[Avodah] Why Only Miriam Was Punished With Leprosy

cantorwolberg at cox.net cantorwolberg at cox.net
Wed Jun 6 07:25:35 PDT 2012


Both Miriam and Aaron spoke against their brother, Moshe.
Yet, only Miriam was punished with leprosy.
There is a machlokes between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehudah.
Rabbi Akiva maintains that Aaron was also punished with leprosy
albeit to a minor extent. Rabbi Yehuda disagrees and says that 
Aaron's punishment was being reprimanded by God. In any event,
the Torah only specifies that it was Miriam who contracted tzaraas.
Why didn't Aaron get similarly punished? In our legal system if a person
is charged with a crime and spends time in jail prior to a conviction, he is
given credit for "time served." Similarly, Aaron lost 2 sons. That would be
punishment enough for even a future sin. Therefore, I would answer that
Aaron got credit for "time served" (symbolically speaking).


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