in these rabbinic sources from the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud: Leviticus chapter 14 Tractate Negaim in the Mishnah and Tosefta interpreted the laws of skin disease in calls on the Israelites to obey God's "statutes" (, chukim) and "ordinances" (, mishpatim). The Rabbis in a Baraita taught that the "ordinances" (, mishpatim) were commandments that logic would have dictated that we follow even had Scripture not commanded them, like the laws concerning idolatry, adultery, bloodshed, robbery, and blasphemy. And "statutes" (, chukim) were commandments that the Adversary challenges us to violate as beyond reason, like those relating to purification of the person with skin disease (, tzara'at, in ), wool-linen mixtures (, shaatnez, in and ), release from levirate marriage (, chalitzah, in ), and the he goat for Azazel (in ). So that people do not think these "ordinances" (, mishpatim) to be empty acts, in God says, "I am the Lord," indicating that the Lord made these statutes, and we have no right to question them. The Midrash noted that many things appear lowly, but God commanded many precepts to be performed with them. The hyssop, for instance, appears to be of no worth to people, yet its power is great in the eyes of God, who put it on a level with cedar in the purification of the leper in and the burning of the Red Cow in 18, and employed it in the Exodus from Egypt in Rabbi Johanan said in the name of Rabbi Joseph ben Zimra that anyone who bears evil tales (, lashon hara) will be visited by the plague of skin disease (, tzara’at), as it is said in Psalm "Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I destroy (azmit)." The Gemara read azmit to allude to , tzara’at, and cited how says "in perpetuity" (la-zemitut). And Resh Lakish interpreted the words of "This shall be the law of the person with skin disease (metzora)," to mean, "This shall be the law for him who brings up an evil name (motzi shem ra)." And the Gemara reported that in the Land of Israel they taught that slander kills three persons: the slanderer, the one who accepts it, and the one about whom the slander is told. Similarly, Rabbi Haninah taught that skin disease came only from slander. The Rabbis found a proof for this from the case of