"Two Pure Living Birds" - "If a person only utters holy nonsense from his mouth, then the Kingdom of Hashem will be revealed in the world, and he will be able to bring the redemption and build the Holy Temple"

"The holy Zohar says that the world stands on seven vanities, and King Solomon, who merited these seven vanities, as it is written 'Vanity of vanities, says Kohelet, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' (Ecclesiastes 1:2) And by virtue of these seven vanities, he built the Holy Temple."

The entire work of a person is to merit those seven holy vanities, so that every word a person utters from his mouth will be holy of holies, every syllable will be holy of holies. You need to sanctify your breath so that no incorrect word comes out of your mouth, no gossip, no slander, no word of anger, no word of selfishness, of pride, God forbid. If a person only utters holy nonsense from his mouth, then the Kingdom of Hashem will be revealed in the world, and he will be able to bring the redemption and build the Holy Temple."

"The entire vitality of a person is the inner vanities, these seven holy vanities, says the Sfat Emet – how do you take the breath of your mouth, your innermost being, and speak about another? How can you take a Jew and speak about him? You were given the power of speech! You were given breath! You were given this to pray, to say Psalms, to study Gemara, how do you take your vitality, your innermost being, and use it for baseless hatred, for the shortcomings of another, don't you have anything else to do? How did you dare to speak about any Jew? How did you have the audacity, the brazenness to speak about any Jew, even if he is the greatest wicked person, what does he bother you? What, will he take your shop? What do you care about him, how can you speak about a Jew, God forbid, is it hard for you not to speak gossip, not to speak about another? Eat a cake, drink some juice, the main thing is not to speak gossip, not to speak about another."

"The whole matter of a person is the breath of the mouth, the breath is the vitality of a person, he takes this holy breath, what he breathes every moment, and instead of using it for prayer, for Torah, for love of friends, he now speaks gossip for two or three hours, he doesn't realize he is expending all his innermost being, all his vitality, to animalistic behavior, to the other side."

"The animalistic nature of an animal is that it bites, kicks, and gores, but the animalistic nature of a person is to speak gossip, to speak about another. A person cannot receive kedushah (holiness) unless he first subdues his animalistic nature. The Rebbe says in Torah 54 – 'He who spreads slander is a fool,' when a person spreads slander, when a person speaks gossip, he is a fool, he loses his intellect. Not only has he transgressed the prohibition of gossip, as the Chafetz Chaim says, one who speaks gossip transgresses 14 positive commandments and 17 negative commandments, which is 31, and with the details, it is endless prohibitions. But he also loses his intellect, the moment he speaks gossip about someone, about any Jew, even if it is true, but it is not necessary, only perhaps it seems to him that it is necessary, and Hashem knows the truth! Hashem knows if it is necessary or not! At that moment he loses all his intellect forever until he does teshuvah (repentance)."

"A person who speaks gossip should know that the power of animalistic nature is clothed within him, the power of animalistic nature is jealousy, hatred, which are animalistic forces. He falls from being a person to being an animal, not only has he transgressed all the prohibitions of the 'negative commandments' and 'positive commandments' but he simply becomes an animal. The person cannot learn, pray, because he speaks about this, speaks about that, speaks about Jews."

"Says the Rebbe of Slonim – 'In whom the affliction is,' the affliction is within you, it is not outside, the affliction is within your neshamah (soul) 'In whom the affliction is' the affliction is in your innermost being, within you, the gossip is inside, the evil eye is inside. When a person speaks gossip about another, then the blemish is deep, deep, the blemish is deeper than the very prohibition of gossip, it is something twisted, crooked within the soul, it is wounds within the neshamah, the neshamah is entirely afflicted, entirely decayed."

"When a person speaks gossip, gets angry, it is not only severe that he got angry, that he spoke gossip, but it shows a deep blemish in the soul. He does not know what a Jew is, he does not have the correct perspective on life, he does not see things well, therefore he needs to purify the soul, and the neshamah needs healing, to heal the voice, to have a voice of melody and to restore to him the correct speech."

"A metzora needs to bring two birds, says the Rebbe – why does he need to bring two birds? Because he was afflicted in his voice, he spoke gossip and his voice was corrupted, he lost his voice, he now receives vitality from the two birds of impurity, and a remedy needs to be found for him, his voice needs to be restored. Therefore, two birds are brought to connect him with birds of holiness, to let him hear a good voice, a soft voice, a voice of pleasantness, of love for others, a voice of peace between a person and his fellow."

"Rabbi Natan says that two birds need to be brought because the birds are the melody, they sing all day and sing. They tell the metzora – look, these two birds sing all day, you too should start singing, you too should sing through the birds. They restore to him the power of song, the power of melody, the pleasantness, the tranquility so that he will have a pleasant voice like a bird. All his words should be only songs and praises to Hashem, songs and praises to everyone, to his household, to his friends, only to praise and glorify them, how wonderful you are, how good you are. The entire matter of the tzaddikim is to restore the voice of melody to all of Israel, to all the house of Israel, and through this, we will merit a complete redemption speedily in our days, Amen."