I know I’ve mentioned this midrash before. As a matter of fact, I bet just about every Beth El rabbi – student and ordained – has done so as well. I mean, when you take the subject of “leprosy” (a skin infection; they only called it leprosy) as found in the Torah, you s t r e t c h to find something relevant.

The sedra for this Shabbat is a double one, Tazria-Metzorah, combining two every few years to balance the annual readings. Tazria deals with childbirth concerns, Metzorah with diseases of the flesh. The rabbis of old said one shouldn’t read the word metzorah as written, rather motzi rah, translated “emerging evil” (rah, meaning “bad”). And what is that? G O S S I P!

So, they offer this story:

There was a town gossip; nothing you told this person was kept untold. It was really getting the townies down and they approached the rabbi (who else!) for he was the wisest and most sensible, the greatest mind (ok, I’ll stop) who would surely solve the problem.

So, the rabbi calls the gossip to his home. “Rabbi, what’s the problem,” the gossip asks. He responds, “Well, let’s begin with something I’d like you to do. Come over to the window and take this pillow and this knife and slit the material.” The gossip does just that and the feathers in the pillow went flying out of the window, the wind taking them all over the town.

The rabbi then says, “Now go into the town and collect all the feathers.” The gossip looks incredulously at the rabbi. “That’s impossible, Rabbi!” There’s no way those feathers can be collected!”

The rabbi responds, “So it is with the words you speak, the gossip you spread. There is no way they can be collected; once they come from your lips they are out of control. They do their damage and there’s no way to bring them back.”

We all know gossips and the harm they create through their words. I sure know the ones I’ve encountered over the years. It’s important to remember the “emerging evil” of words that can injure, sometimes more painfully than physical injury. As the admonition following the traditional silent prayer reminds us, directly from Psalms 34:13, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile.” Words to live by.