Parshas Tazria-Metzorah: Take This One Simple Step, Then Relax and Savor Life!

Could the secret to a longer, happier life be as simple as talking less? That's the provocative wisdom at the heart of Parshat Tazria Metzorah, brought to life through a captivating Midrash about a traveling peddler selling "the elixir of life."

When Rabbi Yanai heard this peddler's extraordinary claim, he was naturally curious. But what the peddler revealed wasn't some exotic potion or rare herb—it was a verse from Psalms: "Who is the man who desires life? Guard your tongue from evil, turn away from evil and do good." This deceptively simple prescription stunned even the learned Rabbi, who admitted he'd never fully grasped its profound implications despite knowing the verse well.

This teaching connects directly to the spiritual affliction of tzaraas discussed in our parsha. The Torah prescribes an unusual remedy for the recovering metzorah—an offering involving birds. Why birds? Because they constantly chirp and twitter without purpose, symbolizing the excessive, mindless chatter that lies at the root of lashon hara (evil speech). The message isn't merely to avoid negative speech but to recognize the power of measured, thoughtful communication.

Judaism takes a unique approach to spiritual development. Unlike ascetic traditions that withdraw from life's pleasures, Jewish wisdom teaches us to fully engage with life while mastering our speech. As the Malbim explains, we don't need to become hermits to achieve holiness—we simply need to guard our tongues. This universal wisdom appears throughout our tradition: "A wise person speaks because they have something to say; a fool speaks because they have to say something."

Ready to enjoy more of life's blessings? Start by speaking less and listening more. The elixir of life isn't something you need to purchase—it's available with every word you choose not to say. Your life, relationships, and spiritual wellbeing will thank you.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Gift of Life
• 8:16 The Peddler's Elixir of Life
• 15:32 Rabbi Yanai's Great Realization
• 18:38 The Malbim on Loving Life
• 18:38 The Malbim on Loving Life
• 22:47 Practical Ways to Guard Your Tongue

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Do you love life? Hopefully, because what's not to love? The highs, the lows, the beating heart Life is exhilarating. There are so many great parts to life, from the meaningful connections that you can create, the experiences you can create, the experiences you can experience, from the simple pleasures to the most memorable highs of life. Life Chaim is the ultimate gift. When you're not building strong relationships, connecting with loved ones, hopefully you're pursuing your hobbies, contributing to something larger, enjoying the beauty of Scandinavia or the beauty of the Grand Tetons or Yellowstone or Yazamite National Park.

Speaker 1: 1:06

Life as a youth, as a chap, it's fun Ice pops, competitive sports, coloring books, hot dogs and hamburgers at the family barbecue with the red and white tablecloth. As a teen, life gets even better when you get in with the cool kids allowed to sit in the tati's chair, you learn how to drive, or maybe even you learn how to fulfill mitzvahs properly, earn a salary, maybe even get married, build a relationship, build a bias, accomplish great goals in business, go on vacation, enjoy a Cuban cigar, sit back, kick it back on the beaches of Acapulco. After an incredibly hard-fought winter's monaghan, and now enjoying the beaches of Acapulco with a margarita in hand, life is perfect. Life is a gift. Life Chaim itself is what needs to be sustained and protected. Life is the greatest gift that we all currently enjoy. So if you would like to protect your life, maybe even enhance and increase life's fantastic experiences, I hope you will listen up to what Vayikra Rabo 16.2 and the further comments of the great medieval commentators comments of the great medieval commentators and the great Magide Shiyurim and Balei Musser of past generations have to say about how and why to protect life.

Speaker 1: 2:57

This week is Parshas Hazria Mitzorah, and the Medrash tells us about a peddler that is peddling an incredible idea. That is the main theme of Parshas Tazria Mitzorah. I hope you'll make the connection yourself. The Medrash says as follows it's world famous Rabbi Lopiansky quotes in his book. It's world famous. Rabbi Lopiansky quotes it in his book. And tremendous, tremendous Torah scholars, throughout all of the throngs and endless encyclopedic Torah libraries, they consistently quote this medrash to drive their poems home. The medrash says as follows who is the man who desires life? Well, let me tell you a story.

