fresh goat meat" and placed each bit into containers containing either formalin, water, honey or jaggery syrup. (Jaggery syrup being a coarse brown Indian sugar made by evaporating the sap of palm trees.) After waiting all of twenty-four hours he then processed the tissues and stained them as you would any medical specimen.  He noted that although formalin is routinely used to preserve medical specimens, it is highly toxic. And as I recall from my days in the lab, highly smelly. So it makes sense to see if there are alternative preservatives.  Like honey. 

Photomicrograph of the tissues fixed in: A. Formalin, B. Honey, C. Sugar syrup, D. Molasses syrup, E. Distilled water (H & E, 40X). From Patil S, Premalatha B R, Rao R S, Ganavi B S. Revelation in the Field of Tissue Preservation – A Preliminary Study on Natural Formalin Substitutes. J Int Oral Health 2013; 5(1):31-38.

Patil notes that honey's high osmolarity, low pH and the presence of components such as hydrogen peroxide and phenol inhibine in it all contribute to its anti-oxidative and antibacterial effect. Here is how he thinks honey works as a fixative:

From Patil S, Premalatha B R, Rao R S, Ganavi B S. Revelation in the Field of Tissue Preservation – A Preliminary Study on Natural Formalin Substitutes. J Int Oral Health 2013; 5(1):31-38.

Ever keen to push the boundaries of honey as a medical preservative, Dr Patil published a second paper titled Natural sweeteners as fixatives in histopathology: A longitudinal study. This time he studied the fixative property of jaggery and honey over a six-month period and compared them with formalin as a control.

From Patil S, et al. Natural sweeteners as fixatives in histopathology: A longitudinal study. Journal of Natural Science, Biology and Medicine 2015, 6 (1); 67-70  

Macroscopic appearance of tissues after 6 months of fixation with: (a) Formalin, (b) jaggery, and (c) honey. From Patil S, et al. 2015. 

The conclusion from all this was that at the end of six months, honey was as good a fixative as formalin. In addition, the tissues preserved in honey had no significant odor, while the formalin preserved tissues were "pungent."  On the down side though, honey left the tissues a light-brown color, while formalin caused no color change.  But all this is small potatoes compared to Herod's efforts to preserve an entire human corpse. And it turns out that Herod wasn't the only one who carried out this rather peculiar exercise. 

“הדבש נראה שיש לו שתי סגולות האחת למהר למחות ולכלות הדברים הנחתכים הנופלים לתוכו. והשניה להעמיד ולקיים הדברים הנחתכים הנטמנים בתוכו”

— שו"ת הרשב"א חלק א סימן פ

IT JUST GOT WEIRDER

Human female fetus (a) 20 weeks gestational age before and, (b) after embalming for one month in honey. From Sharquie K.E. Najim R.A. Embalming with honey. Saudi Med J 2004; 25 (11). 1755-1756.

In a paper published in 2004 in the Saudi Medical Journal, researchers from the medical college of Baghdad took these experiments to a whole new level. They preserved mice, rabbits and then ... two human fetuses in honey, to evaluate the embalming qualities of honey.

After embalming the 2 human fetuses in honey for one month and leaving them to dry at room temperature, they were mummified and shrunken. The weight of the first fetus changed from 500gm to 115gm while the second fetus weight changed from 400g to 95g. Both fetuses were darker in color. Both fetuses were observed for a period of one year without any change in their shape despite being kept at room temperature.

In case you were wondering, the authors note that "the protocol for the research project was approved by the ethical committee at the College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Iraq. For human fetuses embalming, the nature of the experiment was explained to the parents and their approval was taken, to use the fetus for the experiments." Well that makes me feel a whole lot better.

Preserving Human Corpses in Honey

In her entertaining book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach wrote that "in twelfth-century Arabia, it was possible to procure an item known as a mellified man. The verb to mellify" she continues, "comes from the Latin for honey, mel. Mellified man was dead human remains steeped in honey." Vicki Leon picks up the story in her equally entertaining book How to Mellify a Corpse: And Other Human Stories of Ancient Science and Superstition.

It had long been common knowledge that the Babylonians embalmed with wax and honey. But the big news began when Alexander the Great died at age thirty-three. Always organized, Alex had left pre-need instructions to mellify his remains. The high sugar content of honey draws water from cells and gradually dehydrates tissues. Thus, if honey happens to surround a corpse, under the right conditions it produces a drying action while also preserving.  It seemed to work for Alex. His body survived a 1,000-mile road trip, a corpse-napping and decades-long display u a glass coffin in Memphis, Egypt - and he was still being called 'lifelike' when last seen centuries later by Roman Emperor Carcalla.

The story of Herod's sexual proclivities with a dead body recounted in today's page of Talmud are, I hope, wildly exaggerated.  But the ability of honey to preserve a dead body are, it turns out, quite likely to be true.  Just try to forget all this by next Rosh Hashanah. 

Talmudology on the Parsha, Shelach: How Do You Make Techelet?

