"Impure, Impure," he shall call

The one afflicted with leprosy, tzara'at calls out twice, "Impure, Impure," as he leaves the camp. 

Many a reason has been given. To warn others to not become impure by touching him, or being in his vicinity, to have others pray for him, to serve as a living example of the opprobrium that comes with impurity; it is a declaration that he himself must make. 

Perhaps, the thought struck me, the call is meant to help the caller internalize a greater sense of humility. When looking to point out others flaws, we are ever so eager. We share with enthusiasm the blemishes others possess, "Do you know what he told me?" or "Do you know how he messed up?" There's a certain exuberance about knowing that one himself does not possess a certain flaw - and that another does - and then, to be privileged at that to be the one who shares it with the world. 

I would like to suggest that this call also serves as a reminder to think twice, to take a step back, to remember that our motivations are not always pure and intellectually sound, and that the antidote could very well be to realize that the spreading of slander or gossip is oft-rooted in impetuosity, or a wicked drive to depress another. When we do things that are intellectually sound, all we have to do is just say it. One time suffices. We have clarity of thought, of mind. When emotions get the better of us, in a way that causes us to put others down, very often we are driven by impulses, reflected, in my humble opinion, in the repetition of the word "impure." The transgressor, thus, should know that to "cure" himself of any tendency to see the bad in others, rather than being driven by instinct and emotion, it would behoove him to take a step back, and ask himself in a calm and collected way, "Were what I to need to share to be truly essential for the other's benefit, would I be able to say it not with enthusiasm, but rather with quiet humility, with an integrity of purpose encapsulated in one utterance, not two?" Usually, when the information shared conforms to these criteria, it doesn't need to be shared with others; when it takes the form of gossip, it goes from one person to the next, also embodied by the dual utterance, "Impure, impure." 

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