When we were kids there was a running, popular joke: You go up to someone and say "Your epidermis is showing." This was supposed to be funny because it could make people VERY self-conscious. In fact, epidermis is another word for skin.
Ha ha.
This weeks parshiot teach us about the terrible skin condition called "tzaraas" that one gets for speaking loshon hara. Why the skin? Skin in Hebrew is called עור. The same letters עור can also mean "blind" [although it is pronounced differently]. What is the connection between being blind and having skin [besides the obvious connection that blind people have skin].?
Every person is FILLED with spiritual Light. However, his physicality covers it up. The "skin" blinds one to a person's true value. The reason we have little holes in our skin [pores] is because there must a path to see through to the Light.
After Adam sinned it says that he was given כתנות עור - a garment of skin, meaning that his spirituality was covered up. רבי מאיר - the medrash tells us. had written in his Torah the words כתנות אור . Rebbe Meir whose name means light, was able to see through the עור. He wasn't blinded - he saw the Light.
When a person sins and speaks loshon hara, the problem is that he didn't see the light in the other person and focused on externals. He learns this lesson when his skin is afflicted.
[Based partly on the Sfas Emes]
The lesson: Don't judge people by their externals. Don't marry a girl just because she is pretty. Don't be superficial. There is more to a person that meets the eye. People are filled with Light which is just covered up by the body. Relate to them accordingly.
May you all have a Shabbos-of-Light-Holiness-