Speaker 1: 3:50

There was a story with a peddler. He was hanging out trying to sell a product, peddle some goods in towns near Tzipori. He began to shout out loud man boi l'mizban samchayim. Man boi l'mizban samchayim. Who wants to come and buy the elixir of life? Who wants to buy this potion which is the medicine of life? Oitken aleh. People began to become interested.

Speaker 1: 4:25

Rabbi Anay Havayosev Betur Kaline. Rabbi Anay was sitting inside in his castle learning Shalmei Demachrezman. He hears somebody from outside his window while he's studying. Who wants to buy the elixir, the potion of life? And Omar Le Rabbi Yanai says I'd be a customer. Why don't you come up here into my study and sell it to me? Omar Le, the peddler says you and your kind Torah scholars engrossed in the study of Torah, they don't need what I have to sell. He began to press the peddler, rabianai, showing interest in what the peddler was selling. And the peddler relented and said I'll show you what I'm selling. Hodesi lo sefer tehillim. He walked towards the swarm shrunk, pulled out a Psalms, the book of Psalms, to hill him off of the shelf. Maybe it was leather bound, maybe the tassel was hanging right down to the perfect page. Preset Hera low, posse in the peddler, put his finger down onto the page and showed him a verse, psalms, to hill him.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Lamed Dalid Yud, dalid 34, 14. Who is the man who desires life? Who is the man who is the life desirer. What does it say? Immediately after Continues the peddler Nitzor l'shoncha meira Sur, meira va'asei tov. Guard your tongue from speaking ill, from speaking wicked. Talk and distance yourself. Run away from evil and do good. This is the elixir. This is the potion that enhances and saves good. This is the elixir. This is the potion that enhances and saves lives. This is what the peddler was selling to the man who desires life, omar Rabianai. Here's where it gets good. Rabianai says I have a tzushdel Av. Shlomo machrez ve'omer. Shlomo HaMelech said something similar in Meshleichav Alev Chav Gimel. Protect your mouth and your tongue and you protect yourself from pain of the soul, from Agmas Nevesh, and from stress, worries and anxiety, if you just merely protect your tongue.

Speaker 1: 7:05

The Medrash concludes All my life. I would read this verse, the. I didn't realize just how obvious it is that this is the savior, the enhancer and the protector for the one who desires life, until this peddler came and informed me. And that is what the Torah tells us. Continues you want to protect life? Well, don't speak lush in Hara. Protect your tongue. And that is what the Torah tells us Zoistie et toiras ha-metzorah. The Medrash continues you want to protect life? Well, don't speak Lashon Hara, protect your tongue. And, as you well know, that's the topic of our parasha Tazria Metzorah, the Tziras infliction that comes the legions that are gross on one's skin from speaking Lashon Hara. But the Medrash here explains to us what is zoistia toiras ha-metzaira. It is protect your tongue. Don't get saras, but protect your tongue. As the peddler sold it Protect your tongue, not just to not get saras, but because that is what guards your life.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Rabianai, who knows kol hatayrakula, who knows this very Pasek and reads it frequently. The Medrash notes that he says I read the Pasek but I didn't know just how obvious the Savior and Protector of Life was until the Roichel, until the peddler told me and reminded me that life is simple. Ladies and gentlemen, to protect your life, to protect the highs of life and to enhance life, and to guard your life and to continue to enjoy life, you need not engage in any other exercise other than guarding your tongue, refraining from speaking evil. Who is the person that loves life? This is something that is right beneath our noses and we are all most definitely guilty of, and who doesn't need the reminder that if you would like to guard your life and enhance it, then just stop talking ill. Listen to this Malbem. Actually, on that pussic, I'm trying to develop this idea of just how basic and how obvious it is. But it stands right underneath our very noses, that life. To be protectant of it, it just requires that we stop spewing lush and horror.

Speaker 1: 10:11

The Malbem says that Miel Ish, the life desirer, see, judaism is different. He says the Akom, the other nations, when they want to become holy, they become Pope-like, they become segregated, they lock themselves in a room like a hermit. They do not get married, they do not have steak dinners, they do not enjoy or even take part in the world. But Jews, avalani, says the ma'obim, playing the part of what David HaMelech is saying ani elamed, I'll teach you yiras Hashem. Gam loho ish hachaf etzchaim, I'll teach you the way of fearing God to the man who loves life. V'gam loho ish ha'oyev.

