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The Yeshiva.net — Metzora 5784

Выпуск: The Yeshiva.net — Metzora 5784. Темы: не определены автоматически. Skoopy My Good Old Parrot Rabbi YY Jacobson 1 Nissan 5771 Two Birds The Torah section of this week, Metzorah (Leviticus chapters 12-15), discusses the laws of tzaraas, usually translated as "leprosy." Tzaraas was an illness whose identifying mark was a white patch (or patches) appearing on the skin of a person, the walls of a home or on a garment. One was slaughtered with its blood poured into an earthenware vessel of spring water; the other bird, together with a piece of cedar wood, crimson thread (a wool dyed with pigment made from an insect or snail) and a hyssop (a very low plant) were dipped into the blood-water mixture and sprinkled upon the person being purified, seven times. The sages explain[1]: Because the plague of tzaraas (leprosy) comes in punishment for evil and malicious talk, defaming another human being which is an act of chatter, therefore birds are needed for his purification, because birds chatter continuously with a twittering sound.” The question, of course, is why is the chattering of birds symbolic of disparaging talk? As I entered the door, Skoopy—as we named him—would begin jumping around his cage and excitingly chirp my name “Yosef Yitzchak.” Now, Skoopy could not say “Yosef Yitzchak,” my full name (even many of my friends have difficulty calling me by my two names), so he would instead call me: “Tsfeetzak.” It was delightful to return home each afternoon having my name repeated some 20 times with so much zest! The Talmud says[3]: "Evil speech kills three people: the person who says it, the person about whom it is said, and the person who listens to it—and the person who listens to it is worse than the one who says it." Transformation The healing of the leper involves two birds. Individuals engaged in negative conversation about others are akin to birds: they are mimicking human language; they may even be employing sophisticated verbiage, but in truth their words are not human compositions; they merely imitate human beings. https://www.theyeshiva.net/jewish/930/print-view 2/3 4/8/24, 4:48 PM TheYeshiva.net The second bird teaches us that we are accountable not only for our evil speech; we are also called to task for all the words we could have said but we did not. The crimson thread too -- made of wool dyed with pigment made from an insect or snail -- repres

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The Yeshiva.net

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8 апреля 2024 г.

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