The Tragic Slip of the Tongue: A Lesson from Tschortkov

The key message from the story of Tzara'at is: "He who guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles." Words spoken can sometimes be like a bullet, impossible to take back.

A tragic and dreadful event occurred in the town of Tschortkov in Galicia.

One of the town's wealthy men was a vigorous and assertive individual, a businessman with influence, holding the license to supply gunpowder to the Austrian artillery, relishing both learning and greatness concurrently.

One day, harsh words erupted between him and his wife, and in his anger, terrible words slipped out of his mouth: "May you burn." He was immediately taken aback by his harsh words, asked his wife for forgiveness, and they reconciled.

However, the words he uttered had a grave effect. The next day, his wife went down to one of the cellars to look for something. The cellar was dark, and in her innocence, she held a candle to find the object. But the cellar was used for storing gunpowder! The storage exploded with a loud noise, the fire spread from warehouse to warehouse and house to house, and the unfortunate woman perished in the blaze.

Her husband couldn't endure the terrible event, which seemed linked to his words, and refused any comfort or process of repentance until Rabbi David of Tschortkov came to console him. Rabbi David said one sentence: "He who guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles; there is no more effective repentance and correction for such a sin than silence." Upon hearing this, the wealthy man rose, liquidated his businesses, transferred their management to others, distributed his money among charity funds and his heirs, and entered the study hall in Tschortkov, where he sat until the end of his days, not uttering a single word. No one could speak to him. Only through studying in complete silence did he find solace and atonement, earning him the name "the Silent One of Tschortkov" for generations to come.