Parashat Tazria: The Power of Words

It is a two-hundred-year-old English rhyme that every child knows from the school playground ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.’

I was fortunate not to be one of those poor kids who was bullied, possibly because I always stood up for myself and was not averse to getting into a scrap to prove it.  Did the names hurt?  Of course, but I wasn’t going to let the bully know it.  You can recover much more quickly from a minor physical wound than the psychological damage inflicted by a well-aimed barb.  Words hurt and nasty words really hurt.

We, the original ‘People of the Book’, understand the power of words.  Chapter five of (Pirkei) Avot that we will begin reading after Pesach on Shabbat afternoons as part of the Mincha Service tells us that ‘B’asara ma’amarot nivra ha’olam. – The world was created with ten utterances.’

The Chief Rabbi (https://chiefrabbi.org/all-media/words-create-worlds/) quotes the Mishna which asks the question (of) why it took Gd ten utterances to create the world.  Surely, He could have done this with only one!  He writes that the Mishna responds that this was to increase the reward of the righteous who sustain the world through ten acts of speech.  On the opposite end, Gd ‘exacts punishment from the wicked who destroy the world with ten acts of speech’.  Rabbi Sacks ztl explains that the word ‘Vayomer’ – ‘and He said’ appears ten times in the first chapter of Bereshit prefacing Gd’s creative work.

The Jewish point of view therefore disagrees with the rhyme.  The power of words can do much more than ‘break our bones’…they really can hurt us!

The joint parashot of Tazria and Metzora (the latter of which we will read next Shabbat) deal with the affliction of Tzaraat which was translated into Greek as ‘leprosy’ in the 6^th Century C.E. and unfortunately this mistranslation has remained in our vernacular (and certain Bibles) to the present day.

Tzaraat describes a series of skin afflictions which could spread to a person’s clothes and even their house (as described in Parashat Metzora) although there are Sages who doubt that the latter ever happened.  The Gemara (Erchin 16a) states that the condition was supernatural in nature in that it originated from Gd and the recipient, according to Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, was afflicted for the following sins:

1.    malicious speech known as Lashon Hara (literally ‘evil speech’)

2.    bloodshed

3.    an oath taken in vain

4.    forbidden sexual relations

5.    arrogance

6.    theft

7.    and for stinginess

All of these can be classed as falling under the category of ‘anti-social behaviour’.

Before the advent of ASBOs, Gd had a different way of isolating a person from their community.  This is described in detail within the verses of our Parashot.  Being afflicted with Tzaraat would therefore be described in contemporary terms as a person becoming a ‘social outcast’.

The most famous individual in the Torah afflicted with Tzaraat was Miriam.  If you recall she spoke Lashon Hara regarding her brother Moshe following his separation from his wife Tzipporah.  She was punished by being excluded from the Israelite camp for seven days as per the commandments listed in this week’s Parasha.

Although all seven sins were considered reason enough for Divine punishment to be enacted, I will focus on the first, that of Lashon Hara.  I believe that we can justifiably state that we haven’t murdered, stolen, acted in an immoral manner or been any less than generous in our financial dealings with others.  Who amongst us can claim that we haven’t spoken Lashon Hara?

After all it’s so easy.  All it takes is a simple conversation which begins with:

“Did you hear about ‘x’?  Just last week, they were seen…”

or

“I can’t believe that ‘y’ said that about their colleague.  Do you think it’s true?

or

“I’m not going to be buying there again because...”

A careless slip of the tongue can cause a great deal of harm to a person’s reputation.  One that may have taken years to establish.  Do we think about the repercussions that may occur because of our words?

In most instances, we don’t speak ill of others with the intention of causing them distress. Over the last few years, two Jewish charities, Seed and Gift (both of which are particularly close to my heart) have created a joint programme called ‘The Clean Speech Project’ (https://www.cleanspeech.co.uk/).

This consists of many communities, schools and individuals, such as Stephnie and myself, undertaking to spend a month working on improving the way we communicate with each other through, in their words, ‘promoting positive speech’.  This is the second year that we’ve joined the project, which ran from 5^th February to 12^th March this year.

I can’t say that I’m ‘there yet’ but both Stephnie and I have made a conscious effort to minimise the amount of Lashon Hara we both speak and hear.

‘Tariq Silma Ousa Abu Shlouf’ may not be a name that you are familiar with.  If I tell you that he was the ‘Spokesperson of Islamic Jihad’ who was captured by the IDF, you might have a better idea of who he is.  In the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxrZXt46-5E) he admits that they lied about the rocket that fell on the Al -Ahli Al-Ma’mdani Hospital.  The terrorist was amongst the more than 500 that were arrested during the recent IDF operation to clear the Al-Shifa hospital.

He says, “It was a local rocket, we said it was Israeli.  I remember it from the beginning (of the war)...in order to erase the story, the organization made several moves, it fabricated a story (that) the rocket belonged to ‘the occupation’ and that the target was the building (the hospital). They relied on some of the stories from the international stories, from the international press.”

The interrogator asks, “Okay and after that they published it to the whole world?” to which he replies, “Yes.”  He continues by explaining that along with the Hamas spokesman, they tell one story to the internal media organizations and the Gazans and a different one to the international organizations.  He says, “The international media differs from the Arab ones, they focus on humanitarian issues, we don’t speak to them in the language of violence, destruction and revenge.”

We have seen the result of his work in the terrifying backlash we are witnessing on the streets of London and other cities around the world.  Lashon Hara has enabled our enemies to shed their pretence and demonstrate their hatred of Jews and Israel.  Hateful, antisemitic statements are being made by people across the political and cultural spectrum in terms that we thought had been buried after the ashes and bodily remains of the six million were still extant. This is all down to the abuse of words.  The destructive impact that they can have on the world in which we wish live in harmony with our fellow human beings.

I can’t conceive of a timelier reminder of how the causes for Tzaraat are tragically still with us.  Our enemies have been afflicted by the spiritual poisoning that Tzaraat used to highlight on the epidermis.  However, instead of being socially isolated, it is we, the victims who are the outcasts of their Lashon Hara regarding our amazing Jewish State and our brothers and sisters, the captives, citizens and soldiers.

How can we fight this epidemic? I suggest that our most powerful weapon is through looking at ourselves and eliminating the Lashon Hara that we speak within our Jewish nation.  If we can work on improving our own linguistic deficiencies, we will be in a far stronger position to fight back against our enemies.

The heartbreaking scenes which last year saw Jews fighting Jews through the streets of Israel and even in our own city of London shook us. When 7^th October arrived, we realised that we needed to harness our minds and bodies and turn to reciting words of love and prayer.  We have turned to our ancient texts and started reciting them in ways that we could not have envisaged this time last year.

We reminded ourselves of the power of words to heal, fortify and steel us against those who wished us harm.  We reached out to those who felt isolated within our communities and held them close.  Hamas and their murderous companions did not distinguish between right and left wing, orthodox or secular, Sephardi or Ashkenazi, gay or straight, the elderly or the young, male or female.

Sticks and stones may break our bones and names may even hurt me.  Words, however, when spoken in love, will never do me harm.

May our enemies be struck with an inner and external Tzaraat that isolates them from those amongst whom we live who value the extraordinary power of constructive words and may we and they only be conversant in ‘clean speech’ because our world needs this more than ever.

Shavuah Tov.