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Torah portion: On speaking in (evil) tongues

Parashat Metzora (Leviticus 14:1-15:33)
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April 13, 2016

Life and death are in the hands of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).

As we prepare for our Passover seders, the teachings found in this week’s Torah portion are more applicable than ever. Not necessarily because the portion deals with “leprosy” and how it is cured by the Kohen, but because of the realization of what causes the specific type of skin disease, and how it relates to real freedom as opposed to slavery.

Years ago, I was teaching a theology class at Loyola Marymount University when a student came in, and her puffy face and red eyes made clear she had been crying heavily. I had the students pair off for an assignment so that I could speak with her and see if she was OK. She told me that she had been gossiped about on a popular website among college students, juicycampus.com, which thankfully is now out of business.  This website allowed anonymous users to post uncensored comments about their college peers, and this young woman had been brutally lied about in ways that were devastating to her.

The Talmud (Arachin 15b) teaches that lashon hara (“the evil tongue,” aka gossip) is even more deadly than a sword, as it can kill many people even from a great distance. We need to be concerned not only with what we put in our mouths, but what comes out as well, or we can hurt someone like the young woman from that class.

But what does that have to do with our Torah portion, which deals with leprosy? And how does this intersect with the Passover seder?

We learn through Parashat Beha’alotecha (Numbers 12) as well as in the Talmud  (Arachin 16) that this specific type of skin disease is the consequence of lashon hara. Miriam contracts the skin disease because she gossiped about her sister-in-law.

Gossip is like leprosy in many ways: It affects the person who spreads it and makes them “ugly”; it is easily passed and highly contagious, and affects everyone who comes in contact with it. Our sages understood leprosy as a physical manifestation of a spiritual disease that is expressed through the mouth.

The ancient Sefer Yetzirah, or “Book of Creation,” teaches that the human faculty associated with the month of Nissan (the month of Pesach) is speech. The seder itself is an exercise in speech, as we tell stories, ask questions and learn about the journey from slavery to freedom. It is an exercise in the positive power of speech.

But this week’s portion reminds us also of the harm that can be caused by the tongue. A danger so great that we are taught the tongue is a double-edged sword that needs two protective walls (the mouth and teeth). It is only our spiritual awareness, consciousness and commitment to ethics that prevent that sword from destroying through evil words.

This is why the disease of leprosy is treated through the actions of the Kohen, the priest. It is a recognition that gossip is dangerous and sickening, and that, at its root, it is a sickness of the spirit.

The Passover seder is an answer to that sickness. Through the experience of the seder — the eating of the humble matzo and the bitter maror, and the sharing of the Passover stories — we are reminded of how we can use our mouths to teach about freedom. Through the words we say (or write), we have the opportunity to help people, including and especially ourselves, to step out of the slavery of gossip and instead embrace the real freedom of acting with consciousness and integrity.

Opportunities abound at the seder to help create more consciousness of the power of words. When the teenage boy expresses a misogynistic statement, he can be reminded, “It is because of the women that we were redeemed from Egypt.”  When the non-Jewish member of the family is degraded, a focus can be put on the fact that we all “were strangers in a strange land.” When the poor or homeless are spoken of with disdain, the seder reminds us that we were all poor and homeless while we were in Egypt, and then again throughout our journey in the desert.

At our seder, when we get to the Ten Plagues, I always ask everyone to add additional modern plagues and to take more drops of wine out of the glass as they do. If no one else has said it, I make it a point to mention “gossip” as a modern plague … one that creates a visible sickness in our persons and in our society. It is our family tradition to pray that those evil words be stopped.

May this Passover bring about a cessation of lashon hara and bring a true freedom of expression reflecting the best in each of us; and may we all have a healthy and kosher Passover. 

Rabbi Michael Barclay is the spiritual leader of Temple Ner Simcha (nersimcha.org) and the author of “Sacred Relationships:  Biblical Wisdom for Deepening Our Lives Together” (Liturgical Press, 2013).  He can be reached at rabbibarclay@aol.com. This column is in honor of the union of Julie and Jacob Glass.

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