The Cycle of Seeing and Speaking Negatively (MB)

Topic: Well Being | 

The kabbalists explain that the portion of Metzora is not just talking about the danger of speaking negatively about another person, but that it also refers to a person viewing things as negative - whether he views himself as bad, his situation as bad, his life as bad, or another person as bad. There are people who are very apt to speak negatively, and there are those who see the negative but don’t speak about it, and the Zohar says that tzaraat, the manifestation of both seeing the bad and speaking ill speech, is dina takifa, strong judgment. And the kabbalists teach that when a person sees bad in the world or speaks ill, he's connecting to a certain force in this world; there is a force of Light and there is a force of darkness, and when a person goes to that place of seeing or speaking the bad, he is actually partnering and coming to unity with what is called dina takifa, that force of strong judgment in this world.

Therefore, it's not simply that it’s just not good to speak negatively about somebody or to see negativity in ourselves, our situation, our life, or in others; what we are doing when we do that is actually proactively creating a connection between ourselves and the force of darkness. That's where a person goes and that’s the force he brings upon himself if he goes to that place of seeing the bad; a person who does damage becomes friends, becomes bonded with, the force of this world that does damage.

That's the first understanding, that when we not just speak the bad, but allow ourselves to see and think ill about ourselves, others, situations, etc., we are actually inviting the force of the Negative Side into our lives. Where do we get the force, power, and ability to speak or think of bad? It certainly is not coming from the Light of the Creator. Rather, we are asking for the Negative Side to feed us energy. And it is the energy of the dina takifa, the strong judgment of the Negative Side, that gives us the ability, strength, and desire to see bad and speak negatively. So, that’s what we do when we see the bad or speak the bad; we are literally bringing in and forming a partnership between ourselves and the forces of judgment of this world.

Even more than that, the kabbalists teach, is that it actually becomes a cycle. Because once a person becomes a partner with the Negative Side, he will automatically get more thoughts of judgment. And if he falls to that view and into that power and force of the Negative Side, and starts speaking ill more, then he sees even more things that are wrong with everybody else, with himself, with his life, and it becomes a cycle, because his consciousness becomes more in tune with the power of the Negative Side - he is literally listening to it - and it just gets more and more powerful.

And what happens, the kabbalists teach, is that this energy, if you become a partner with it, doesn’t just go outwards from you where you created judgment for other people; those same dinim, those same judgments, that you are bringing to others has to come to you, as well.

Therefore, the understanding we want to come to as we think about, again, not just speaking ill, but thinking and seeing the bad, is such that it is actually the formation of a partnership with the Negative Side. A partnership that if we sustain, time after time, will get stronger and stronger, creating more judgments that go out into this world. And, of course, if a person creates more judgments that go out into this world, he brings more of those judgments upon himself.

There is one more aspect within this idea, which is that every one of us has negativity within us. There is the part of us that is the Light of the Creator, the soul, and then there is the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone. When the Zohar speaks about the concept of metzora, the individual is revealing or taking out his darkness or his negativity, what it means is that the ideas to speak ill or to see ill are coming from the Negative Side. But if the individual allows himself to manifest it, it is his own internal force of negativity which he is using to do so, and when he allows that to be revealed, he gives it even greater strength. So, besides all the attachment and partnership that he has created with the negative forces of darkness in this world, he's also allowing his own darkness to become stronger.

Therefore, the things we want to keep in mind and that hopefully give us the strong impetus to stop falling to the consciousness of “bad” - whether it is of ourselves, others, or our lives - are: first, when we speak negatively, it isn’t simply just a negative thing that we do; we are actually forming a partnership and unifying with the Negative Side. So that, second, when we do that, it becomes a cycle. We get more thoughts and reasons to judge this person, or that person, or to see negativity in this situation, or that situation, or about ourselves. And the more it’s a cycle, the more we listen to those thoughts of judgment about others, and the more they will come, because it is becoming more strongly connected with the Negative Side. Third, as such, we have to understand that if we are awakening judgment on other people, that judgment has to come back on us. And, last, in so doing, that is strengthening our own innate darkness, negativity, and Desire to Receive for the Self Alone.