במדבר 15: 27–28

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהֹוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר׃

דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם וְעָשׂוּ לָהֶם צִיצִת עַל־כַּנְפֵי בִגְדֵיהֶם לְדֹרֹתָם וְנָתְנוּ עַל־צִיצִת הַכָּנָף פְּתִיל תְּכֵלֶת׃

The LORD said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner.

The Blood of the Chilazon

The Torah teaches that the fringes of some garments must have a blue cord running through them. But it leaves out the details of how to make this color, which was a lot more difficult than you may have thought. The rabbis of the Talmud stepped in and identified the ingredients:

מנחות מב, ב

אמר ליה אביי לרב שמואל בר רב יהודה הא תכילתא היכי צבעיתו לה אמר ליה מייתינן דם חלזון וסמנין ורמינן להו ביורה [ומרתחינן ליה] ושקלינא פורתא בביעתא וטעמינן להו באודרא ושדינן ליה לההוא ביעתא וקלינן ליה לאודרא

From here.

Abaye said to Rav Shmuel bar Rav Yehuda: How do you dye this sky-blue wool to be used for ritual fringes? Rav Shmuel bar Rav Yehuda said to Abaye: We bring blood of a chilazon and various herbs and put them in a pot and boil them. And then we take a bit of the resulting dye in an egg shell and test it by using it to dye a wad of wool to see if it has attained the desired hue. And then we throw away that egg shell and its contents and burn the wad of wool.

It is clear from Rav Shmuel's detailed instructions that the entire process depends on one ingredient - "the blood of the chilazon" - which was used to make the dye that produced techelet and color the ritual fringes known as tzitzit. But what exactly is the chilazon? It turns out to be a rather common snail found in the Mediterranean, but for centuries the identity of the chilazon was lost. Here is the story of how it was re-discovered.

Pliny the Elder and his recipe

It wasn't just the Jews that were boiling up blue dye. Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE.) lived at least two  centuries before Abaye and Rav Shmuel, and left us his own version of the process outlined in the Talmud:

The most favourable season for taking these fish is after the rising of the Dog-star, or else before spring... After it is taken, the vein is extracted...to which it is requisite to add salt, a sextarius [~20oz] to every hundred pounds of juice...leave them to steep for a period of three days...then set to boil in vessels of tin... About the tenth day, generally, the whole contents of the cauldron are in a liquified state, upon which a fleece...is plunged into it by way of making trial...The wool is left to lie in soak for five hours, and then, after carding it, it is thrown in again, until it has fully imbibed the colour... To produce the Tyrian hue the wool is soaked in the juice of the pelagiæ while the mixture is in an uncooked and raw state; after which its tint is changed by being dipped in the juice of the buccinum [a sea snail]. It is considered of the best quality when it has exactly the colour of clotted blood, and is of a blackish hue to the sight, but of a shining appearance when held up to the light; hence it is that we find Homer speaking of "purple blood".

So Pliny described a “fish” as the source of the dye. Was this the sea creature called the chilazon? Later in the same tractate (44a) we have another description of the mysterious chilazon.

ת"ר חלזון זהו גופו דומה לים וברייתו דומה לדג ועולה אחד לשבעים שנה ובדמו צובעין תכלת לפיכך דמיו יקרים

The Sages taught: This chilazon, [which is the source of the sky-blue dye used in ritual fringes, has the following characteristics:] Its body resembles the sea, its form resembles that of a fish, it emerges once in seventy years, and with its blood one dyes wool sky-blue for ritual fringes. It is scarce, and therefore it is expensive.

It is sea-like and fish-like and is rare ("once in seventy years"), and it is hard to find. OK, but not terribly helpful in figuring out its identity.

As early as 2,000 BCE the Phoenicians had been producing a blue-purple dye from shellfish. The identity of this chilazon creature was clear to the Romans and to sages of the Talmud, but it was lost over the centuries. Or almost lost. It was a point of scholarly and religious debate in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and then some neighbors of mine when I lived in Eftat figured it out. 

“As early as 2,000BCE purple dye was associated with the Phoenicians, who traded in purple-dyed fabrics...The word “Canaan” may derive from the Akkadian kinahhu, “red-purple,” while “phoenicia” probably comes from the Greek phoinos, “dark-red”...the shellfish utilized for these dyes are the Murex trunculus and the Murex brandaris. The shellfish were crushed, boiled in salt, and placed in the sun; afterwards the secretions turned purple. Eight thousand mollusks yielded one gram of purple dye.”

— Philip King & Lawrence Stager. Life in Biblical Israel. Wstminster John Knox Press 2001. 161

Identifying the Chilazon

1. The Rebbe of Radzyn

The tradition of using a sea creature to dye clothing was never entirely lost. In 1685, for example, a Mr William Cole of Bristol reported that a "purple-fish" (by which he meant a sea snail or mollusk) was being used to dye "fine linens of ladies and gentlemen" on the coast of Ireland. But it wasn't until the nineteenth century that the search was taken seriously by the Jewish community.

