METZORA
Torah
LEARNING
HOW TO SPEAK
It is appropriate that
our parshah, METZORA, with its deep lessons about the
purity of speech, is always read shortly before or after the festival of
Pesach, whose name signifies, "The mouth speaks". Sefer
Yetzirah teaches that the human faculty associated
with the month of Nissan is speech. The Seder night, climax of so many arduous
preparations, is an exercise in speech: HAGGADAH, "telling". The
story we tell -- the story of our people and of our own inner self -- is at the
furthest remove from self-aggrandizement. The story starts with shame, tracing
our descent into the depths of degradation, pain and anguish before our
miraculous delivery from
During most of the
recital of the Haggadah, the MATZAH -- the
"Bread of Humility" -- lies exposed before our eyes. This is to
impress upon us that we must take a humble view of ourselves and our place in
G-d's great scheme, for this the key to using our
faculty of speech, man's defining faculty -- in holiness and purity. "Not
for our sake, O G-d, not for our sake but for Your Name's sake give glory.!"
Speech is truly a
double-edged weapon, a "tree of good and evil" the "taste"
of which is literally in our mouths. Words can do so much good -- to shine the
truth, to encourage, build and strengthen those with whom we live and work...
But words can also be used for so much evil -- to deceive, to confuse, to hurt,
denigrate and destroy. It is when we are puffed up with CHAMETZ, the
"leaven" of our own self-importance and rectitude that we are liable
to use words aggressively, angrily, without sensitivity. But when we remove the
CHAMETZ of self-importance from our hearts in the knowledge that we are G-d's creation -- no more and no less than everyone else --
we can learn to use our amazing faculty of speech with wisdom and love. Then we
can join G-d as partners in the work of creation and the revelation of His
truth. Words literally rule over our lives. Can we rule over the words that
leave our mouths? Will we rule with arrogance or with humility?
The METZORA, literally
the "leper", is symbolic of one who abuses his power of speech, being
MOTZI-RA: "bringing out evil". The previous parshah,
TAZRIA, presented an elaborate pathology of the diseases of the soul, such as
the "leprous" mark of SE-EIS, inflated pride, or BAHERES, the shining
white light in which some people constantly seek to present themselves. The
first step in the cure for such illnesses of the soul is to receive an
objective "diagnosis" from the Kohen-Priest,
a clear statement that the mark is TA-ME, impure. Until we name our negative
traits correctly, we cannot begin to heal them. Only when we acknowledge the
impure for what it is can we take the first step towards purification. As we
saw in last week's parshah, healing of the wounds of
the soul requires heart-searching and contrition, which is why the METZORA was
sent for a period of into isolation "outside the camp".
This week's parshah of METZORA begins with the highly picturesque
ceremony with which the healed leper begins his process of purification so as
to be able to return to normal life "in the camp" with other people.
The ceremony required two sparrows together with a block of cedar wood,
red-dyed wool thread and hyssop. One of the birds was slaughtered into an
earthenware flask of living water. Then the other bird was taken with the
cedar, the red wool and hyssop, and together they were dipped into the blood
and water in the flask, which were sprinkled seven times on the leper, after
which the living bird was sent free (Lev. 14:4-7.).
Can you imagine how hard
it was to catch the sparrows in the first place in order to carry out the
ceremony? As cats and anyone else who has ever tried to catch a sparrow all
know, it is terribly easy for sparrows to fly away. This is why the Hebrew name
of the sparrow is DROR, "freedom". The very difficulty of catching
these birds, which are notorious chatterers, comes to impress upon the METZORA
the great importance of catching our speech and chatter BEFORE they fly off. We
must learn to take control over what we say, in order
to use words intentionally, productively, lovingly, to good effect. Rashi in his commentary on our parshah
explains that the wood of the lofty cedar tree was brought "because
leprous plagues come on account of arrogance. What is the remedy? The person
must lower himself down from his pride like a worm [from whose blood the red
dye of the wool thread was derived] and a hyssop" (Rashi
on Lev. 14:4).
The use of the two birds
in the ceremony is bound up with the double-edged nature of speech, which can
be used for either good or evil. The METZORA had to watch as one of the
chattering birds was slaughtered in front of his very eyes, teaching him that
he must simply kill his evil talk for all time. However, this does not mean
that he may not speak at all in future. On the contrary, once he has learned
the lesson of humility contained in the cedar, the hyssop and the scarlet
thread, the second bird goes free! When we release ourselves from the bonds of
pride and arrogance that enslave us, we are freer than ever to explore the
great power of pure speech -- "over the face of the field".
Shabbat Shalom!!!
Avraham Yehoshua
Greenbaum