COLUMNS Guard Your Tongue!

As this past legislative session drew to a close the long-awaited Clean Slate Act passed in both the Senate and Assembly in New York State. The bill, expected to be signed into law by Governor Hochul, will automatically seal most felony convictions eight years after the completion of a sentence and three years after the completion of a misdemeanor conviction.

As the executive director of New Hour for Women and Children, a non-profit dedicated to empowering justice-impacted women and their children, we worked hard to advocate for the passage of this act. The Clean Slate Act is a common-sense reform which will positively impact women and children and most importantly, will allow for more than 2.3 million people nationwide a fair chance to join our growing economy.

Justice-impacted women and mothers are very often the sole providers for their families and

RABBI MOSHE WEISBLUM

priest, declares him “pure” again. The ancient sages link the contracting of tzara’at to lashon ha-ra – the dissemination of evil speech – because the prophetess Miriam was stricken with leprosy after she spoke ill of her brother, Moses. And indeed many of the people affected with tzara’at during biblical times had spoken badly of others.

While in isolation, the afflicted person was ordered to examine his behavior, because the tzara’at that presented itself upon a person’s body back then, was a symptom of something deeper – the Creator’s way of alerting someone that inner work needed to be done. Often, the area that needed to be rectified had to do with the words that came off that person’s tongue. So, in particular, he was expected to examine his speech and work to eliminate the practice of speaking lashon ha-ra, damaging speech, about another person. This push towards self-improved was always felt to be worthwhile – because once the individual in question did the work necessary to correct his speech, his tzara’at would disappear. The kohen would then declare him ready to immerse in the purifying waters of the mikveh, ritual bath, and rejoin the community.

A modern-day reader may find this phenomena hard to relate to. But all of the episodes in the Torah are timeless. So, how might we apply the leprosy narrative to our own lives? Our skin is the permeable barrier between our internal organs and external flesh – our inside and outside, if you will. It represents our boundaries, our choices about what to let in and what to let out. The faculty of speech is the channel through which we bring our inner thoughts into the outside world. Consciously choosing to use positive speech has a beneficial effect on human beings and