Messianic Bureau International

The Evil Tongue

Last Updated on Saturday, 04 April 2009 22:15 Written by Administrator

[This article is from a teaching on the timely subject of "LaShon Hara" by our elder Walt Thorp, given during our erev Shabbat service a couple of weeks ago.]

The Evil Tongue

There is a book entitled Everything I Need to Know in Life, I Learned in Kindergarten. Well here’s something I learned in Kindergarten: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but

words will never harm me.”

Remember that? We’re all older now, how many of us still believe it? Is this playground philosophy Scriptural? Is it true?

I think the child who bravely recites that poem after being called a name or slandered by harsh words will tell you that it is just not true. That child probably feels more like crying because words do hurt.

Words cut deep. They scar, sometimes for life. And, yes, they break bones. Mishlei (Proverbs) 25:15 tells us that even “a soft tongue breaketh the bone.” To the Jewish mind, this is because words are tangible. They are things. Devar means “word” in Hebrew, but it also means “thing.”

Don’t misunderstand me. You can say abracadabra all day long and nothing will happen. Words have no intrinsic power in and of themselves. But they express, focus, release the will. Words betray our innermost beliefs and attitudes. And in doing that, their effect is explosive.

Tehillim (Psalms) says the tongue can be sharp as a sword (64:3) or poisonous as a snake (140:3). Yirmayahu (Jeremiah) compares the tongue to a bow and words to arrows that project lies (9:3) and strike people down with deceit (9:8). Tongues are weapons. With them, we attack and wound, flatter, backbite, deceive, lie, argue, curse, complain, murmur, demean, profane, even destroy. Like arrows, once shot, our words can’t be recalled.

That words can destroy is no surprise. After all, if words can create, they can certainly destroy. The Most High spoke creation into existence. He said “let there be light” and there was light. And just as He creates with words, so do we. Ever read Hemingway? In just a few words, he created the most intricate scenes. To do that, he chose his words carefully. Yet most of us choose our clothes more carefully than our words.

We choose so carelessly, yet, we all know how damaging ill-chosen words can be, don’t we?

What Scripture Says

Look at what Tanakh says about our speech.

Sh’mot (Exodus) 23:1: “Lo tisa shema shav” – “you are not to repeat false rumors.” Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:16-17: “Lo telech rachil b'ameicha” - “Do not go around spreading slander among your people,” King James translates this: “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people.” A little more colorful, I think. The talebearer is the one who always exaggerates to make the story juicier.

Of 613 laws in Torah, THIS is the most widely disobeyed, not just by Christians, but by Jews also. Yet, it’s the foundation of ethical speech. Rabbis list a staggering 31 different laws that are violated simultaneously whenever someone gossips. In the next verse, we read “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” And that’s not a coincidence because ethical speech has to do with what’s in the heart.

Take a look at these passages.

Which of you takes pleasure in living? Who wants a long life to see good things? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceiving talk; turn from evil and do good; seek peace, go after it! Tehillim 34:12 and 14.

The Hebrew here is chofetz chaim—also the title of the most famous Jewish work on the subject of speech. We are to guard our tongues. The Brit Chadashah (New Covenant) says bridle them. Notice also how this passage associates a disciplined tongue with long life and with peace.

May Adonai cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks so proudly. Tehillim 12:3.

King James translates this “The L-rd shall cut off all flattering lips” What? Those who flatter will be cut off! That’s pretty harsh, isn’t it? Talmud also says that those who cannot control their tongue will have no part in the world to come. Guess what! So does the Brit Chadashah.

Their tongues are sharpened arrows; with their mouths, they speak deceit—they say nice words to their neighbors, while inwardly plotting againt them. Should I not punish them for these things, asks Adonai? Yirmeyahu 9:7-9.

The imagery of cruel words as arrows is why Jews equate cruel words to murder. As Rav Gabirol said: “I can retract what I did not say, but I cannot retract what I have already said.”

Talmud tells of a man who went through the community slandering the rabbi. Eventually, he felt remorse, so he begged the rabbi for forgiveness and offered to undergo any penance to make amends. The rabbi told him to take a feather pillow from his home, cut it open, scatter the feathers to the wind, then return to see him. He did as he was told, then returned and asked, “Am I now forgiven?”

