The Cohen Family and the Pecking Bird
There is a true story about the Cohen family who recently had a very strange problem. One day, out of nowhere, a bird began to peck continuously at his window. As days and weeks went on, the bird came every morning and relentlessly pecked at the window. The family tried many ways to drive it away, both physically and spiritually, and still, the bird returned every morning.
The father, Rabbi Aaron Cohen, understood that this was some sort of message from Hashem, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. After weeks with no solution in sight, he went to the Kotel to pray and beg Hashem to show him what to do to solve the problem.
The Explanation of the Targum Yonatan
While he was praying and saying Tehillim, he suddenly remembered a Targum Yonatan from Parashat Metzora. The Torah describes the purification process of the metzora—a person afflicted with leprosy after speaking lashon hara. The metzora brings two birds to the Kohen. One is slaughtered, and the other is set free. On this passuk, the Targum Yonatan comments that if the metzora speaks lashon hara again, the bird that was set free will come to his house as a reminder to do teshuva.
Rabbi Cohen remembered something else. His family had a routine to learn two halachot of lashon hara every day, but that had gone to the wayside because one of the daughters had recently gotten married, and with all the preparations and commotion before the wedding, they had neglected to learn the daily halachot. The wedding had passed a month earlier, and they never restarted their nightly ritual.
The Family Resumes Learning Two Halachot of Lashon Hora Every Day
He rushed home, convinced this was the answer, and the family immediately resumed their previous custom to learn two halachot of lashon hara every day. The day they started again, the bird came to the window, but it just sat there and watched without pecking. After that, it left and never returned.
The laws of lashon hara are very intricate, but if we just start by reviewing the halachot, it can make a tremendous impact on our daily lives. Whether deciding to review the halachot of LH or to wear a kippah just at work as a start, small changes can be just as purifying as any big ones and likely even more successful. Rav Shach, a gadol hador, once publicly committed to saying birkat hamazon from a siddur instead of by heart. We all have ways to improve ourselves; we have to think, and we’ll find them.
Reprinted from the Shabbat Yom Kippur 5785 email of Jack E. Rahmey based on the Torah teachings of Rabbi Amram Sananes.
