Torah Portion: Tazria - The Power of Speech
Spring is here, and it is high time to take long walks in nature. I have just came back from a hike in the mountains of Jerusalem's Ein Karem neighborhood, an old village nestled at the outskirts of the city, overlooking the Jerusalem Hills. We were not the only ones there - many people, Israelis and foreign tourists, were walking the streets of this picturesque neighborhood and enjoying a day in nature. After a winter blessed with lots of rain, there is a lot of green everywhere and this is the time to go out and see it. In a couple of month, when the sun becomes strong, it will all turn into yellow-brown (which has its own charm, but green is nicer). There were so many flowers everywhere! I picked a few branches of rosemary and lavender for the Bsamim (fragrant spices) blessing in the Havdalah ceremony at the end of Shabbat and promised myself that I will do it again soon.
This Shabbat is special - it is both a Shabbat and a Rosh Chodesh (the first day of the new month of Nissan), and since it's Nissan, everybody is starting to get ready for Passover: cleaning the houses more meticulously than usual, getting rid of unneeded clothes and items in the house, finishing all the pasta and other foods that are Chametz and therefore are not Kosher for eating (or even keeping at home) during Passover. Every Rosh Chodesh that falls on Shabbat, there is a very festive prayer at Jerusalem's Great Synagogue, with a choir of men who sing the service and an excellent, soulful cantor. This cantor once brought me to tears with his honest prayers. I will go there tonight.
The Torah Portion of this week is that of Tazria (Leviticus 12:1 - 13:59). It talks about laws of purity for women after birth (laws that don't apply today because the Temple is not in place), and about the laws of Tzara'at, a mysterious skin disease (that can also affect house walls and clothes), and that is diagnosed not by a doctor, but by a Kohen, a Jewish priest from the descendants of Aaron (Moses' brother). The fact that it is diagnosed by a Kohen shows us that it has a spiritual origin, not a medical one. The connection between mind and body is stressed here with this form of mysterious disease. It is translated as Leprosy in English, but it is not the Leprosy we know from recent centuries, it is another form of disease that we don't know today. The cure for this disease is for the affected person to sit in isolation outside the camp, not to come in contact with people for seven days, and after a week the disease is cured.
The portion doesn't explicitly specify what causes this disease, but elsewhere in the Torah it is mentioned in relation to Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, when she spoke not-nicely about Moses and his wife, and was punished for it with this disease and in order to be cured from it was asked to sit outside the camp in isolation (Book of Numbers, chapter 12). From this, our sages infer that the cause for this disease is bad use of language, or simply: evil tongue. The evil tongue includes a few categories of immoral use of speech, but they all come down to saying bad things about other people behind their backs: disgracing others, putting them down, mentioning their flaws, exposing things that violate their privacy (and privacy is sacred!), telling lies about them and also telling bad things that are true. Some think that if we say bad things about someone, but those bad things are true, then it's OK for us to tell these things. But this kind of gossip is forbidden and can cause a lot of harm to three parties: to the speaker, to the one spoken about and to the listener. It diminishes the level of love in society and the social glue that keeps people together and causes disdain towards the person spoken about and a feeling of superiority for the speaker and the listener. There won't be love there the next time they see this person. This is the reason why the cure for the Tzara'at disease is to sit in isolation outside the camp: it's like saying - if you want to weaken the social glue between people in your community, if you want to make someone else be treated with disdain, you should taste your own medicine (literally) and be isolated (and ashamed) yourself. It is no big honor to sit outside the camp alone for a week because of this spiritual-physical disease.
Only in specific cases is one allowed (and even encouraged) to say bad things that are true about another person (for example: if you know that Dana is going to marry or get into business with Danny, who is a dishonest person, you must warn her, but make sure your motives are to help her, not to get back with Danny).
Words can heal and words can kill. Speech is what distinguishes between us humans and other animals, and it is such a lofty gift we humans got, that we just must use it responsibly and with discretion. With speech we can change someone's world, or even change the world (and there have been quite a few examples for this in human history). A tender word for someone in distress can sometimes save their lives, and a bitter word said to someone or about someone behind their back can ruin their lives. I volunteered once at a hotline for people in distress, and it just taught me how much weight each of our words carry and how we can affect other people's lives with just our words, even if they are physically very far away from us.
Words have power, and every word we say leaves an impression in this world. We can truly heal the world with positive speech (and also positive inner speech, directed towards ourselves!). And it costs us nothing. It is a free gift we got, and we can give good words to others and lift them up without any cost to us at all.
I want to give two examples to people who use the power of speech - one positively, the other not quite so. One is the Israeli Arab Christian Pastor, Gabriel Naddaf, who works a lot for peace in Israel. He preaches for unity in society and encourages all Arabs in Israel to enlist into the IDF. He speaks for Israel and advocates for it in different places in the world and affects many young Arabs in this country and abroad. He was chosen to lit a torch this year in the prestigious opening ceremony of the celebrations of our Independence Day - this honor is given to people who have achieved something big in their lives. He brings people from different ethnicities and religions together (like him there are many other Arabs who do so, not just Christian Arabs but also Muslim Arabs). If you look at his Facebook page, you will see that his cover picture says: "I stand with Israel. And you?" (I hope you answer to this: "me too!").
On the other hand there is Mr. Bernie Sanders, who, while being liked a lot everywhere, used speech in a very irresponsible way this week, throwing false accusations at Israel, without considering the impact of his erroneous words. I won't repeat his words here so as not to give them more power. He later corrected himself somewhat. Israel has suffered a lot from bad use of speech against it (as Jews have throughout history), and since he is a Jew, I would expect him to be more sensitive, and check the facts before speaking, even if saying some things might make him more liked and win him some political points at home. Words have power.
So this Shabbat (and this month, and just generally), let us find ways to use our speech in a constructive way towards ourselves and towards others and truthfully make this world a better place.
Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov!
Revital
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