Lashon
Nikiyah – Clean Language – Clean
Mind
To Read or Not to Read
the Starr Report
September 18, 1998
The other night I had trouble getting on to the Web. Usually,
if I am patient, I can eventually get on. After many busy signals
I finally gave up, naively, without a clue why “that night
was different from all other nights.” The next day I found
out: the Starr Report was on the Web, and it seems that almost
everybody with a computer was trying to read it. Since it is known
that I only dabble on computer and search the Web for good Judaic
resources, besides the ball scores, that was the question I faced
all week: did I read the report on the Web? The answer I gave is “no” and
I have no intention of doing so in the future.
I even turned past the pages in the Times-Dispatch. I’ve
heard enough – g’nug – from the late night joksters.
Even the newscasters on radio and TV, either thought that they
had to enliven the news, or couldn’t get through it with
a straight face.
I carefully considered the focus of my remarks tonight, particularly
in light of the fact that our youth are participating in services.
For them and for us, our Judaism has much to teach us. I believe
that it would be correct from a Judaic perspective to say that
it was wrong, categorically wrong,
to release the report to the public with all of its graphic detail.
There was no need to know all this, and particularly
because children would be exposed in a debasing way to the most
private matter of sexual behavior between men and women. There
is a right time and place; there are the proper circumstances and
the correct perspectives to learn about intimate human behavior. This
was wrong on every count. What God intended to be physically
beautiful interwoven with spiritually radiant was degraded. Judaism
teaches that sexual behavior, between the proper people, at the
right time, in the correct place, is kodesh – holy.
The opposite of kodesh is chillul – desecration,
desanctified. All that was printed is a chillul – a
desecration of the human being and a desanctification of the human
body. And to print it, to release it indiscriminately in the public,
was a desecration of language itself. It is on
this point that I wish to speak.
There are positive mitzvot and
negative mitzvot, the dos and the don’ts. The Rabbis created
the category of Nivul
HaPeh – Foul Language as a negative
mitzvah, something that shouldn’t do. We may do it through
gossip, Lashon harah, or tale-bearing – richilut. And we
may do it by printing the wrong words in the wrong way in the wrong
place. Because the Rabbinic teachings were formed when most things
were spoken, they phrased their wisdom by referring to the spoken
word. I believe that it is equally true for the printed word. We
learn the following from the book Menorat Ha-Maor:
“He who utter foul language commits a great transgression
and becomes despised in the eyes of others, for he has abandoned
the traits of decency and modesty which are the distinguishing
marks of his people, and walks the path of disrespectful and defiant
persons.”
The English translation “he
who utter foul language” does
not reflect the Hebrew original, for there it says “ha-m’nabail
et peev” – better translated as “he who fouls
his mouth!” First of all, this implies that the saying of
such words or the printing of such words dirties the speaker, dirties
the printer, and then dirties the reader. I can’t begin to
fathom how the people who typed the manuscripts or who scanned
them into the computers and newspaper printing rooms felt. But
I have to imagine that nobody felt better because
they read this report. My word of the season on these matters is shmootz. To
utilize it fully, the words printed were shmootz which
made the newspaper and the computer screen shmootzick,
and those who typed it, those who scanned it and those who read
it were fa-shmootzed! Now this might seem comedic
in trying to conjugate, at least colloquially the Yiddish word
for dirt, but it is the most accurate way of applying
this teaching. Secondly, the Hebrew verb is not in the simple action
form. It is in the intensive form: the difference between breaking
and shattering, in Hebrew the same verb shin, vet, resh. The use
of m’nabail is to emphasize this foulness in the strongest
way. This is not dust. This is dirt, from which we are commanded
to keep far away.
Maimonides, in The Guide for the Perplexed, wrote the following.
He could have been writing today just for these matters:
“I maintain that one should
not speak loosely about sexual relations, nor should one’s
thoughts be preoccupied with such matters. Most important, one
must never discuss such matters in lewd or obscene way. Since speech
is a unique ability of mankind and a special gift of God to distinguish
him from the animals, it must be utilized for human perfection,
to learn and to teach, but never for degrading purposes. I have
good reason for calling Hebrew the holy tongue… All of
the terms for sexual matters are euphemisms, metaphors or allusions.
The implication is obvious: we should be chaste and discreet
about such matters. And if we need to discuss them, then we should
do so modestly by employing euphemisms and metaphors.”
As in
the first teaching from Menorat Ha-Maor, so too here, Maimonides
stresses the positive mitzvot, the good behavior of decency,
of modesty, discreetness, of propriety. There are right times
and wrong times. There are right ways and wrong ways. There is
right language and wrong language. Judaism has always taught
that we should conduct ourselves with tzni’ut, modesty.
In the Talmud, in Masechet, Tractate of Ketubot, we learn: If
a man hears something unseemly, he should put his fingers in
his ears. The
Hebrew for “unseemly” is “she-ayno hagun” – “it
is not proper” – “it is not fitting.” We
could apply this teaching by saying that if there is something
printed that is inappropriate, for adult or youth – she-ayno
hagun – we shouldn’t read it. Turn the page. Go to
another Web site. In Menorat Ha-Maor we learn: A person
should try to discipline himself…he should stress silence. We
apply it: turn off the computer. Close the paper. Don’t
buy the book. We are commanded, it is a positive mitzvah, to
live decently and modestly. And if you are tempted? Our Judaism anticipated the attraction.
Therefore we learn in the Midrash on Psalms: If your tongue
turns to Lashon harah – bad language – go and study
words of Torah. Torah is a positive antidote to shmootz.
Instead of wasting time on Starr’s report, read the weekly
Torah portion, review the Machzor, read a good Jewish book. Go
to the keyword Jewish and find the million and
one divrei Torah on subjects, on yom tov, on the parshah. Don’t
go to the report. Go to Torah.
My last teaching, again from
Masechet Ketubot in the Talmud: Whoever
dirties his mouth with foul language [we include the eyes], even
though it had been decreed in heaven that he should live seventy
years, causes the decree to be reversed. Especially
in this season before the Yamim Noraim when we repeatedly ask
God for life, long life, then we should be sensitive to behaviors
that cheapen life, degrade life, debase life. Instead we should
practice Lashon kavod to speak honorably and
to live honorably.
May God hear our prayers on behalf of our country, that we should
rise from this morass.
May we resolve, youth and adult alike, to live with modesty,
with grace, with taste, with decency, with integrity and with honor.
Amen.
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