“...there was a certain person living by the Sea-side in some Port or Creek in Ireland, who made considerable gain by marking with a delicate durable Crimson Color, fine Linnen of Ladies, Gent &c...made by some liquid substance taken out of a Shell-fish...”

— A Letter from Mr William Cole of Bristol, to the Phil. Society of Oxford; Containing His Observations on the Purple Fish. Philosophical Transactions 1685. 15;1278-1286

The common cuttlefish - the source of the Radzyn techelet. Courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It was R. Gershon Henoch Leiner, the Rebbe of Radzyn(1839-1890) who began the modern search for the clilazon. Once the creature had been identified he argued, it would be used dye the strings of the otherwise white tzitzit, and return to a more authentic observance of the mitzvah. The search brought the rebbe to Naples, Italy, where he concluded that the cuttlefish (sepia officinalis), a kind of squid, was the long-lost chilazon. The cuttlefish produced a dark ink when threatened, and after some help from local chemists, he hit on a method to turn that ink into a blue dye. 

However, there were three problems with the Radzyn techelet. First, Maimonides in his Mishnah Torah ruled that techelet must resist fading, but the Radzyn dye could be easily washed out.

“וְהַתְּכֵלֶת הָאֲמוּרָה בַּצִּיצִית צָרִיךְ שֶׁתִּהְיֶה צְבִיעָתָהּ צְבִיעָה יְדוּעָה שֶׁעוֹמֶדֶת בְּיָפְיָהּ וְלֹא תִּשְׁתַּנֶּה
The blue thread mentioned in connection with fringes must be dyed with a special dye which retains its color and does not change...”

— Maimonides. Laws of Tzitzit 2:1

Second, in order to produce Radzyn techelet, the cuttlefish needed to be killed to extract its ink.  But the Talmud (Shabbat 75a) notes that the longer the chilazon is alive, the better its dye (דכמה דאית ביה נשמה טפי ניחא ליה כי היכי דליציל ציבעיה).  And the third problem with the Radzyn-cuttlefish-is-techelt theory was Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog.

2. Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog

The Banded Dye-Murex, Murex trunculus. From here.

Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog (1888-1959) was born in Poland and at the age of ten emigrated with his family to Leeds in the north of England. There he was educated in talmudic studies mostly by his father, and he later attended the University of London There, the topic of his PhD thesis was "The Dying of Purple in Ancient Israel" and focused on the identity of the chilazon. R. Herzog went on to succeeded Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, a position he held from 1936-1948. His grandson in the current President of Israel.

R. Herzog was critical of the conclusion of the Rebbe of Radzyn that identified the common cuttlefish as the chilazon.  In 1909 he had the Radzyn dye sent to the accomplished German chemist Paul Friedlander, who had earlier identified (or re-identified) the murex trunculus as the source of the dye called Tyrian purple (a discovery for which Friedlander was awarded the Lieben Prize in Chemistry). Friedlander tested the Radzyn dye and concluded it was itself unable to produce the blue color of techelet. Others chemists concluded that the Radzyn dye was in fact a synthetic compound known as Prussian blue, produced by the oxidation of ferrous ferrocyanide salts. This was confirmed when R. Herzog obtained the recipe for the dye from Radzyn hasidim. It called for the cuttlefish dye to be heated with iron filings and potash, and these hasidic dyers were actually making Prussian blue.  In fact the color of the Radzyn dye was nothing to do with the cuttlefish - it all came from the added chemicals. This left R. Herzog with a problem: if the cuttlefish was not in fact the chilazon, well then what was?   

Although it was known that the murex could produce a purple-blue dye, R. Herzog rejected this for the following reasons:

1. The snail does not appear "once every seventy years" yet this description appears in the Talmud (on 44a).  

2. The dye is not color fast. Or at least that is what he thought.  

3. The dye is a purple-blue color. But techelet is sky blue, as the great Rabbi Meir reminds us:

סוטה יז, א

היה ר"מ אומר מה נשתנה תכלת מכל מיני צבעונין מפני שהתכלת דומה לים וים דומה לרקיע ורקיע דומה לכסא הכבוד

R. Meir used to explain how techelt is different from all other colors: The color of techelet is similar to the color of the ocean; and the color of the ocean is similar to the color of the sky; and the color of the sky is similar to God's Glorious Throne.

Poor Rabbi Herzog never did reach a conclusion about the identity of the chilazon. But he was certain of two things. The Radzyn dye was not techelet, and the Radzyn cuttlefish was not the chilazon. Something was missing. And that something was sunlight.

It is all about the sunlight. From Ptil Tekhelet.

The dye produced from the murex snails is indeed dark purple and not permanent, but (and this is super important) if it was exposed to bright sunshine it turned a magnificent sky-blue color, and it didn't fade or wash out.  This was discovered quite by accident in the early 1980s by Dr. Otto Elsner of the Shenkar Institute in Tel Aviv. Chemists who had produced the purple dye from the murex snail had done so in their labs, far away from natural sunshine.  But the dye extracted from the gland of the murex snail, when exposed to sunlight, turns blue in color. Bingo. Sky-blue techelet. 

