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The message below was recently sent to me. Rabbi Dr. David Berger author
of "The Rebbe, the Messiah and the Scandal of Orthodox
Indifference" once pointed out to me that the classic source for the
statement about worrying more about what comes out of our mouths than
what goes into them is <font size=3>Matthew 15:17-20 and Mark 7:18-23.
YL<br><br>
From: Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush
<a href="news:April" eudora="autourl">News:April</a> 16, 2010<br>
DEVAR TORAH<br>
By Rabbi Moshe Sokol, Ph.D.<br><br>
Why does parashat Tazria immediately follow parashat Shmini?<br><br>
Rav Yisrael Salanter, famed founder of the mussar movement, is <br>
reported to have asked the question this way.<br><br>
Parashat Shmini includes the laws of kashrut. Parashat Tazria <br>
includes the laws of tzara'at, which Chazal teach is the consequence
<br>
of speaking lashon ha-ra.<br><br>
Thus, parashat Shmini teaches us what is forbidden to put into our <br>
mouths, and parashat Tazria teaches us what is forbidden to leave our
mouths.<br><br>
I might add that the laws of tzara'at extend over two parashiyot, <br>
Tazria and Metzora, while the laws of kashrut extend over only
one.<br><br>
Perhaps that is a hint about the relative importance of each category
<br>
of halakha. While both are absolutely crucial and the word of G-d, <br>
perhaps we should be worrying a bit more about what we say than what we
eat.<br>
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