Speaker 1: 10:56

Yomim liros tov. He wants to see his life grow over time. He wants to see his life grow over time and he wants to sit and learn daf yomi down in Century Village while enjoying his $5 million 401k. Those, yomim toivim, all of that comes, and how can you attain it? All that is asked, just this is asked of you Guard your tongue from evil and guard your lips from deceitful speech.

Speaker 1: 11:41

What's included in deceitful speech? As we get halachic for a second, the redact tells us be careful what you say about others. Be careful not to testify falsely. Be careful not to curse your dad or your mom. Be careful not to curse the president or the king. And be careful not to say God's name in vain. Be careful not to lie with your mouth but shoymer. But protect it nitzar, guard it like this. That's the advice for how to live a long and happy, fruitful, upper-class life for a long, long time. It is that simple. This isn't new.

Speaker 1: 12:25

You're probably well aware of the words Chafetz Chaim that roll right off your tongue, because the great Rebbe, israel Meir Hakkoen Kagan, goes down in history for his all-time classic, his say for Chafetz Chaim, which teaches all of the laws and the importance that he brought to the world of protecting one's mouth from speaking ill, from speaking gossip. That is it to be told by Tehillim that one will live or be considered one who loves life, a desire of more life. But rather, I come here carrying a message, peddling a message of the peddler, of how simple it is, of how we just need to be reminded of that, if you love life and like to live a life of Yerushalayim, remind yourself today that you need not do anything else other than stop gossiping about how much chalant your neighbor eats, to stop speaking immoral concepts with your one friend that allows you to vent to him. I come here trying to bring the words of the Maubin and the words of Radak, that stop saying oh my G-D and instead say oh my gosh, and you are considered a Chafetz Chaim, a desirer of life. And now it's interesting, my brain made the connection that we find uniquely connected, very directly connected, between a happy life and the tongue of a man. In many cases, not just here, that protection of the tongue leads towards a protection and a desire or status of life.

Speaker 1: 14:27

Apirke avos, perik alef halacha yodzayin shimon, his son, beno omer kol yom haigadalti benachachamim. I grew up amongst the sages. Silence is what I found to be good, but if you unpack the words precisely, shimon, the lesson that he came up with is that silence, refraining from ill speech, even refraining from any type of speech, it isn't just plainly simply good, but it's good for the body. I never found anything more healthy, more robust, more encouraging and health-protecting for the body more than silence, silence, holding and guarding the tongue is synonymous with enhancing and protecting goodness and life and the body in the most physical and on-the-beaches-of-Acapulco style that you can imagine. This is one of the most important lessons of Tazria Mitzorah, because really the whole partial, both partios, they become not applicable to you because you don't have to suffer any of the consequences and the whips of Tazria Mitzorah and the entire process, the procedure of one who did speak, lashon Hara. You don't have to go through it. You don't have to call the Kohen to your house to check out the legions on your wall because you don't have them, because you've protected, you've Nitzor, lashon Chameirah.

Speaker 1: 16:19

And now I'd like to get granular, linear, pragmatic, realistic, hands-on as to how we can go about protecting our mouths. We do spend much of our day talking. We are considered medabrim people that are classified as people by those that speak. Speech is what is part and parcel to us being people. So it isn't quite simple to just keep a measuring stick on every word that comes out of one's mouth. It's very hard. It becomes very tedious and arduous to decide should I say that, should I say this?

Speaker 1: 16:59

So I'd like to give a very, very kind of blanket approach, realistic approach, if you will, from our parasha aus, to how we can become chafetz chayim, desirers of life, the sam hachayim, to ingest what the peddler was peddling by doing this protection of the mouth. In a very direct way, it comes from Mitzorah Yod-Dalad, pasuk Dalad. When we're taught as to what actually the Mitzorah's karbon is, the Kohen shall order this cocktail of two live birds cedarwood, crimson stuff, hyssop to be brought for the one that's purified. The Mitzorah has a very unique carbon and Rashi explains to us as to every ingredient inside of this cocktail of his carbon is to drive home a lesson to the consciousness, to the mind of the Mitzorah Lowly branches for the haughty one, or, in this scenario, two live birds. For the man, says Rashi, who chirped, you don't bring a ram, you don't bring a goat, nor do we whip him or cut out his tongue. For the Mitzorah, but says Rashi, we bring the birds. Your gross skin affliction. It came for bad speech, shehu. That bad speech is an action of tweeting words, spitting words, rambling on aimlessly, bidding words, rambling on aimlessly Lafikach es kukul atah rosot si porim. Therefore, you bring birds because birds are constantly chirping. Shemephatvet, fin tomet, b'tzivt, suf kol, gemara and Erechan. Birds are constantly chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, constantly, constantly rambling on mindlessly, just making noise with their mouth, with a bunch of phrases, an endless hogwash and rigmarole. And you engaged in that, so bring your bird.