“Almost,” came the response, “You just have to do one more thing. Go and gather all the feathers.”

“But that’s impossible,” the man protested. “The wind has already scattered them.”

“A-ha!” the rabbi answered. “And though you truly wish to correct the evil you’ve done, it is as impossible to repair the damage done by your words as it is to recover the feathers.”

Talmud is loaded with such parables and Tanakh is likewise loaded with verses addressing speech. Take Mishlei. Do you realize that you cannot read a single chapter of Proverbs without encountering warnings about guarding your tongue or your speech? Jewish doctrine of speech is highly developed and was so even when Yeshua walked among us. But this doctrine generally has been undervalued, even ignored among traditional Christians.

So let’s look at what the Brit Chadashah has to say. We’ll start with Messiah Yeshua.

You snakes! How can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what overflows from the heart. The good person brings forth good things from his store of good, and the evil person brings forth evil things from his store of evil. Moreover, I tell you this: On the Day of Judgment, people will have to give account for every careless word they have spoken, for by your own words you will be acquitted, and by your own words you will be condemned. Mattityahu (Matthew) 12:34-37.

How different is G-d’s view from man’s. Our culture says it’s okay to speak negatively about each other. The mass media makes millions by exploiting people and sharing misfortunes. But if our words will either acquit or condemn us, shouldn’t we take them seriously? And note how Yeshua Himself associated our words with heart intent.

Now, what did the Apostles say?

True enough, you used to practice these things, in the life you once lived; but now, put them all away—anger, exasperation, meanness, slander and obscene talk. Never lie to one another: because you have stripped away the old self, with its ways; and you have put on the new self, which is continually being renewed in fuller and fuller knowledge, closer and closer to the image of its Creator.—Colossians 3:7-10.

So the better our speech, the closer we are to Hashem’s image. We are to put away evil speech. We are now new creatures.

Lastly, I’ll recap for you what Rav Yaakov (James) of the first Messianic Congregation in Yerushalayim said.

Chapter 3 of his book discusses two things about the tongue: its power (3-6); and its perversity (7-12).

It’s hard to control the tongue. Rav Yaakov goes so far to declare, essentially, that someone who never sins in his speech “is a perfect man.” In other words, if you never sin in your speech, you’ll never sin any other way, either. So bridling the tongue is central to living holy. If your speech is sick, your whole body is sick. I went to the doctor the other day and the first thing he did was look at my tongue. Why? Because the condition of the tongue reveals the condition of the rest of the body. The same is true spiritually. Check your tongue and you’ll keep the whole body in check.

Yaakov explains how? Like a bit controls a horse. Like a rudder controls a ship. The rudder is small, but IT turns a ship. The tongue is small but it controls the whole being. Its influence is powerful—like fire. One spark in a forest, next thing you know, the whole forest is ablaze. Defamatory speech inflames—husband against wife, brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, congregations against their spiritual leaders, and even nation against nation. Does anyone here actually believe there can ever be peace in the Middle East as long as Arab newspapers routinely report that Jews murder Arab babies and use their blood to make Passover Matzah?

To Rav Yaakov, and to every sage since, it is as though all the wickedness in the whole world were wrapped up in that little piece of flesh. The first epistle of Yochanon (I John 5:19) says “the whole world lieth in wickedness.”

Consider this—how many sins can you commit without speaking? I live inside this body and use my body. My intellect, emotions, mind and heart use my tongue either to reflect the image of G-d or to corrupt everything around me. And that corrupting influence reaches out in ever widening circles. Talmud says “the gossiper stands in Syria and kills in Rome.” And that was before we had telephones and e-mail.

But as powerful as an evil tongue is, the godly tongue, that which blesses, praises, comforts and heals also expands in ever-widening circles, with the opposite result. Mishlei 10 says the tongue was created to bless. That’s why every Jew should to get off 100 blessing a day. Rav Yaakov asks: Can a fig tree bear olives? Can a salt spring produce fresh water? Of course not! We produce according to our nature. Good people speak good words. Sinful people speak sinful words. That’s why Yeshua said what comes out of a man defiles him, not what goes in.

