Parshat Tazria-Metzora 5785

“Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: The majority of people succumb to sin with regard to robbery, and a minority of people succumb to sin with regard to sexual matters, and everyone succumbs to sin with regard to malicious speech. The Gemara asks: Can it enter your mind that all people sin with regard to malicious speech? The Gemara answers: Rather, Rav was referring to uttering a hint of malicious speech.”

The Rabbis are clearly telling us that evil speech is, at some level, an innate issue for every single person. This means that everyone has to struggle with this temptation and anyone who has studied the laws of evil speech knows how difficult it is to overcome this temptation. The Torah gives us the most successful approach to solving character flaws: We have to own up to it by accepting that it is useless to try and ignore the temptation. We must face the fact that we are trapped by this behavior which is an addictive behavior and actively work on ourselves to resolve this serious issue.