“Elsner researched the chemical process taking place in his sun-drenched dye mixture and discovered that while in solution the dye molecules are less stable than in their natural condition. Ultraviolet energy - such as found in the rays of bright sunlight - can break the bonds that attach some of the atoms to each other within the dye molecule. These photochemical processes alter the purple and red constituents of the murex extract and leave primarily indigo, which is of course, pure sky blue.”

— Baruch Sterman and Judy Taubes Sterman. The Rarest Blue. Efrat, Ptil Techelet 2012. 127.

3. my neighbors in efrat.

In the late 1990s I lived in Efrat, part of the Gush Etzion Block, and was a neighbor of Baruch and Judy Sterman.  It was their hard work, together with Ari Greenspan, Joel Guberman, and many others, who helped restore the ancient tradition of techelet. While the ability of the murex to produce the dye was already known, and the need for ultraviolet light to fix the dye had been fortuitously discovered, this group perfected the harvesting of the snails, (which involved, I kid you not, Greek and later Croatian fishermen) and set about manufacturing techelt-dyed tzitzit on a large scale. To date their organization Ptil Tekhelet have produced some 200,000 pairs, as well as this excellent guide to the process. For a deep dive into all things techelet, I also recommend their fascinating book “The Rarest Blue.”

The ABSORPTION Spectrum of Murex Techelet

In 1991, Wouters and Verhecken published High-performance liquid chromatography of blue and purple indigoid natural dyes in the rather niche Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists. The two Belgium chemists measured the absorption spectra of various indigo containing dyes including “silk fabric, stained with the contents of the hypobranchial gland of Murex trunculus.” The absorption spectrum measures the wavelength of radiation (or light) absorbed by an object, and it is this absorption that gives objects their color. Here is the absorption spectrum of indigotin, the color-giving component of techelet:

Absorption spectrum in the u.v. and visible light region of Indigotin. From JWouters and A Verhecken. High-performance liquid chromatography of blue and purple indigoid natural dyes. JSDC 1991: 107; 266-269.

As you can see there is a peak around 613nm. A similar finding was reported in 2015 by a researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Bar-Ilan University, when they examined textiles found in a cave in Wadi Murabba'at, the Judean desert. The textiles date to the Roman period, were identified as having been dyed with using the murex sea snail Hexaplex trunculus. Here is the absorption spectrum they published:

UV–visible spectra of the compounds found in Murex species: indigotin (IND) and its derivatives, monobromoindigotin (MBI) and dibromoindigotin (DBI), with absorbance maxima between 601 nm and 613 nm; indirubin (INR), monobromoindirubin (MBIR), and dibromoindirubin (DBIR) with absorbance maxima between 536 nm and 544 nm. From Sukenik et al. Chemical analysis of Murex-dyed textiles from wadi Murabba'at, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 2015; 3:565–570.

It too reports that indigotin (and its derivatives) have absorbance maxima between 601nm and 613 nm.” The number 613 of course has a special significance in Judaism; it is the traditional number of commandments that Jews must observe. This coincidence was noted by the Ptil Tekhelet organization who note it in their guide to Menachot chapter 4:

Now in fact, as you can tell from the figures above, the peak absorption spectrum of indigotin is not 613nm, but in the 200-300nm range. However this peak lies in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, and so is not visible to us (though bees are able to see it). Make of this finding what you will.

A do-it-yourself guide to making techelet

This week I carried out a very unscientific survey of the number of techelt colored tzitizit worn in my shul. Out of a total of 58 talesim, 7 (12%) had techelet fringes (and I saw no techelet fringes in the women’s section). So if you want to get a set for yourself, you can either buy a ready-made pair, or do-it-yourself and follow this recipe (courtesy of Baruach Sterman).

1. Find the snails, break them open and extract the glands

2. Mush those glands in a food processor (they take on a dark purple hue), and then dry them out (at this point they are very stable and can be stored for a long time - even years - without refrigeration).

3. When ready to dye, put the dye into solution and produce a chemical process called reduction. To do that add water and a base and a reducing agent (Baruch uses sodium dithionite) and heat moderately. (In ancient times this was done by a two-week fermentation process which has been replicated).

4. Once the dye is in solution it takes on a green-yellow color (this is called leuco-indigo) and at that point expose to sunlight. Then immerse the wool/threads.

5. When the wool is removed and exposed to air, the dye undergoes oxidation and takes on its final color - and becomes insoluble again which keeps it fixed in the wool matrix.

That’s all there is to it. So what are you waiting for?

Talmudology on the Parsha, Beha'alotecha: The Risks & Benefits of Lashon Hara

In this week’s parsha, we read the story of Miriam’s punishment for her speaking ill of her brother Moshe and his wife.