Finally, Yaakov gives us the source of lashon ha-ra (the evil tongue). Hell! He uses the word Gehenna, the name of a valley southeast of Yerushlayim where children were sacrificed to Moloch. It was so abhorred that it became the city’s garbage dump. It was always on fire. Someone once said, “Hell is the rubbish heap of the universe.” With this symbolism, Yaakov asks once an evil tongue has defiled the whole body, what good is it but to be thrown on the trash heap and burned?

Why don’t we take lashon ha-ra seriously?

I believe we Americans tend to ignore the subject because we think we have a RIGHT us say anything we want without consequences. After all, we have the First Amendment. Protestant Christians place little emphasis on it because Martin Luther objected to the Book of James (Yaakov). He called it “an epistle of straw, and destitute of an evangelic character.” He said it taught justification by works. Luther lacked a Jewish perspective. Rav Yaakov doesn’t preach justification by works, he merely explains that our mitzvot are the genuine proof that we are justified. And THAT is distinctly Jewish.

Yaakov encapsulated the Jewish doctrine of shimirat ha-lashon (guarding one’s tongue) eighteen hundred years before Rabbi Meir codified it in his book Chofetz Chaim. That was 1873, but Yaakov proves this teaching was around long before.

Scenarios to Think About

So what is the Jewish law of Shimirat ha-Lashon? Before I run it down for you, let me give you a couple of scenarios to think about. And I’m only repeating these to get you thinking:

Scenario One

Ever heard of the Alibi Agency? For a fee, this company will cover for you. They’re in the business of creating excuses, bogus letters, bogus conferences, and so on. A man can tell his wife, “I’ll be at the Ramada Inn in San Diego,” but he’s really with his girlfriend in Pittsburg. When the wife calls the San Diego number, she gets the Alibi Agency, which answers “Ramada Inn” and you can hear all the sounds in the background, and so on.

Is this sin? Whose sin is it? The person who hires a perfectly legal business? The company? The company’s owner? The employees?

Let’s gets more complex:

Scenario Two

This was in a newspaper under the headline “Israelites sue G-d: `He has failed us!'”

Attorneys representing the Tribe of Abraham filed suit against G-d in New York's Southern District Court Monday, citing 117 specific instances of breach of covenant.

The Israelites are seeking $4.2 trillion in punitive and compensatory damages. “My client, the Children of Israel, entered into this covenant with the Defendant in good faith,” said Marvin Sachs, the Manhattan lawyer bringing the suit on behalf of the Israelites. “They were assured, in writing, that in exchange for their exclusive worship of Him, they would be designated His chosen people and, as such, would enjoy His divine protection and guidance for eternity. Yet, practically from the moment this covenant was signed, the Defendant has exhibited a blatant and willful disregard for its terms.”

The article is long so I’ll skip some of it. Sachs continues: “For 5,760 years, the plaintiffs have honored their side of the contract, worshipping the Defendant with total devotion, but in return they’ve gotten nothing. They trusted Him to protect them, and He threw them to everyone from the Egyptians to the Cossacks to the Nazis to the Palestinians. I'd have a hard time believing that anyone even remotely familiar with the plaintiff's history would argue that they're not victims of detrimental reliance.”

What do you think? Does this violate a commandment? Is this forbidden in Sh’mot 20:16—the commandment about bearing false witness?

What about Sachs? Is he allowed to say these things in front of the court, but not in front of the press, neither or both? What about the reporter?

What if I told you that this article appeared in The Onion on April Fools Day, 2000, and it was all meant as a joke? Would that make a difference?

Let’s get more difficult.

Scenario Three

Remember Oliver Sipple? He was an ex-Marine who saved President Ford’s life in 1975. Ford was visiting San Francisco, Sipple saw Sarah Jane Moore, who was standing next to him, point a gun at the President. Sipple grabbed Moore’s arm and deflected her aim so that the bullet missed. Overnight, Sipple was a national hero.

Reporters wanted interviews. But he asked: “Don’t publish anything about me.” Never say that to a reporter. They soon found that Sipple was active in gay causes. One reporter confronted Sipple’s mother in Detroit and asked her if she knew her son was a homosexual. She was stunned, and she never spoke to him again. Sipple became a drunk. Two years later, he was dead.

Did that newspaper reporter violate a commandment? Wasn’t he just doing his job? Didn’t people have a right to know?

Would it have made a difference if Sipple’s secret was not homosexuality, but rather that he was hiding from creditors or was not married to the girl he was living with?

