We all know the destructive power of some words; a Talmudic paradigm (at the very end of tractate 'makos') teaches that the effect of some agent for good is 1000 times as much as the effect for bad, and so if we apply that here we obtain a teaching of a tremendous healing effect of "pure speech", in the ordinary sense but also cosmically, out positive words can have great effect. Appropriately, the Torah actually begins of course with a description of the universe in a state of chaos and darkness being cosmically-transformed by God's words ('let there be light', etc) and so in this universe the power of our words - we who were created in the divine image - also is immense.
All this can encourage us hopefully to make sure that when words which can harm are about to emerge from our mouths, at that very moment to remember how difficult it would be to call them back, how much struggle there would be to overcome the damage done, and we should be blessed that this will give us strength at that moment to not let those words escape our mouths.
And maybe even to have the strength to overcome the urge altogether and to perhaps even somehow to transform the harmful words to helpful ones.
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From previous years:
Two actors and a US President walk into the parsha:
Interestingly, this week there were several stories about this topic, one involving the US president who added a few words to a prepared speech, powerful words which it was feared could have had undesired impact, and two stories involving famous actors - a slap hear around the world, in reaction to words, and a famous actor whose power of speech was severely impacted in a way that made news because of its unusual nature, and who was manipulated for some years to say words he didn't really understand......
Certainly we cannot take for granted the words which we allow to come out of our mouths, or their power for good or bad.
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We are now all anticipating the imminent arrival of Passover, celebrating the Exodus from the slavery of Egypt. But how did we end up as slaves in Egypt? Joseph as a boy used to tell tales about his brothers to his father Jacob, making them hate him, and this eventually led them to sell him as a slave to Egypt, which then led eventually to all the Jews going to Egypt and then becoming slaves there. Such is the power of impure speech about others, and this week's portion goes into great detail about the resulting plague-like condition and what to do about it.
[Joseph did teshuva (repentance/return) later on, by absolving his brothers from the sale and ensuring that his father would NOT know about it, a tremendous at of self-mastery in the nterest of compassion for rhose who harmed him, quite the opposite of telling bad tales about them - this type of teshuva is certainly the best way to counter the worst effect of telling bad tales.]
May we be blessed to merit self-control, not allowing harmful words out, and if we somehow failed in that, to find the moral courage and inner strength to take action to negate the negative impact of our harmful words.
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when tazria is late and joined with metzorah and is after pesach
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Having the inner strength to bite back harmful words, and to transform them to healing ones - with tremendous beneficial cosmic healing effect
This week's Torah portion tells of a plague-like condition which according to the Oral Tradition is the effect of negative speech about other people, as can be seen from the episode of Moses's sister who contracted that condition after speaking badly about her brother.
A historically-later example relevant to this calendar-period: Jewish Tradition marks the period after passover until lag ba'omer, as one of mourning for the students of Rabbi Akiva (born towards the end of the 2nd Temple period) who died in a plague which Traditiona says wascaused by their bad words about each other, at the time of the great and unfortunately unsuccessful revolt against the Romans after the Temple's destruction. Traditionally-observant Jews across the world maintain this mourning Tradition still today, not celebrating weddings, not going to concerts etc, and making special efforts to keep from hurtful words towards others.
Torah-examples of the power of words:
The Torah begins of course with a description of the universe in a state of chaos and darkness being cosmically-transformed by God's words ('let there be light', etc) and so in this universe the power of our words - we who were created in the divine image - also is immense.
The brothers of Joseph: We recently celebrated Passover, re the Exodus from the slavery of Egypt. But how did we end up as slaves in Egypt? Answer: Joseph as a boy used to tell tales about his brothers to his father Jacob, making them hate him, but he was his father's favorite, etc, and this eventually led them - after the dreams incident - to sell him as a slave to Egypt, which then led eventually to all the Jews going to Egypt and then becoming slaves there. See how telling bad tales led to our slavery!
Such is the power of impure speech about others, and this week's portion goes into great detail about the resulting plague-like condition and what to do about it. Certainly we cannot take for granted the power for good or bad of the words which we allow to come out of our mouths.
May we be blessed to merit self-control, not allowing harmful words out, and if we somehow failed in that, to find the moral courage and inner strength to take action to negate the negative impact of our harmful words.
Conclusion: We all know the destructive power of some words; a Talmudic paradigm (at the very end of tractate 'makos') teaches that the effect of some agent for good is 1000 times as much as the effect for bad, and so if we apply that here we obtain a teaching of a tremendous healing effect of "pure speech", in the ordinary sense but also cosmically, out positive words can have great effect.
All this can encourage us hopefully to make sure that when words which can harm are about to emerge from our mouths, at that very moment to remember how difficult it would be to call them back, how much struggle there would be to overcome the damage done, and we should be blessed that this will give us strength at that moment to not let those words escape our mouths.
And maybe even to have the strength to overcome the urge altogether and to perhaps even somehow to transform the harmful words to helpful ones.
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A note re the term "impure speech":
In an indirect sense: since speech of a certain type causes this impurity to arise, one could consider that which causes the impurity to be 'impure speech'.
In a direct sense: The great commentator-rabbi referred to as "Malbim" wrote this explicitly, saying that the Rabbis consider the word "dvar" which means 'item' and also 'wording' or speaking, as in the 'aseret hadvarim" the ten utterances, known in English as'the 10 commandments' (also as in the common expression nowadays "a dvar Torah") to refer to both of these meanings, ie the passage about "impure item(dvar tam'e)" also DIRECTLY refers to "impure speech(dibbur)"שדרך חז"ל לדרוש מלת "דבר" מענין דיבור
https://www.sefaria.org.il/Malbim_on_Leviticus,_Vayikra... https://www.sefaria.org.il/Malbim_on_Leviticus%2C_Vayikra.1?lang=he
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Some material for further reading about "Lashon Hara (any of these will lead to further resources):
(use eg google "translate this page" to obtain a possibly adequate English version)https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%A8_%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%9F_%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A2?fbclid=IwY2xjawKBX-tleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFibkpsRmppb2swRTFXZ0tIAR7PioIh3rrOLSRLVi6R7m-N-ClXjRWHyD8BJjgAG1G4_bFFJpNu1Jz3aMz24Q_aem_3rDlKrIN79LDoTGqJD_7ZQ (use eg google "translate this page" to obtain a possibly adequate English version)
English & Hebrew: https://www.sefaria.org.il/sheets/9814?lang=he,
English: https://etzion.org.il/en/tanakh/torah/sefer-devarim/parashat-ki-tetze/ki-tetze-message-tzaraat
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Note:
Joseph did teshuva (repentance/return) later on, by absolving his brothers from the sale and ensuring that his father would NOT know about it, a tremendous act of self-mastery in the interest of compassion for those who harmed him, quite the opposite of telling bad tales about them - this type of teshuva is certainly the best way to counter the telling bad tales.