במדבר 12: 1–16

וַתְּדַבֵּר מִרְיָם וְאַהֲרֹן בְּמֹשֶׁה עַל־אֹדוֹת הָאִשָּׁה הַכֻּשִׁית אֲשֶׁר לָקָח כִּי־אִשָּׁה כֻשִׁית לָקָח׃ וַיֹּאמְרוּ הֲרַק אַךְ־בְּמֹשֶׁה דִּבֶּר יְהֹוָה הֲלֹא גַּם־בָּנוּ דִבֵּר וַיִּשְׁמַע יְהֹוָה׃ וְהָאִישׁ מֹשֶׁה עָנָו מְאֹד מִכֹּל הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר עַל־פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה׃  וַיֹּאמֶר יְהֹוָה פִּתְאֹם אֶל־מֹשֶׁה וְאֶל־אַהֲרֹן וְאֶל־מִרְיָם צְאוּ שְׁלשְׁתְּכֶם אֶל־אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וַיֵּצְאוּ שְׁלשְׁתָּם׃ וַיֵּרֶד יְהֹוָה בְּעַמּוּד עָנָן וַיַּעֲמֹד פֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל וַיִּקְרָא אַהֲרֹן וּמִרְיָם וַיֵּצְאוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם׃ וַיֹּאמֶר שִׁמְעוּ־נָא דְבָרָי אִם־יִהְיֶה נְבִיאֲכֶם יְהֹוָה בַּמַּרְאָה אֵלָיו אֶתְוַדָּע בַּחֲלוֹם אֲדַבֶּר־בּוֹ׃ לֹא־כֵן עַבְדִּי מֹשֶׁה בְּכל־בֵּיתִי נֶאֱמָן הוּא׃ פֶּה אֶל־פֶּה אֲדַבֶּר־בּוֹ וּמַרְאֶה וְלֹא בְחִידֹת וּתְמֻנַת יְהֹוָה יַבִּיט וּמַדּוּעַ לֹא יְרֵאתֶם לְדַבֵּר בְּעַבְדִּי בְמֹשֶׁה׃וַיִּחַר־אַף יְהֹוָה בָּם וַיֵּלַךְ׃

וְהֶעָנָן סָר מֵעַל הָאֹהֶל וְהִנֵּה מִרְיָם מְצֹרַעַת כַּשָּׁלֶג וַיִּפֶן אַהֲרֹן אֶל־מִרְיָם וְהִנֵּה מְצֹרָעַת׃ וַיֹּאמֶר אַהֲרֹן אֶל־מֹשֶׁה בִּי אֲדֹנִי אַל־נָא תָשֵׁת עָלֵינוּ חַטָּאת אֲשֶׁר נוֹאַלְנוּ וַאֲשֶׁר חָטָאנוּ: אַל־נָא תְהִי כַּמֵּת אֲשֶׁר בְּצֵאתוֹ מֵרֶחֶם אִמּוֹ וַיֵּאָכֵל חֲצִי בְשָׂרוֹ׃ וַיִּצְעַק מֹשֶׁה אֶל־יְהֹוָה לֵאמֹר אֵל נָא רְפָא נָא לָהּ׃

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהֹוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה וְאָבִיהָ יָרֹק יָרַק בְּפָנֶיהָ הֲלֹא תִכָּלֵם שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תִּסָּגֵר שִׁבְעַת יָמִים מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה וְאַחַר תֵּאָסֵף׃ וַתִּסָּגֵר מִרְיָם מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה שִׁבְעַת יָמִים וְהָעָם לֹא נָסַע עַד־הֵאָסֵף מִרְיָם׃

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married: “He married a Cushite woman!” They said, “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” The LORD heard it. Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any other man on earth. Suddenly the LORD called to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting.” So the three of them went out. The LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, stopped at the entrance of the Tent, and called out, “Aaron and Miriam!” The two of them came forward; and He said, “Hear these My words: When a prophet of the LORD arises among you, I make Myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is trusted throughout My household. With him I speak mouth to mouth, plainly and not in riddles, and he beholds the likeness of the LORD. How then did you not shrink from speaking against My servant Moses!” Still incensed with them, the LORD departed.

As the cloud withdrew from the Tent, there was Miriam stricken with snow-white scales! When Aaron turned toward Miriam, he saw that she was stricken with scales. And Aaron said to Moses, “O my lord, account not to us the sin which we committed in our folly. Let her not be as one dead, who emerges from his mother’s womb with half his flesh eaten away.” So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “O God, pray heal her!”

But the LORD said to Moses, “If her father spat in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut out of camp for seven days, and then let her be readmitted.” So Miriam was shut out of camp seven days; and the people did not march on until Miriam was readmitted. After that the people set out from Hazeroth and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.

Although both of Moshe’s siblings spoke ill of his wife, it was Miriam, and she alone, who was punished. This punishment is such an important part of Jewish history that later, the Torah tells us to remember it:

דברים 24:9

זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְמִרְיָם בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם׃

Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the journey after you left Egypt.