Would the whole thing be okay if Sipple hadn’t died?

Shimirat Ha-Lashon

We live in a society that that has made these questions morally ambiguous and this is why we need detailed rules. So let me run down the Jewish law. We are to avoid three types of speech:

Motzi Shem Ra (negative and false)

Lies and rumors, whatever is negative and false. This is motzi shem ra, classic slander, spreading malicious lies. This is illegal in every state but rarely enforced. Scripture has two famous examples: Haman in the book of Esther and Yeshua’s trial. Now most of us think we’re okay in this area. But in Jewish eyes, if you’ve ever spread a rumor, you’re guilty of motzi shem ra. G-d is a G-d of truth, Yeshua said “I am the truth,” and Tanakh tells to walk before Him in truth. But what do people say: “everybody lies—it’s no big deal.” “It was just a little white lie.” But how did sin and death enter the world? Because a lie was told and believed.

 

Nondefamatory and True (neutral or positive and true)

Then there’s information about others that is not defamatory but TRUE. In short, it’s no one else’s business. It can even include praise. For example, suppose your friend gives you money in a crisis. Do you spread that around? No, because then everyone will be at his door asking for a handout! Mishlei 27:14 calls such praise a curse. And another thing. Ever notice that whenever you say something good about someone, somebody always seems to have something bad to tack on? “Yeah, she nice, except for that one time . . .” The problem is runaway conversation. What starts at a manageable pace often gets out of hand unless action is taken.

 

Lashon Ha-Ra (negative and true)

Negative, though true, stories or information that lower the esteem in which people hold the person about whom it is told. This is lashon ha-ra (the evil tongue): any derogatory or damaging (physically, financially, socially, or stress-inducing) communication. A subdivision of this is “tattling” or rechilut. Any communication likely to generate animosity, like talking about the minutiae of other people’s lives. Tattlers are busybodies who seek out information and then spread it, who repeat to someone what someone else said about them. Mark Twain once said: “It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you, the other to get the news to you.” Another subdivision is avak lashon ha-ra or the “dust of an evil tongue.” That’s negative innuendo, non-verbal communication—any strategy to damage someone’s reputation without actually saying anything. I roll my eyes when Bob’s name is mentioned. I get a letter from Jill in my company who I don’t like. It has misspelled words. So I circle the misspellings and forward it to the boss.

Any time we communicate for negative purposes, it is lashon ha-ra. It can be spoken, written or implied.

With the exception of a case where someone needs this information, like where there a clear and present danger if someone isn’t told (like a death threat), we are not to speak anything that falls into one of these three categories. We are not to LISTEN to it, believe it, repeat it or tolerate it in our presence. And when we hear it, Scripture tells us to rebuke—Yayikra 19:17–“You shall rebuke your neighbor and you shall not bear sin because of him.” Lashon ha-ra is sin and it is prohibited.

A few other points just to flush this all out:

• The more people hear the evil speech, the greater the sin.
• Whether the person who is the subject of the communication is present is irrelevant. In fact, that person isn’t even permitted to give you permission to speak lashon ha-ra about him. · There is no special exemption for family members; gender; age; politics; academia; the poor; or even the dead. Nor is lashon ha-ra allowed for saving face, preventing financial lose, peer pressure or duress.
• The law applies to jokes.
• It applies when we talk about ourselves. We’re not to slander, deceive or lie to ourselves. Anyone know someone who justifies destructive behavior in order to keep from having to face up to the truth?
• It applies to talk about nations. Watch what you say about France.
• We’re not to disparage another’s belongings, character, profession, or abilities. Vayikra 19:15 says “in righteousness shall you judge your kinsman.” Always extend someone the benefit of the doubt.

A couple months ago, I told you about tzara’at. It’s commonly translated leprosy, but that’s not what it was. It was a disease that afflicted Jews for the sin of lashon ha-ra. Moshe (Moses) got a taste of tzara-at when he said the people wouldn’t believe him. Why does this particular sin result in this particular punishment? Murderers don’t get tzara-at. Isn’t that all out of proportion with the deed? No. Because lashon ha-ra contravenes the entire Torah.

