Shnayim Yomi - Tazria-Metzora - R'vi'i - #4 - Rabbi Yechiel Gabay - Two Paths of Speech

Parshas Tazria Metzora Re'eh, this aliyah crosses over into Parshas Metzora, which begins to deal with the purification procedure for a metzora who's done teshuvah, who's ready for the tahara process. And the pasuk says the first step of that is to bring two live birds to the kohen who will shecht one of them in front of him and set the second one free. Rashi says why the birds? Because they're symbolic of the metzora's problem. On the going bo'in lashon hara, the tzara'as came about in the first place because of lashon hara of the metzora. She'll mayse of pitpuse divarim, which is an act of uncontrolled speech, negative speech. Lefichach, therefore, we need taras tziporim, shema patpatin tamid, because they are constantly making noise and tweeting and chirping. And we're showing the metzora that he needs to cut down on that middah. We shecht one bird, prep for shiv'a yamim ganutz freed and safe for a period. And what about the second bird? Why do we bring that one and just set it free again? And he explains because speech, like all of our middos and abilities, is a tremendous koach which can be negative, but which needs to be channeled for good, not shut down completely. Had we just shechted one bird, we would have so thought maybe don't use speech at all, but speech is a wonderful thing. Speech is what we use to learn Torah, to daven to Hashem, to speak lashon tov, and that we're telling the metzora keep doing. Just make sure you shut down the negative speech like the shechted bird, but the second bird, which is set free to continue tweeting and chirping, you can use your speech, just make sure it's for the right thing.