Rashi cites the Sifrei when he comments on this verse:

זכור את אשר עשה ה' אלהיך למרים. אִם בָּאתָ לְהִזָּהֵר שֶׁלֹּא תִלְקֶה בְּצָרַעַת אַל תְּסַפֵּר לָשׁוֹן הָרָע, זְכֹר הֶעָשׂוּי לְמִרְיָם שֶׁדִּבְּרָה בְאָחִיהָ וְלָקְתָה בִנְגָעִים

REMEMBER WHAT THE LORD THY GOD DID UNTO MIRIAM — if you wish to guard yourself against being stricken with leprosy, do not speak slander! Remember what was done unto Miriam who spoke slander against her brother and was stricken with a leprous plague! (cf. Sifrei Devarim 275:1).

The Injunction against speaking Lashon Hara

From a young age, we teach our children not to speak lashon hara (lit. evil speech), which is usually translated as slander, or gossip. And for good reason, as the Rambam makes clear:

רמב’ם הל׳ דעות, 7:3

אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים שָׁלֹשׁ עֲבֵרוֹת נִפְרָעִין מִן הָאָדָם בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְאֵין לוֹ חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. עֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים וְגִלּוּי עֲרָיוֹת וּשְׁפִיכוּת דָּמִים. וְלָשׁוֹן הָרַע כְּנֶגֶד כֻּלָּם. וְעוֹד אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים כָּל הַמְסַפֵּר בְּלָשׁוֹן הָרַע כְּאִלּוּ כּוֹפֵר בָּעִקָּר. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהילים יב ה) "אֲשֶׁר אָמְרוּ לִלְשֹׁנֵנוּ נַגְבִּיר שְׂפָתֵינוּ אִתָּנוּ מִי אָדוֹן לָנוּ". וְעוֹד אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים שְׁלֹשָׁה לָשׁוֹן הָרַע הוֹרֶגֶת. הָאוֹמְרוֹ. וְהַמְקַבְּלוֹ. וְזֶה שֶׁאוֹמֵר עָלָיו. וְהַמְקַבְּלוֹ יוֹתֵר מִן הָאוֹמְרוֹ

Our Sages said: "There are three sins for which retribution is exacted from a person in this world and, [for which] he is [nonetheless,] denied a portion in the world to come: idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, and murder. Lashon horah is equivalent to all of them.’”

Our Sages also said: "Anyone who speaks lashon horah is like one who denies God as [implied by Psalms 12:5]: 'Those who said: With our tongues we will prevail; our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us?’”

In addition, they said: "Lashon horah kills three [people], the one who speaks it, the one who listens to it, and the one about whom it is spoken. The one who listens to it [suffers] more than the one who speaks it.

Here is how the famous Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (d.1933) explained the punishment meted out to Miriam. He is known as the Chofetz Chaim, after the name of his first work (he published over twenty) which addressed the rules of gossip:

 ספר חפץ חיים, פתיחה להלכות לשון הרע ורכילות

"זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה ה' אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְמִרְיָם בַּדֶּרֶךְ" וְגוֹ', שֶׁהִזְהִירָנוּ הַתּוֹרָה בָּזֶה, שֶׁנִּזְכֹּר בַּפֶּה תָּמִיד הָעֹנְשׁ הַגָּדוֹל, אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה ה' יִתְבָּרַךְ לַצַדֶּקֶת מִרְיָם הַנְּבִיאָה שֶׁלֹּא דִּבְּרָה אֶלָּא בְּאָחִיהָ אֲשֶׁר אָהֲבַתְהוּ כְּנַפְשָׁה, וְגִדְּלַתְהוּ עַל בִּרְכֶּיהָ, וְסִכְּנָה עַצְמָה לְהַצִילוֹ מִן הַיָּם, וְהִיא לֹא דִּבְּרָה בִּגְנוּתוֹ אֶלָּא מַה שֶּׁהִשְׁוְתָה אוֹתוֹ לִשְׁאָר נְבִיאִים, וְלֹא דִּבְּרָה בְּפָנָיו שֶׁיֵּבוֹשׁ וְלֹא בִּפְנֵי רַבִּים, רַק בֵּינָה לְבֵין אָחִיהָ הַקָדוֹשׁ בְּצִנְעָה, וְהוּא לֹא הִקְפִּיד עַל כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלּוּ שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (במדבר י"ב ג'): "וְהָאִישׁ משֶה עָנָו מְאֹד", וְאַף עַל פִּי כֵן לֹא הוֹעִילוּהָ כָּל מַעֲשֶׂיהָ הַטוֹבִים וְנֶעֶנְשָׁה בְּצָרַעַת עַל זֶה, קַל וָחֹמֶר לִשְׁאָר בְּנֵי אָדָם הַטִפְּשִׁים, הַמַרְבִּים לְדַבֵּר גְּדוֹלוֹת וְנִפְלָאוֹת עַל חַבְרֵיהֶם, שֶׁבְּוַדַּאי יֵעָנְשׁוּ עַל זֶה מְאֹד

"Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when you went out of Egypt." The Torah exhorted us hereby that we mention verbally, always, the great punishment [leprosy] that the Blessed Lord brought upon the tzadeketh, Miriam the prophetess — who spoke only about her brother, whom she loved as her soul...she did not speak in denigration of him, but only compared him to other prophets. And she did not speak so to his face to shame him, and not in public, but only to her brother Aaron, privately. And he [Moses] was not offended by all this, but in spite of which all her good deeds did not avail her and she was punished with leprosy for this. How much more so will other people, the fools, who are prolix in speaking "great and awesome things" against their friends, be severely punished for this.

