Transforming the Affliction Within You into Song and Melody

"Two living, clean birds" - "If a person only brings forth holy breaths from his mouth, then the Kingdom of Hashem will be revealed in the world, and he will be able to bring the Geulah (Redemption) and build the Holy Temple."

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

"The entire work of a person is to merit those seven holy breaths, so that every word a person brings forth from his mouth will be holy of holies, every syllable will be holy of holies. You must sanctify the breath of your mouth so that no incorrect word comes out, no lashon hara (evil speech), no gossip, no word of resentment, no word of anger, no word of selfishness, or of pride, Heaven forbid. If a person only brings forth holy breaths from his mouth, then the Kingdom of Hashem will be revealed in the world, and he will be able to bring the Geulah (Redemption) and build the Holy Temple."

"All of a person's vitality is in these internal breaths, these seven holy breaths. The Sefat Emet asks – How can you take your breath, your inner essence, and speak about another? How can you take a Jew and speak about him? You were given the power of speech! You were given the breath of the mouth! You were given it to pray, to recite Tehillim, to study Gemara. How can you take your vitality, your inner essence, and spend it on baseless hatred, on the faults of another? What, do you have nothing else to do? How did you dare to speak about any Jew? How did you have the audacity, the brazenness, to speak about another Jew, even if he is the greatest sinner? What does he bother you? What, will he take your shop? What do you care about him? How can you speak about a Jew, Heaven forbid? Is it hard for you not to speak lashon hara, not to speak about the other? Eat a cake, drink some juice, the main thing is: do not speak lashon hara, do not speak about the other."

"The entire matter of a person is the breath of the mouth; it is the breathing, the vitality of a person is the breathing. He takes this holy breath, what he breathes every moment, and instead of bringing it out in prayer, in Torah, in love for friends, he speaks lashon hara for two or three hours. He does not feel that he is pouring out all his inner essence, all his vitality, into animalistic behavior, into the sitra achra (the other side)."

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

"A person who speaks lashon hara should know that the power of the beast clothes itself in him. The power of the beast is jealousy and hatred, which are animalistic forces. He falls from a human to a beast; not only has he transgressed all the prohibitions of the 'negative' and 'positive' commandments, but he simply turns into a beast. The person cannot study or pray because he is talking about this one, talking about that one, talking about Jews."

"The Rebbe of Slonim says – 'In whom there is the plague' (asher bo hanega), the plague is within you, it is not on the outside. The plague is inside your soul, 'in whom there is the plague,' the plague is in your interior, within you. The lashon hara is inside, the evil eye is inside. When a person speaks lashon hara about another, the blemish is deep, deep. The blemish is deeper than the actual prohibition of lashon hara; it is something twisted and crooked inside the soul. These are wounds inside the soul; the soul is entirely leprous, entirely rotten."

"When a person speaks lashon hara, or is angry, it is not only severe that he was angry or that he spoke lashon hara, but it shows a deep blemish in the soul. He does not know what a Jew is; he has no correct proportion for life. He does not see things well; therefore, he needs to purify the soul, and his soul must be healed, to heal the voice, so that he will have the voice of a melody and restore his correct speech."

"A metzora (leper) must bring two birds. The Rebbe asks – why must he bring two birds? Because he was afflicted in his voice; he spoke lashon hara and his voice became corrupted. He lost his voice; he is now receiving vitality from the two birds of the kelipah (shell/impurity), and he needs to find a tikkun (rectification) for him; he needs to have his voice restored. Therefore, they bring him two birds to connect him with the birds of holiness, to let him hear a good voice, a soft voice, a voice of pleasantness, of love for one's fellow, a voice of peace between one person and another."

"Reb Noson says that one must bring the two birds because the birds are the music; they chirp all day and sing. They say to the metzora – look, these two birds are singing all day, you too should begin to play, 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 voice as pleasant as a bird. So that all his speech will be only songs and praises to Hashem Yitbarach, songs and praises for everyone, for his household, for 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 the Jewish people, to all the House of Israel, and through this, we will merit the complete Geulah (Redemption) speedily in our days, amen."