Dvar Metzora

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Parshat Metzora starts off very awkwardly for the casual reader. The Torah tells us that once a Metzora (someone who spoke negatively about another) is qualified to become pure, which is after 7 days of being impure, then he is brought to the Kohen (priest). But the very next Passuk (verse) says that the Kohen then goes out to greet the man, and inspects that the leprosy is gone. But if we read further, we learn that the man has to bring two birds as an offering to Hashem for his sins, but only one of the birds is killed while the other is released. Commentaries explain that birds don't stop chirping, and the man also didn't stop speaking when he should have. Cute. But why does he bring TWO birds, if only one gets killed?

The Lekach Tov explains that if there was only one bird offering, and that bird was killed, one would think that talking was never good, when in fact that's not true. The bird that is released shows us that there is as much good that one can do with his/her mouth as there is bad. Talking about Torah, helping others with anything, be it with work or with homework! We often don't realize what an impact we can have by the things we say. If a smile can do so much to brighten someone's day, just think of what a simple friendly conversation can do (even for strangers)! Focusing on all the good we CAN do will hopefully distance us from the bad we shouldn't do.