This past Wednesday morning as I was driving my children to school in Brookline, I noticed an airplane up in the sky carrying some kind of big banner behind it. I knew that this would excite my children who always find anything flying to be of interest, so I pointed it out to them and watched them crane their necks in trying to read what the banner had to say.
I was the first one to decipher the sign and read the sentence on the banner regarding a politician who is running for office. The banner stated his name and claimed that he is part of the evil oil empire. My children were still busy trying to decipher the meaning, and I realized that I had some explaining to do for my children. We had a little conversation and I explained to them what was going on and why people would fly around in airplane with a negative sign about someone else.
Later in the day at about 5pm, I had to go back into Boston for a meeting. Imagine my surprise when this time, instead of one plane with a banner there were two planes with banners flying over the city. One plane carried the same message as the morning (they obviously kept the “evil oil empire” in business for the day), and I thought perhaps the other plane had a banner about the other big candidate on the ballot. However, alas, the other plane only had a Geico banner advertising cheaper car insurance and helping you save 15% or less.
The banners and the interesting method of maligning someone running for office didn’t sit well with my children or myself, and it got me thinking about way we hold our public discourse for people running for office. Are the methods that are used to present a particular candidate or to negate another position fair, moral and in the public interest, or are they perhaps bringing a negative, divisive, and dirty side to the campaigns and agenda that they seek to promote?
Interestingly, in this week’s double Torah portion we read about one of the most intriguing concepts that occurred during the Biblical and Temple time periods, Tzaraat. The Torah describes the concept of Tzaraat as a specific skin affliction that would occur to people and occasionally occur to their possessions and property as a result of their spiritual misdoings. The Torah explains that when this occurred to a person and they were diagnosed by the Kohen, they would have to spend a week or sometimes longer outside the Jewish camp or city and spend time in seclusion and reflection before a purification process was able to take place.
The reason for this degree of impurity, seclusion and intense process of purification was due to the spiritual cause of the Tzaraat condition which is attributed to the person having slandered or spoken negatively about other people. Thus, the person would need to use the time that they had this condition as a time of reflection and self-improvement so that they would be more cautious about gossiping and slandering their fellow person, and learn to use their speech and conduct to bring people together and as a force of good rather than it being used in a divisive manner.
Maimonides writes that the concept of Tzaraat was a unique miraculous occurrence in Biblical times that was there to show the people the correct way of behavior and help them improve their actions. Two Biblical examples of people who experienced Tzaraat were Moses when he spoke in a seemingly disparaging way about the Jewish people and G-d told to look at his arm, which had turned white, and his sister Miriam, another great leader who once had a slightly negative conversation about her brother Moses and his wife Tzipora and was afflicted with Tzaraat for seven days.
While Tzaraat was a uniquely Biblical occurrence, the fact that the Torah dedicates two whole portions to discussing its occurrence and how to go about the purification process, tells us the tremendous importance that the Torah ascribes to the power of speech and the way we speak about others. While we often dismiss gossip or negative comments about others as a way of life and normal behavior, the Torah asks us to look at these things differently and with a different more spiritual perspective. The Torah asks us to carefully measure our words when discussing others and carefully consider the things we are willing to hear and read about others, for in truth, words are much more powerful that we often think, and all too often words can make it or break it. We can all think of simple comments or moments of gossip that have caused almost irreversible damage to relationships and more, and on the opposite end, we can all think of the positive compliments and conversations which caused huge differences in our own and other peoples lives.
Ultimately, the modern day message of Tzaraat reminds us of the need to focus on positive speech about others, reflecting on the good in others, and replacing negativity with positive energy. This is true in regards to the way we speak about our friends and community members. This is true in regards to the way we speak about family members and to or about our children, in-laws and anyone else for that matter, and this is true for the media and politicians even if it may be more challenging to sell media or to win an election battle. While it may not always be the easy way and come naturally, ultimately, by aiming higher and becoming people who are more positive speakers and thinkers about others, we are guaranteed that our words will go a long way in improving the society and world around us, and help make the world we live in an even more positive place.
I don’t know if the the pilot of the airplane that I saw on Wednesday will be reading this, but either way he probably reminded many people besides myself of the timeless message of this week’s Torah Portion of the essential requirement for a healthy society for positive speech about others. Thank You Captain!
Shabbat Shalom
Yisroel