Metzora: The Sound of Silence

By Ian Schwartz

As we enter Shabbat Hagadol and prepare ourselves for the light of Pesach, it feels as though we have just experienced Motzei Shabbat Hagadol. This past Saturday night the Jewish people experienced an absolute miracle with the whole world watching. We did our best to go to sleep despite the frightening and uncertain news surrounding the missile and drone attack from Iran. We were woken up in the middle of the night to the explosions of those missiles above our heads as the iron dome intercepted them in the skies of Yerushalyim. From a moment of great fear and uncertainty we witnessed an actual miracle! From saying Tehillim for protection in our bomb shelter, in a moment we were dancing and reciting Nishmat. What is almost as incredible is that this week felt completely normal (in wartime). Kids playing in the parks, people commuting to work, every restaurant was open, it was as if nothing happened. We shoot down missiles at night and we have coffee in the morning. Nothing is by accident, the timing of this miracle is meant to inform our Pesach experience this year. So how does this relate to Shabbat Hagadol and this week's Parsha as preparation for Pesach?

So I believe the beginning answer can be found in Rashi at the outset of our Parsha. Rashi points out that the reason the Metzora brings two birds as part of his purification process was as a remez to his sin. Just as a bird is constantly chirping and squawking, so too because of the Metzora’s failure to stop talking this led him to the sin of lashon harah. The behavior which leads us to speaking wrongly and inappropriately is the inability to be in a state of silence. Often, we feel uncomfortable to be in a state of silence when we are with others and prefer to speak to alleviate awkward silences. This leads to our speech being idle and purposeless which can lead to it being harmful. The foundation for guarding one’s tongue is to be comfortable with silence. As Chazal teach us גדר לחכמה שתיקה. 

We live in a world where this is increasingly more difficult, our society tends to value the loudest one in the room, with the greatest or most outrageous insight. This leads to a culture where we don’t value truth but rather attention. People would rather get more likes than say something of value and meaning.

When we left Mitzrayim thousands of years ago there wasn’t a single Jew who didn’t believe in Hashem. The miracles and spectacles of the exodus made it impossible to deny the reality of the Almighty. However, literally right off the exit ramp from the splitting of the sea at Rephidim the Jewish people question whether or not God exists due to their lack of water. This is unfortunate a cycle which has repeated itself throughout Jewish history. An incredible miracle, an uprising surge for teshuva, and then a slow decline. This happened in the times of Eliyahu at Har Carmel, this happened in 1967 after the miracles of the Six Day War. We cannot allow ourselves to fall into this same cycle of our ancestors. We must be different, while this past week's event was a clear sign of Hashem's love for us, it was also a warning. We must take advantage of these special times we are living though. Things aren’t the way they used to be and they are not going to be. We have to be better, we have to be different. We were placed in this generation minutes before Moshiach arrives because we have the ability to change as a people. 

I think the first step in correcting the mistakes we have been making for thousands of years is through a return to the value of peace and quiet. Becoming people who bask and enjoy silence. As Dovid Hamelech says in Tehillim (65) לך דומיה תהילה. The greatest praise that we can give to Hashem is through silence. Simply reflecting quietly in the majesty of Hashem's world, the beauty of his Torah, his love for his people, and each of our own unique relationships with him is the ideal state for a Jew. We don’t necessarily need to scream out thank you Hashem or Hallel. While these are of course beautiful things, they should only be outward expressions of our constant inner state. So even though of course on Pesach we have the mitzvah of “Pe Sach” to speak and tell the story of Yeziat Mitzraim, we should all do our best to listen to those around us and soak in the miracles בימים ההם ובזמן הזה. This is not only the pathway to protecting ourselves from Lashon Harah, this is the way to internalize Hashem's miracles to keep the flame of faith burning with us all the way back to ירושלים הבנויה.