In his Covenant and Conversation, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks described the nature of lashon hara:

It is the kind of thing that people speak with hushed voices and often deny when accused of it. It sows suspicion and dissension. It wrecks communities. It can destroy reputations and careers. It damages relationships, undermining the respect and trust on which families and communities depend. It is secretive and devastating…

Words hurt. Words harm. Verbal injuries may cut deeper even than physical injuries. They tear the fabric of society. They damage relation­ships and destroy trust – and without trust, no society can survive. It was the fate of the slanderer, who sought to undermine relationships of trust, to be condemned to live outside the camp as a moral outcast.

The Sin of Lashon Hara in the Talmud

The rabbis of the Talmud were clear in their condemnation of malicious gossip: In Arachin we read this:

ערכין טו,א

האומר בפיו חמור מן העושה מעשה

One who utters malicious speech with his mouth is a more severe transgressor than one who performs a [forbidden] action

There then follows a long discussion of the sin, or better, the sins of lashon hara:

שכן מצינו שלא נתחתם גזר דין על אבותינו במדבר אלא על לשון הרע

אמר ר' יוחנן משום ר' יוסי בן זימרא כל המספר לשון הרע כאילו כפר בעיקר

אמר ר' יוסי בן זימרא כל המספר לשון הרע נגעים באים עליו

ואמר ריש לקיש כל המספר לשון הרע מגדיל עונות עד לשמים

אמר רב חסדא אמר מר עוקבא כל המספר לשון הרע ראוי לסוקלו באבן

רבי אחא ברבי חנינא אומר סיפר אין לו תקנה

תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל כל המספר לשון הרע מגדיל עונות כנגד שלש עבירות עבודת כוכבים וגילוי עריות ושפיכות דמים

במערבא אמרי לשון תליתאי קטיל תליתאי הורג למספרו ולמקבלו ולאומרו 

Our ancestors in the wilderness were only punished because they spoke lashon hara

Speaking lashon hara is like denying a fundamental tenet of Judaism

Speaking lashon hara is punished with leprosy

When you speak lashon hara the sin is magnified all the way to the heavens

It is fitting that a person who spoke lashon hara be executed by stoning

There is no remedy for one who has spoken lashon hara

Anyone who speaks malicious speech increases his sins to the degree that they correspond to the three cardinal transgressions: Idol worship, and forbidden sexual relations, and bloodshed

In the West, Eretz Yisrael, they say: malicious speech about a third party, kills three people. It kills the one who speaks it, the one who hears it, and the one about whom the malicious speech was said.

THE SCIENCE OF Gossip

Because gossip is widespread across different cultures, it has been the subject of academic study. Over fifty years ago, for example, Bruce Cox spent time on a Hopi Reservation of Native Americans in northeastern Arizona, to study, among other things, what it was that Hopi gossip about. It turns out that they mostly talked about oil exploration, roads, and the installation of utility lines in the villages. So not your usual stuff of gossip. But most of the content of gossip that we recognize as such is about people and what they have done. The academic study of all things gossip is so important that in 2019 Oxford University Press published The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation, which fills an intellectual gap, “providing an integrated understanding of the foundations of gossip and reputation, as well as outlining a potential framework for future research.” And it can be yours for only $144.

“Gossip helps people learn about how to function effectively within the complex and ambiguous structures of human social (and cultural) life. ”

So why do we gossip?

From the academic literature there appear to be four main reasons why people gossip. First, to maintain or strengthen the close relationship between the teller and the hearer. Second, to enable the hearer to learn more about the subject, and third, to harm the subject of the gossip. It is this last reason that is most in keeping with the Jewish aversion to gossip. But there is a fourth reason to gossip that turns out to be vital to the functioning of our human interactions: gossip helps people learn about how to function effectively within the complex and ambiguous structures of human social (and cultural) life.

Why gossiping is good for you

Might this be a positive aspect of gossip? In a review of the literature published in 2004, Roy Baumeister of Florida State University noted that gossip can be used to learn the unwritten rules of social groups and cultures. “Gossip anecdotes communicate rules in narrative form, such as by describing how someone else came to grief by violating social norms. Gossip is thus an extension of observational learning, allowing one to learn from the triumphs and misadventures of people beyond one’s immediate perceptual sphere.”

“Modern human society is a rapidly changing, highly complex system. It offers great opportunities but also contains unforeseen risks and problems. Often neither the problem nor its solution can be foreseen reliably and safely. Individuals may therefore have to make their painful way through a problem’s shifting mazes by hard experience.
The way can be smoothed and softened, however, by learning about the adventures and misadventures of others.”

