Why a Miser's House Is Struck With Leprosy and Exposed

And concerning the evil eye (stinginess): Rabbi Isaac said, when a person's eye is too evil to lend out his belongings, a man goes and says, "Lend me your scythe," "Lend me your axe," or any object, and he says to him, "I have none." What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do to him? He strikes his house with leprosy. He comes to the priest and says to him, "Something like a plague has appeared to me in the house," and the priest commands, and "he shall break down the house" etc. (Leviticus 14:45). And everyone sees his utensils as they drag them out and bring them outside, and they publicize his utensils, and everyone says, "Did he not say, 'I have no scythe, I have no axe'? Behold, he has such-and-such an object, and he did not want to lend it, and his eye was stingy"—and so he is exposed. Where is this shown? Where it says, "The produce of his house shall depart, poured out in the day of His wrath" (Job 20:28). And some say leprosy comes also for arrogance, from Naaman, for "Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, [...and the man was a mighty warrior, a leper]" (II Kings 5:1), because he was arrogant. And leprosy comes also upon one who speaks a word against his fellow. So you find it with Moses our master, when he said, "But they will not believe me" (Exodus 4:1). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: They are believers, children of believers—believers, "And the people believed" (Exodus 4:31); children of believers, as it is said, "And he believed in the LORD" (Genesis 15:6). Rather, you must be afflicted in your body, for one who suspects the innocent is afflicted in his body, as it is said, "And the LORD said to him again, 'Put now your hand into your bosom.' [And he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow]" (Exodus 4:6). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: See the difference between you and the nations of the world. When they sin, I strike their body first and afterward their houses, as it is said, "And the LORD afflicted Pharaoh with great plagues, and his house" (Genesis 12:17). But if you sin, I strike your houses first. Where is this shown? From what they read on the matter: "When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession" (Leviticus 14:34).