Parashiyot Tazria & Metzora discuss the laws of tzara’at – the afflictions that would affect people guilty of the sin of lashon ha’ra , speaking negatively about other people. The famous work Hovot He’levavot makes a very dramatic statement about the sin of lashon ha’ra . When a person departs this world, the Hovot Ha’levavot writes, he will be presented with a list of the all the wrongs that he had committed during his life. One part of the list will be very familiar to him – he will see all the mistakes that he remembers doing. But then there will be another section, consisting of sins which he never remembers committing. He will then ask why he is being held accountable for these wrongs. It will be explained to him that these are sins committed by other people – but which he spoke about. Since he spoke lashon ha’ra about them, they are transferred into his “account,” and he is responsible for them. I do not claim to fully understand this concept – that a person is held accountable for other people’s sins which he spoke lashon ha’ra about. However, I feel that the Hovot Ha’levavot here is sending us a very powerful message about what makes lashon ha’ra so severe, and why it is so important for us to avoid it. When we talk about other people’s mistakes and other people’s faults, we bring all this into our lives. We engulf ourselves in negativity. We voluntarily choose to bring all this filth into our minds and into our thoughts. When we sit in our living rooms talking gossip, discussing what other people are doing wrong, we’re bringing all these mistakes into our living rooms. All this negativity becomes part of us, part of our lives. Negativity weighs us down. It takes away our energy, our vitality, our enthusiasm for life. This is why the Gemara teaches in Masechet Arachin that lashon ha’ra has the effect of “killing” three people – the person spoken about, the speaker, and the listener. The person spoken about, of course, can have his life ruined because of his tarnished reputation. But in addition, lashon ha’ra ruins the lives of the speaker and the listener, because all this negativity is now part of them. A famous pasuk in the Book of Mishleh (18:21) states, מות וחיים ביד לשון – “Death and life are in the hand of the tongue.” Our words can build and give life, and they can destroy and kill. If we use our faculty of speech to spread positivity, to give encouragement, to express praise, to compliment, to point out all the good in other people and in the world, then we build and create, and we sustain life. But if we use our tongues to gossip, to criticize, to bring down, to disparage, to discourage, to insult and to malign – then we spread negativity, thereby destroying our own world. This is why the process of purification for a person who was cured from tzara’at involves two birds – one of which slaughtered, while the other is dipped in the first bird’s blood and then sent away. Birds, which chirp loudly, symbolize the faculty of speech. The message to the metzora is that he needs to “kill” one part of his speech, but let the other “fly” and soar to great heights. He must work to eliminate the negativity, the gossip, and instead focus on speaking positive words, communicating positive messages. Let us use our mouths to create positivity, to make our world happier and more energized, and try to avoid all negativity which saps us of our energy and undermines our ability to fully enjoy life and achieve to our full potential.