S.A.L.T. - Tuesday

          As we discussed earlier this week, the metzora’s purification process requires bringing two birds, one of which is slaughtered, and the other is sent away. The Gemara in Masekhet Arakhin (16b) asks why the metzora, unlike all other temei’im (those who have contracted ritual impurity), must bring two birds as part of his purification process. The Gemara answers by pointing to the “pitput” – the chirping noise made by birds.  Since tzara’at generally comes as a punishment for the sin of lashon ha-ra, inappropriate speech about others, the Torah required the metzora to bring two birds – to remind himself of his “noisemaking” that resembles the noise of the bird.

         The Ramban questions this parallel drawn by the Gemara between the talebearer and the bird.  Not all birds, the Ramban observes, produce sound constantly.  Many birds sing or chirp only periodically.  Why, then, would the bird serve as an appropriate symbol for the pattering of the metzora?

         The Ramban answers with a novel, etymological theory concerning the word “tzipor” used in this parasha for “bird.”  The Ramban claims that “tzipor” refers to one specific type of bird, the birds that arise early in the morning and chirp.  He notes that the Aramaic word for morning is “tzafra,” and so the morning bird is called “tzipor.”  The metzora is compared to the noisy morning birds that chirp loudly and consistently in the early morning hours.

         One might suggest a different answer, based on a comment of Rav Yerucham Lebovitz of Mir concerning this parallel between the bird and the gossip.  Rav Yerucham suggests that the metzora is punished not for the speech itself, but rather for the freedom he grants his tongue. Chazal liken the talebearer to a bird because a bird makes its sounds indiscriminately, at whim, whenever it wishes. It exercises no control over its noisemaking, it sounds it music freely.  This, claims Rav Yerucham, forms the basis of the parallel between the bird and the teller of lashon ha-ra.  A person must accustom himself to exercising restraint in speech, he must train himself to speak with discretion.  The gossip, like the bird, makes his “noise” without compunction or discretion, and for this he is punished.

         This easily resolves the difficulty raised by the Ramban.  The infrequency of a bird’s sounds in no way undermines this parallel drawn by the Gemara.  The point here is not the constant chirping, but rather the indiscriminate chirping, the inability or unwillingness to think before speaking, to know when it is appropriate to talk and when it is not.

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