Towards the end of our parashah, Miriam relates to Aharon her concern that Moshe separated from his wife Tziporah. For this she was punished with tzaraas and was sent outside the camp for seven days. The Chafetz Chaim observes that Miriam didn’t have any negative intent, she only desired to defend the honor of her sister-in-law Tziporah. She greatly admired Moshe and invested a lot of energy helping raise him when he was young. Furthermore, this comment was not said in public, only in private to her brother Aharon. Yet, she was still punished, showing us how severe lashon hara is. It is a mitzvah from the Torah to remember this incident, helping us be more on guard not to speak lashon hara.
The Magen Avraham (60:2) teaches that we should specifically remember what happened to Miriam, when we say the words lehodos lecha, to thank You, in ahavah rabbah each morning. What is the connection? Why specifically here do we remember this? The Magen Avraham explains that the entire reason why we have a mouth, is to thank Hashem! The ability to speak is a tremendous gift and should be used in a positive way by thanking Hashem. Therefore, we see how specifically when we recite ‘lehodos lecha’ we should remember the incident of Miriam, reminding ourselves of the correct use of the gift of speech.
So each time we thank Hashem we are fulfilling the reason why we have a mouth! When we say thank you Hashem for these scrumptious apples, this refreshing cup of water, this delicious ice cream, we are using our mouth for the reason why it was created. Phenomenal! This can bring us yeshuos lemalah min hatevah, as we see in the following story.
A concerned father was going through a very difficult time due to the fact that his 2 oldest sons were still single. They had such special qualities and he longed for the day when he would dance at their weddings. After attending a shiur on the importance of speaking positively and expressing gratitude, they resolved to change their perspective and became very positive and grateful people. They focused on all the blessings they have received going into great detail. They always said “Baruch Hashem”, “chasdei Hashem” and constantly thanked Him. Not so long after they had adopted this attitude both of their sons were engaged! The man went to the Rabbi who gave the shiur that helped change their perspective, telling him about their yeshuah and thanking him for what he taught them. This in turn was mechazek the Rabbi and he resolved to strengthen his gratitude. He was recently diagnosed with a hearing condition and his hearing was severely deteriorated, he decided to focus on all the blessings in his life, despite this difficult predicament. He spent the next week devoting countless hours expressing his tremendous gratitude to Hashem. At the end of the week, he revied a call from the hospital that one of the doctors thought that maybe there was one more thing they could try to help improve his hearing. The procedure was performed and sure enough his hearing greatly improved! (Chai batodah)
