When a person has on the skin of the body a swelling, a rash, or a discoloration, and it develops into a scaly affection on the skin of the body, it shall be reported to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests.
ואמר הכתוב "אדם כי יהיה בעור בשרו" הגשמיות נקרא בשם בשר, והיינו שהכניס חלילה תאות הגשמיות בעורו, פירוש לא די שלא תיקן את עורו שיהיה אור באלף, אלא שהוסיף חלילה חטאים ועוונות בעורו,
ואמר הכתוב, מה הם החטאים ועוונות? ומפרש "שאת" רמז למידות המגונות שהם שורש כל החטאים, שעל ידי מידות רעות בא אדם לכלל חטאים,
ושורש המידות רעות היא הגאוה, ושאת רמז לגאוה על דרך דאיתא במדרש "שאת" זו בבל.
And it says, "When a person has on the skin of their body..."
Gashmiyut (decadent physicality) is referred to with the name bassar (flesh), and [when it comes to tzaraat] it is when a person allows the desire for decadence into their skin. That person doesn't fix themselves so that they will transform from "or" [as in skin] to "or" [as in light] with an Aleph - but instead, the person continues to increase in sins with their skin.
And the Torah asks, "what are these sins and transgressions? And it says "lifted", which is a hint to the negative behaviors that are the root of all sin. By means of these negative behaviors, a person opens up to a host of sins.
And the root of all these evil traits is arrogance, and "lifted" is a hint to this arrogance as it says in the midrash that "lifted" is Bavel.
by Phil Nuernberger, Ph.D
The ego is a powerful function within every human mind that tells us we are unique individuals. The ego’s task is to create a sense of separateness, an experience of unique individuality. I refer to this as the ego-self...It is what we normally refer to as me or I, a pervasive sense of individuality locked within the boundaries of the body and mind. This is the grandest illusion of them all. We think we know who we are, and the truth is that we are not at all who we think we are. We mistakenly think we are the body and mind complex, when, in fact, these are only our tools.
We are not physical beings, we are spiritual beings...When all we know is the material ego-self, when all we experience are physical sensations and mental thoughts and emotions, then we do not realize that our rightful heritage is the eternal core of our being, the spiritual Self. We can call it soul, Consciousness, a spark of the Divine Light...freedom lies in the experience of this spiritual Self. To free ourselves from this universal misery called loneliness, we must make a spiritual journey; we must experience, for ourselves, our spiritual Self.