Bulletin Metzora

distance, as per a verse from Jeremiah, “Their tongue is a sharpened arrow”
(9:7). Evil speech can harm even those who are not in the immediate vicinity,
because gossip travels quickly. Likewise evil speech also carries with it an element
of death’s irreversibility, because words, once spoken, can never be fully retracted.
The Talmud teaches that if a person speaks ill of another, God declares, “He [the
slanderer] and I cannot dwell together in this world.” God cannot bear
to live in the world with a person who speaks inappropriately, and thus such a
person must be cast out. This is a fitting response given that slander so often leads
to the ostracism of the person slandered. The leper, too, is cast out of the camp
and forced to dwell apart from the rest of the nation on the outskirts of society.
He may return only after the priest examines the leper, cleanses him, and declares
him pure. At that point he must bring two birds, one of which is set free and one of
which is slaughtered, its blood mixed with cedar wood and hyssop and sprinkled
over the leper. The rabbis explain that since this individual committed a sin by
chattering too much, his purification involves bringing two birds who chirp and
chatter incessantly.
The rabbis caution that evil speech is so dangerous that one should not even speak
well of another person in the presence of others, because in speaking about his
goodness, one might come to speak of that person in a derogatory manner. They
illustrate this point by means of a story about Rav Dimi, who once fell ill (Erchin 16a).
His brother Rav Safra went to visit him, and when he arrived, Rav Dimi boasted
to all those present, “I have merit coming to me, for I have fulfilled everything
the sages said!” Rav Safra asked him, “But have you fulfilled the command not
even to speak of the goodness of a person in the presence of others, because doing
so may lead others to speak of him derogatorily?” Rav Dimi had to admit that
no, he did not fulfill this dictum. In this story, which presumably was meant to be
not just ironic but also humorous, Rav Dimi speaks well of himself, which leads
to him having to admit to his own failings. Even when we offer words of praise
about someone, we run the risk of speaking ill of them because we open them up
to critique. Better not to talk about other people at all.
And yet it is clear that according to the rabbinic understanding, the antidote to
evil speech is not silence. The rabbis tell the story of Rabbi Yannai, who once met
a peddler hawking an elixir of life (Leviticus Rabbah 16:2). Rabbi Yannai was eager for
a sample. But the peddler was quick to assure him that he didn’t need his wares,
because he was already in possession of them. He showed Rabbi Yannai a verse
from Psalms: “Who is the man who desires life?... Keep your tongue from evil and
your lips from lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” (Psalms
34:12-14). The term used in this story for peddler, rochel, comes from the same root
as the word used in the Torah for slander, rechilut, and indeed, as Rav Nachman’s
wife Yalta explicitly declares, “Gossip comes from peddlers” (Berakhot 51b). But in
this story it is the peddler who reminds Rabbi Yannai that the key to living a long
life is to avoid speaking ill and to perform good deeds. If Rabbi Yannai heeds the
message of the verse from Psalms—and presumably other words of Torah as well—
he will not speak ill of others and will thus merit long life.
“Oh how I love your Torah,” declares the Psalmist, “It is what I speak all day
long” (Psalms 119:97). When confronted with pauses in a conversation or awkward