Three levels of Conscience

Torah speaks of three levels of conscience: (1) physical, (2) emotional, and (3) intellectual. When these three levels come together, we have chayim, life—the unification of body, soul and mind. Separate them, and we die.

Torah also speaks of three cardinal sins: (1) immorality, (2) murder, and (3) idolatry. Each is the specific polar opposite of one of the three levels of conscience we were created with.

• The negative pole of the physical is adultery or immorality—sins of the flesh.
• The negative pole of the nefish or emotional is murder—sins in which you lose control of your emotions.
• The negative pole of the intellect, spirit or ruach, is idolatry—the intellectual perversion of the mind.

I said the combination of the physical, emotional and mental is life. Like so many things in G-d’s universe, the whole is not just the sum of its parts. Synergism occurs. With life, a fourth, higher level occurs that encompasses and is greater than them all. This level is called the divine image. In this, you can begin to understand the triunity of G-d. Ultimately, this is why we are here—to conform to His image.

Mishlei (18:21) explains that “death and life in the power of the tongue,” which makes lashon ha Ra—the sin of an evil tongue, the polar opposite of G-d’s image—life. To Jews, speech as the expression of G-d’s image and the result of a unity of body, soul and mind.

An evil tongue attacks G-d’s image in us because speech makes us human. No animal ever cursed its Creator, but the humans do it all the time. An evil tongue attacks the very purpose of life itself—to conform to His image. An evil tongue chases holiness from us and brings on spiritual Tzara’at—disease.

So an evil tongue breaks the whole Torah. It simultaneously sins against the flesh, destroying human relationships—why we have such a high divorce rate; it sins against the mind, destroying our relationship with G-d—we may as well be sacrificing children to Moloch; and it sins against the emotions, assassinating the character and substituting life-giving blessing for death-dealing cursing. The evil tongue sins against G-d’s holy image. The Sages say (Bab. Erchin 15b) that for three transgressions one forfeits his portion in olam habah (the world to come): murder, adultery, and idol worship, and that lashon hara is equivalent to all three. Now we can understand why this was so important to Rav Yaakov.

Puts things in a different light, doesn’t it?

Why We Commit Lashon Ha-Ra

So if an evil tongue is so deadly, why is it so irresistible? If everyone hates gossip why does talk radio thrive? Do inquiring minds need to know? Usually, the reason people do bad things is self-interest. Embezzlers want to make a quick buck, thieves want your stuff, but gossips—what do they gain by hurting someone else’s reputation? Shakespeare wrote in Othello: “Who steals my purse, steal trash, but he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which does not enrich him and makes me poor indeed.”

The benefits of an evil tongue may be intangible, but they’re still real. Sometimes its revenge. More often, though, we try to raise our status by lowering someone else’s. Why do you suppose, for example, that today the whole country is so interested in the extramarital affair of a professional basketball player? Yes, a sex outside of marriage is sin. But talking so much about it is, too.

Some gossip to compromise moral leaders. Destroy the clergy, maybe we can get rid of their moralizing. You can be sure that at this very moment there are people out there who have devoted their lives to finding dirt on Pat Robertson—especially now that he is praying for a change on the Supreme Court.

Sometimes we gossip because we just like to retail inside information. 200 years ago, Dr. Samuel Johnson said: “the vanity of being trusted with a secret is generally the chief motive to disclose it.” Consider this: G.W. Bush asks YOU to be his confidant. He’ll share with you his innermost thoughts, ask your advice, bounce ideas off you—like “should I put that stuff about uranium into the State of the Union Speech?” Just one catch. No one can ever know. I suspect most people would decline. Why? People want to brag about their relationships. We need to be bragging about our relationship with the Most High. This is what will provoke our people to jealousy—when we have a relationship with the G-d of Avraham, Yitzak and Yaakov that they should have and don’t.

This need to feel important can propel people to act pathetically. Two sociology professors at Northeastern University wanted to test how and how quickly gossip spread. They printed up hundreds of flyers announcing a wedding ceremony this weekend. It read “You are cordially invited to attend the wedding of Robert Goldberg and Mary Ann O’Brien on June 6 at 3:30.” It was, of course, all fictitious.

A week later, they polled students to see how many had heard of the wedding. 52 percent had. But 12 percent of the students polled reported that they not only knew about the wedding, but had actually attended it! They even described it—the wedding gown, the limo, and so on! Their responses were so bizarre, the professors checked to see if there had been some other wedding on the campus that weekend—but there was none. Twelve percent were willing to tell a flat out lie rather than let someone think they had missed something as big as this.