— Baumeister F. Zhang L. Vohs D. Gossip as Cultural Learning. Review of General Psychology 2004.8, (2): 111–121.

The original work of psychologists who study gossip was based on the notion that it was a form of aggression, and was rooted in the malicious desire to harm others by damaging their reputation. In this way it was identical to the traditional Jewish view. Baumeister concedes that sometimes this may be the case. “People may well seek to harm someone by passing along information that makes him or her look bad, thereby encouraging people to hold a poor opinion of that person (whom we label the target of gossip).” But this might not be the primary motive of the gossiper.

Consider the work of Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist who directs the the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. He has spent much of his academic career studying gossip and has come to the conclusion that gossip is an important form of social communication. It bonds people together as they share information in the form of gossip about themselves and about others in their social community. In humans, gossip has replaced grooming as a way for people to maintain social relationships. “Apes spend hours picking bugs off each other,” wrote Baumeister summarizing Dunbar’s work, “while people spend hours discussing the misadventures of their neighbors, and in both cases the jointly spent time can help cement and maintain social bonds.”

In addition, gossip serves as observational learning of a cultural kind. By hearing about the troubles of others, we may not have to endure costs to ourselves because we will have successfully avoided making the mistake they made. Gossip not only serves to educate the listener about social norms; it also affirms them. And gossip is not just for adults. Children as young as four and five will gossip in a way “which sounds remarkably similar in form to the gossip of adults.”

The Chofetz Chaim on helpful gossip

The Chofetz Chaim wrote that lashon hara was the most significant cause (אַךְ חֵטְא הַלָּשׁוֹן הוּא עַל כִֻּלּוֹ) of the then prolonged exile of the Jewish people, and that if the magnitude of the rabbinic prohibitions against the practice were really understood, it would “make the hairs of your head stand on end” (וּמִי שֶׁיְּעַיֵּן וְיִתְבּוֹנִן הֵיטֵב בָּהֶם, תִּסְמַּר שַׂעֲרוֹת רֹאשׁוֹ מִגֹּדֶל הֶעָוֹן).

As the Chofetz Chaim makes clear, though, not all negative speech about others falls under the prohibition of lashon hara. He gives this example:

If a person sees that Reuven wants to enter into partnership with Shimon, and Shimon does not know Reuven's nature, and the person knows Reuven well from the past — that he is indifferent to the money of others because of his bad nature — he should warn Shimon from the beginning not to enter into partnership with him, and there is no lashon hara in this.

This example is what some academics have described as helpful gossip - it provides useful knowledge for living in a community that would otherwise have to be learned the hard way. The Chofetz Chaim would agree, but there are many more examples in which such gossip would be prohibited. And in the politically fractured and highly partisan societies in which we are living, there is no doubt that whether or not gossip is an evolutionary necessary tool, the damage that is caused by malicious speech is profound and irreversible. And it’s not just the target of the speech that is damaged, as the Talmud teaches. Lashon hara “kills the one who speaks it, the one who hears it, and the one about whom it is said.”

National Speak No Evil Day

In his book Words That Hurt, Words That Heal: How to Choose Words Wisely and Well, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin envisioned a “National Speak No Evil Day” that would eliminate “the pollution of our emotional atmosphere.” It would be a day on which “we would refrain from saying a single nasty comment about others…and will speak about others with the same kindness and fairness that they wish others to exercise when speaking about them.”

In fact in 1994 a resolution in the US Senate introduced by Senators Connie Mack of Florida and the late Joseph Lieberman ז׳ל of Connecticut aimed to establish a “National Speak No Evil Day.” The Canadian Member of Parliament Irwin Cotler, made a similar proposal: to declare a day on which “both citizens and politicians would refrain from personal insults and ad-hominem attacks.” So it’s not just the Talmud that attempts to prevent lashon hara. Some of our cherished democracies have had the same laudable aspiration.

“Whereas words used unfairly, whether expressed through excessive anger, unfair criticism, public and private humiliation, bigoted comments, cruel jokes, or rumors and malicious gossip, traumatize and destroy many lives;

Whereas an unwillingness or inability of many parents to control what the parents say when angry causes the infliction of often irrevocably damaging verbal abuse on the children;

Whereas bigoted words are often used to dehumanize entire religious, racial, and ethnic groups, and inflame hostility in a manner that may lead to physical attacks;

Whereas the spreading of negative, often unfair, untrue, or exaggerated, comments or rumors about others often inflicts irrevocable damage on the victim of the gossip, the damage epitomized in the expression “character assassination’’; and

Whereas the inability of a person to refrain for 24 hours from speaking unkind and cruel words demonstrates a lack of control as striking as the inability of an alcoholic to refrain for 24 hours from drinking liquor:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate designates May 14, 1996, and May 14, 1997, as ``National Speak No Evil Day’’.

The Senate requests that the President issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe the days with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and educational endeavors.”

— S.Res.151 — 104th Congress (1995-1996)