Parshas Tazriah-Metzorah 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- Apr 17
- 2 min read
ושלח את הצפר החיה על פני השדה ... (יד-ז)
MASHAL: A man in a small village had a habit of speaking poorly of others. One day, he spread a particularly nasty, baseless rumor about the town rabbi. Eventually, the man realized the terrible damage his words had caused, and he was filled with remorse. He went to the rabbi, crying, and begged for forgiveness. “I will do anything to fix this,” he pleaded.
The rabbi looked at him and said, “Okay, if you’ll do as I say. Take a feather pillow, go to the top of the highest hill on a windy day, cut the pillow open, and shake out all the feathers. When you are done, come back to me.”
The man was relieved. He ran home, grabbed a pillow, climbed the hill, and let the wind carry the countless feathers across the valley. He returned to the rabbi and said, “I did it!
Am I forgiven?” The Rabbi smiled, “There is one last step. Now, go back out and gather up every single feather.”
The man stared in shock. “That’s impossible! The wind has scattered them everywhere. I could never find them all.”
The Rabbi nodded gently. “Just like those feathers, your words are scattered by the wind. You can never take them back, and you can never know how far the damage has spread.”
NIMSHAL: Parshas Metzorah offers us a beautiful, hopeful response to the baal lashon hara. To be purified, the metzorah must take a living bird and set it free into the open field. This teaches us that while we cannot “un-say” our past mistakes, we have the power to release words of kindness and encouragement into the world. Just like that living bird, our positive words will take flight, soaring across the community and bringing healing to places we never even imagined.