(33) GOD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: (34) When you enter the land of Canaan that I give you as a possession, and I inflict an eruptive plague upon a house in the land you possess,

ונתתי נגע צרעת [WHEN YOU COME TO THE LAND …]I WILL PUT THE PLAGUE OF THE LEPROSY — This was an announcement to them that these plagues would come upon them (Sifra, Metzora, Section 5 4; Horayot 10a), because the Amorites concealed treasures of gold in the walls of their houses during the whole 40 years the Israelites were in the wilderness (in order that these might not possess them when they conquered Palestine,) and in consequence of the plague they would pull down the house and discover them (Leviticus Rabbah 17:6).

4) "and I put a plague-spot of leprosy": This is a (glad) tiding to them, that plague-spots will come upon them. (When the Canaanites heard of the Israelites' approach, they hid treasures on the walls of their houses — until plague-spots were sent against their houses, and they were razed.)

And it is written: “I will place a mark of leprosy.” Rabbi Ḥiyya taught: Is this good tidings for them, that leprosy will befall them? Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai taught: When the Canaanites heard that Israel was coming upon them, they arose and concealed their money in the houses and in the fields. The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘I promised their ancestors that I will take their descendants into a land full of everything good,’ as it is stated: “Houses full of everything good” (Deuteronomy 6:11). What does the Holy One blessed be He do? He brings leprosy in one’s house, and [the owner] demolishes it and finds the concealed cache.

[WHEN YE ARE COME INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN.] Scripture reads thus because this law applies only in the Land of Israel because of the great status of the land; for the temple was among them, and the Glory was in the midst of the temple.

AND I PUT. The event *The house plagues. is contingent on God’s putting. *The house plagues are a result of divine providence. They do not come by accident.

3) "for a possession": (not) until they conquer it. Whence is it derived that if they conquered it, but did not yet divide it (among the tribes); if they divided it (among the families), but did not yet apportion it into patrimonies and each did not clearly recognize his own — I might think that they would be subject to plague-spot tumah; it is, therefore, written (Vayikra 14:35) "Then he whose house it is shall come" — each must recognize what is his.

1) (Vayikra 14:45) "Then he shall raze the house — its stones, its wood, and all the mortar of the house": We are hereby taught that a house is not subject to plague-spot uncleanliness unless there be in it stones, wood, and mortar....

כי תבאו אל ארץ כנען, “When you will come to the land of Canaan;” ... A different explanation: the reason why when a plague breaks out on a house it must be destroyed, is that the earth of the land of Israel is holy, and its earth does not gladly suffer ritual contamination.

When you come to the land of Canaan which I am giving you as a possession. ... when it says and I will place a plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession, it should have simply said “in your houses.” Although according to Rashi’s explanation that the Amorites hid treasures, etc., this is not a difficulty because it specifies your possession to exclude houses that the Israelites would build there, which would not relate to this reason.

One who speaks lashon hara—first, the walls of his house begin to change.

If he repents, the house is purified.

If he persists in his wickedness until the house must be demolished, then the leather items in his house—those on which he sits and lies—begin to change.

If he repents, they are purified.

If he persists in his wickedness until they must be burned, then his garments begin to change.

If he repents, they are purified.

If he persists in his wickedness until they must be burned, then his skin changes—he becomes afflicted with צרעת, and is set apart and publicly marked, alone—so that he will no longer engage in the conversation of the wicked, which is frivolity and lashon hara.