Tazria Metzora
What worlds do we create with our words?
Reflection by US Community Manager Carrie Watkins:
"The name of our parsha, and its chief subject, refers to a specific physical affliction of the skin, tzara’at. The Rabbinic tradition teaches that this affliction was caused by lashon hara, the evil tongue, which is a concept broadly defined as speaking ill of other people, and which the Rabbinic tradition takes very seriously.
In fact, the Talmud says that “evil speech is as great as idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder” (Arakhin 15b).
The early Hasidic Master the Meor Eynaim digs into the concept of lashon hara in his commentary on the parsha, specifically asking how it could be considered similar to idolatry.
He quotes Psalms, `By the word of ADONAI were the heavens made` (33:6). The world was created from words. Throughout the creation story at the beginning of Genesis, Hashem speaks the world into creation. Sefer Yetzirah shares that the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are the building blocks of all of creation, past, present and future. Every part of creation was created through divine speech and is itself divine.
So, says the Meor Eynaim, when a person speaks ill about another person, it is as though that person is `denying that his words are malchut shamaim, Heavenly Sovereignty, and therefore he is like one who worships idols.` We must instead `have faith that our speech is Heavenly Sovereignty.`
What might it feel like to go into this Shabbat holding in our imagination and awareness that our words are the sacred building blocks of creation? What might it look like if we understand that by using our words to bring down another person, we are engaging in spiritual destruction - negating God and losing track of what’s truly important? How might we use our words differently?
Wishing you a Shabbat of words that uplift the inherent divinity in each of us."