Prayer for Divine Assistance to Avoid Evil Speech

Parashat Metzora

Prayer for Divine Assistance to Avoid Evil Speech

 
I desire to be sincere and practice what I preach.
Please Hashem help me elevate my speech!
 
Going to a family gathering can be a difficult test.
Please help empower me negative speech to divest!
 
I plead You to heed this important request
that in everyone I will see only the best!
 
Let it be that any malicious word
that may be said would never be heard.
 
Words of judgment so easily from our tongue slip.  
Do not allow even a drop of evil speech to drip.
 
Offensive words travel like a video clip.
I pray fervently that You will help me zip by lip.
 
Let us overcome negativity and blame,
and not inflict on anyone an evil name!

Based on the Book of Vayikra Chapter 14 verse 2:

 

ספר ויקרא פרק יד פסוק ב זֹאת תִּהְיֶה תּוֹרַת הַמְּצֹרָע בְּיוֹם טָהֳרָתוֹ וְהוּבָא אֶל הַכֹּהֵן:

“This shall be the law of the person afflicted with tzara’at, on the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the kohen” (Vayikra 14:2).

 

תלמוד בבלי מסכת ערכין דף טו/ב ואמר ר' יוסי בן זימרא כל המספר לשון הרע נגעים באים עליו… אמר ריש לקיש מאי דכתיב זאת תהיה תורת המצורע זאת תהיה תורתו של מוציא שם רע...

Rabbi Yosei ben Zimra says: Anyone who speaks malicious speech will be afflicted by plagues (tzara’at)…  Reish Lakish says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “This shall be the law of the leper [metzora]? This means that this shall be the law of a defamer [motzi shem ra, literally the one who causes an evil name] (Babylonian Talmud, Arichin 15b).

רמב"ם יד החזקה הלכות טומאת צרעת פרק  טז …שהמספר בלשון הרע משתנות קירות ביתו… ואם עמד ברשע ומשתנין הבגדים שעליו... אם חזר בו יטהרו ואם עמד ברשעו משתנה עורו ויצטרע ויהיה מובדל ומפורסם לבדו עד שלא יתעסק בשיחת הרשעים שהוא הליצנות ולשון הרע…

When a person speaks lashon hara, the walls of his house change color... If he persists in his wickedness... the clothes he wears change color. If he [still] persists in his wickedness... his skin undergoes changes, and he develops tzara’at. This causes him to be isolated and for it to be made known that he must remain alone so that he will not be involved in the talk of the wicked, which is folly and lashon hara” (Mishnah Torah, Sefer Tahara, Hilchot Tum’at Tzara’at 16:10).