GEN261 Whereas we have seen that the power of speech may act in the capacity of an indicator to other mitzvos, it obviously cannot act as an indicator for itself. When a transgression is committed with the power of speech itself, when the indicator itself has been corrupted there is a need for an external revelation of the crime which has been performed. Consequently, the person who speaks evil against his neighbor is afflicted with tsora’as, a disease which serves as an open demonstration of the nature of the sin of which he is guilty. Perhaps this is the spirit behind the law which states, “All plagues may a person inspect, except his own plague,” thereby implying that the victim of tsora’as is no longer sensitive to his own defects. The additional restrictions on the m’tsoroh which isolate him from human contact and oblige him to go about with his hair wild and his lips covered further serve to impress upon him the character of his transgression. His enforced loneliness reminds him of the social nature of his crime; the wild hair signifies his inhumanity; and the lips covered to conceal the instrument of his misdeed. Finally, the m’tsorah must cry tomai – unclean – and then again tomai; the first time because his entire being has been defiled by evil speech, and the second time because the very organ which is proclaiming the person’s crime must be purged by declaring its own unworthiness for having been the cause which brought about his degradation. Post –Biblical sources abound in reference to the primacy of speech. Perhaps the one most often quoted is Onkelos’ translation of a passage which appears in Genesis [this verse].  Where the text reads “and man became a living soul,” Onkelos translates “and man became a speaking spirit.” The obvious inference from this nuance in meaning is that man’s faculty of speech is the very essence of his being.  Another indication of the master-role that speech plays is in the early Jewish philosophical writings where we find that reason, which in the word for Rabbeinu Bachya ben Asher Rabbeinu bachaye Al Hatorah Exodus 2:14 is the life of the body, is denoted as “the speaking soul.” Reason, generally regarded as man’s supreme endowment, could not be conceived independently without relationship to man’s ability to speak. BUILD 216-7