Is it Ever Permissible to Lie?

Well, is lying ever permissible? The answer is “yes, but rarely.” A biblical example would be Rahab in Jericho.

But to get a little more practical, “Your wife looks in the mirror and asks: “Honey, do you think I’m getting fat?” Here, truth is not the issue. Your affirmation of love is the issue.

You visit someone in the hospital who is undergoing chemo for cancer. Looks like she’s about to die. Do you say: “You look like death warmed over!” Saying that wouldn’t be a blessing. That would be speaking death over them. By the way, telling your wife that she is fat is speaking death over yourself, especially if she happens to have something heavy in her hand. Use common sense.

It’s not always appropriate to just blurt out what you think to be the truth at any given moment. Nor is it always appropriate to answer every question. Whenever Yeshua spoke, he spoke life. He didn’t lie, but sometimes He didn’t spill every detail, either. Remember when people asked “can anything good come from Nazareth?” Did he correct them and say “I was born in Bethlehem.” No. He kept His mouth shut because sometimes it is best to just shut up. Nothing obligates you to answer every question.

And then we must ask, is the truth what we see at this precise moment? When Yeshua (Mattityahu 5:13-14) called His disciples “salt of the earth” and “light of the world,” was that really what they were at that point in time? No, they still had a long way to go. So was Yeshua lying? Of course not. He spoke in faith. He saw them as they were to become. In the same way, you never tell your six-year-old daughter “you’ll never amount to anything,” even if it seems that way today. Instead, you speak blessing and build your child up. Your inability to see her as a brain surgeon or the mother of your three grandchildren won’t excuse an evil tongue.

When May We Reveal Negative Information?

So is it never appropriate to reveal negative information? Not quite. You may reveal negative truth when asked for a business reference. You may reveal information if it is vital that the person know that information. For example, a friend is considering marrying someone you know spent time in jail for beating up his last wife. A prospective spouse needs to know that. Then there’s a “clear and present danger.” It is written in Torah: “Do not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed.”

But if someone hurts me, don’t I have the right to tell others? No. First, try to forget and move on. If that doesn’t work, remember that Torah tells us “do not hate your brother in your heart.” If the matter is too important to overlook, confront the person who wronged you and do it privately. If you are angry with Joan, all the discussion in the world with Sarah about your anger is not going to solve the problem. You rehearse your anger rather than getting rid of it.

Without question, sometimes you’re right to be angry. But Scripture says “be angry and sin not.” So even IF anger is morally justified, all that is justified is expressing anger proportionate to the provocation. The best advice I can give is to limit your anger to the incident that provoked it. Yes, you have the right to state your case, explain why you think the other party is wrong, even to do it passionately. But these are all the rights you have. You have no moral right to attack someone personally or to dredge up the past to use it against that person.

So even if revealing negative information is morally right, you must still make sure (1) that person needs to know it, (2) what you say is relevant, and (3) that you do not exaggerate.

So What Can I Do to Avoid Lashon Ha-Ra.

I’ll start with the temporal and move to the spiritual. Learn to ask yourself three questions before you speak to someone. (1) Is it true? (2) Is it necessary? And (3) Is it fair?

And when someone begins to talk to you about someone else, ask that person: (1) Is this something I NEED to hear about? (2) How do you KNOW this is true? And (3) May I quote you when I check this out? Call the speaker to accountability and gain control of ungodly conversation.

These questions are simple enough, but they’re not enough.

Examine your heart. What are your intentions? Are they constructive? Mishlei 17 tells us to weigh our thoughts and words carefully. Test your talk to ensure every word speaks life, truth, love, and hope.

Lastly, understand this. Yaakov wrote; “The tongue no one can tame—it is an unstable and evil thing, full of death-dealing poison.” Fact is, taming the tongue. is a G-d-sized job. Only He can do it by changing our nature, by giving us a circumcised heart, by making us new creatures. We must learn to say, “Not I, but Mashiach within me,” let G-d search your heart and let Him transform you by renewing your mind (Romans 12:2).

The wonderful thing is He will do it. You just have to let Him.

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