Our Gemara on amud aleph discusses how to estimate normal depreciation and spoilage of produce, which has relevance when a watchman is returning an amount of produce deposited, but the original produce is no longer extant.  Thus, if he held 50 lbs of grain, and now is returning it, how much allowance should be made for spoilage?   The Rabbis hold that the amount is dependent according to the measure, and according to the time elapsed. Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri objects. He says the amount of spoilage or loss should not vary based on the amount, rather a proportionate loss should be calculated for one pound as much as 1000.  He rhetorically asks, “And why do the mice care about how much produce the watchman is safeguarding? Don’t they eat the same amount whether it is from much produce and whether it is from little produce?”  

Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri’s logic is compelling! Tosafos (ibid, “Vechi”) quoting the Yerushalmi, explains the rationale of the Rabbis, based on Mouse Psychology:  These mice are wicked. When they see a larger amount of produce, they call in their friends to join. Therefore, the more produce, the more mice, and a merely proportionate calculation would not be sufficient.

Presumably, the Yerushalmi calls the mice “wicked” because instead of merely eating what they need to survive, they also invite their friends over to party.  The Imrei Emes (Likkutim, Bava Metzia 40a) asks, elsewhere, the Gemara (Chulin 63a) says that a particular bird is called the “Chassidah”, because it does kindness (chessed) in sharing its food with peers. Why then is the mouse considered wicked for doing the same thing? The Imrei Emes offers an obvious distinction.  The Chassidah obtains her food from the wild and chooses to share it with peers, while the mouse is freeloading off private food, and then making matters worse, invites his friends to join in. The classic example of doing “chessed oif yenem’s cheshbon - doing kindness while on the backs of others.  The Bais Yisroel is said to have answered differently, while in the middle of the food scarcity of World War I.  The Chassidah immediately shares the food she finds with her friends, while the mouse only asks his friends to join in after he makes sure he has plenty of food for himself first.

This is remarkably similar to the story told in Melachim (II Kings ch. 7) about the Four Metzoraim found in the haftara reading for Parashas Metzora. In this story, we find out that Elisha the prophet predicts an end to the famine, declaring that food prices will dramatically drop within a day. Despite skepticism, his prophecy comes true. The salvation comes about from four persons smitten with tzoraas, who desperate for food, resolve to surrender to the Arameans. When they arrive at Aramean camp, expecting to be taken captive and/or killed, they find it abandoned and filled with food.  Unbeknownst to the lepers, God induced the Arameans to hallucinate an incoming army, causing them to flee in fear of an imagined attack. The lepers indulged in the spoils but then felt compelled to inform their Jewish brethren about their discovery. The Jewish army verified the news and rushed to plunder the Aramean camp, causing the fulfillment of Elisha's prophecy and a sudden abundance of food.

The Gemara (Sanhedrin 107b) has a tradition that these four lepers were actually Gechazi and his sons, cursed by Elisha for their greed. The Gemara (Arachin 16a) tells us that greed and l’shon hara (hurtful speech) are amongst the seven sins which cause tzoraas, which Gechazi and company suffered from. When these blokes find the food of the abandoned camp, not only do they eat, drink and make merry, their next instinct is to take the gold and silver and hide it. Subsequently, they have second thoughts and they realize that this was a miraculous opportunity and should not be wasted. They then go and inform their Jewish brothers of the windfall.

I always looked at the metzoraim in this story charitably, in that they underwent a transformation and reformation of character. Yes, in the beginning they were greedy, but then they got hold of themselves and changed their approach. This might have been their penitence. However, another reading might describe them precisely as the mice in the Yerushalmi. They were interested in themselves, and only once their needs were satisfied, they considered bringing in their friends. One final interesting feature of the story is that the same Gemara Arachim gives an example of a more subtle and sly form of hurtful speech, which is if a person had a generous host, and then tells others about the good food, leaving the host inundated. This too, seems to be the behavior of these wicked mice.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

Do you like what you see? Please subscribe and also forward any articles you enjoy to your friends, (enemies too, why not?)