Speaker 1: 19:19

Rebbe Urcham points out that Chazal get down to the very essence of the sin. It's not that you spoke, lashon Hara, but Chazal want you to internalize the lesson of that. You talk too much, you chirp too much, you mindlessly speak too much. The Karpin is not something about the godless, the greatness of speech and the anti-approach to ill tongue, but rather Maisa Pitputi Divarim is what the Mitzorah is shown. He's given a lesson, a lecture, a discourse on.

Speaker 1: 19:51

You talk too much, you mindlessly chatter and hack too much. Would you put a sock in it? That is why the leprosy came and that mi'ot sicha, the curtailing of so much talk is what Chazal want the mensch to see and I'd like to put forward posit that that's an easier approach to take to protecting and loving and desiring life, not weighing every word that comes out of our mouth be much, but to frankly and directly stop speaking so much, stop always jumping the gun to talk, not always having something to say. Perhaps no other concept is more clearly different in the Torah's eyes than in modern wisdom's times, than this idea of talking. When you go through the Myra Mechomos about what it is for the power of speech and how much is involved in it and just how unique the godless and the ability to speak is in the Torah's eyes, it becomes totally backwards to what the modern mind thinks of. Of course you should talk, always speak your mind, let them know what you think. The more we go into the sources and the more you examine the righteous, the more you'll realize how they're very much men of very few words. The lesson to the Mitzvah is you, sir, don't watch your mouth, but you, sir, frankly, talk too much. And that's what I think is a pragmatic approach To slow down the motor in our mouths and to, in that way, obviously stop slandering and gossiping so much. Stop slandering and gossiping so much to season, to garnish and to sear this idea to its conclusion.

Speaker 1: 21:58

I want to tell you a couple different quotes that come from family members or famous writers, authors, about just how we can remember this idea. In a very whimsical and succinct way, my father-in-law always says you know, there's a reason that God gave us two ears and one mouth, so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. A wise man speaks because he has something to say. A fool speaks because he has to say something, said another wise man.

Speaker 1: 22:37

Excessive talking is a leakage that will sink you in the ocean of troubles. That's a good one, but my point being is that Chazal, get to the causal factor of the Mitzorah and they learn out that talking too much and just sifts of coal like a bird, tweeting away aimlessly, jumping to the gun and prattling on with a bunch of empty talk, is the source of sin. Guard your mouth by talking less. That shouldn't keep you from complimenting, because that should be with thought. You should feel that and anything good you should let roll right out.

Speaker 1: 23:30

But otherwise, watch, learn with patience, understand, let moments sit there for a while, let life play out and, with a sense of patience and like a real student of a scholar, absorb information as opposed to constantly spewing underdeveloped, rather unappreciated wisdom. Stop talking so much. Rather unappreciated wisdom, stop talking so much. And that incredible gift that takes so many tens, if not hundreds, of muscles to actually bring to fruition of a spoken word. Protect it, cherish it, guard it, and that is the elixir of life. Nitzar L'shoin Chameirah, of life To be a life Enthusiast and a zippy, gregarious fella, a Biophilia, someone who loves life and wants to protect it and cherish it and have more of it. You need not learn anything new, but instead take the lesson and the message from the peddler who is selling the Sam HaChaim, the medicine and the elixir of life, which was the simple reminder that even Rabianai confessed, the Lo Hayisi Yodea Hechan Hu Poshet, that even Rabbi Yanai confessed. I didn't realize how simple and obvious it is that you guard and protect your life and desire life with simply a and a.