Metzora: Twitter and Gossip

Description

Twitter is a very appropriate name for its purpose, more so than its founders could ever know. And King Solomon reveals why in the Book of Ecclesiastes: Even in your thought, you shall not curse a king, nor in your bedrooms shall you curse a wealthy man, for the bird of the heaven shall carry the voice, and the winged creature will tell the matter. Words from a bedroom that are carried by chirping creatures? Come on, this is the original Twitter! Words are birds – once they are released they soar to places unknown and can land anywhere. The voice is relayed up to the heavens and across the earth.

This is why we must be careful when we communicate, even when we do so from our own bedrooms. Today, more than ever before, we can literally see how even our intimate communications – and certainly our tweets and posts – can travel like a bird through the entire universe. How then can we ensure that what we say is never harmful? How can we ensure that our tongues never slip into slander? There is a preventive medicine – and if one has slipped, a remedy. It is a divine potion, whose ingredients are two birds, a cedar stick, a yarn of crimson, and the hyssop plant. This is how you can give the best sermon of your life. Every day. Don’t take my word for it. Take God’s.