06 Aug A MISSION FOR THE NINE DAYS

During the Nine Days,
we practice habits of
mourning over the
destruction of our two
Batei Mikdashos, our two
Temples, and the millions
of Jewish lives that were
lost in the wake of their
ruin. The Gemora teaches
us that the root of these downfalls was when
the meraglim, spies, spoke lashon hara, evil
slander about Eretz Yisroel.
When the Torah tells us about our travels in
the desert, it relates, “Vayis’u mei’Chatzeiros
vayachanu b’Rismah – They traveled from
Chatzeiros and camped in Rismah.” The Sifsei
Chachamim explains that Rashi was bothered
by the fact that, earlier in Bamidbar, it says
that we traveled from Chatzeiros and camped
in Midbar Paran. Rashi answers that Rismah
was the same location as Midbar Paran but
it was called Rismah because the episode of
the meraglim took place there and they were
punished with gachalei risomim, coals of
broom which never get extinguished. This is
to highlight how everlasting and burning is the
punishment for lashon hara.
It is noteworthy that if Hashem wanted to
allude to the meraglim, He could have said
“Vayachanu b’Pi Rah – And they camped in
the place of the Bad Mouth.” What Hashem
wants to teach us is that in order to effectively
deal with the seductive sin of lashon hara, we

need to think how terrible its punishment is.
Otherwise, it is almost impossible to avoid
this common sin. As the Gemora teaches us
grimly, “V’kulon ba’avak lashon hara – And
everyone is guilty with the ‘dust’ of lashon
hara.” When we were schoolchildren, we were
taught the ditty, “Lashon hara, lammed hei, go
to Gehenom the easy way.”
Hashem created a special disease, tzora’as, for
the metzorah. The metzorah is one who is ‘motzi
rah,’ who expresses evil and Hashem banished
him from the three camps, teaching us that
he’s not fit for human society. In no uncertain
terms, the Gemora says, “Kol hamisaper lashon
hara, ra’u’i l’hashlicho l’kelavim – Whoever
speaks lashon hara is deserving to be thrown
to the dogs.” The Meam Loez says that even
one who doesn’t get a dermatological tzora’as
gets tzora’as of the neshamah, the soul, and,
if he doesn’t do teshuvah, when he leaves the
world the righteous stay away from him and
he is punished in the chamber in hell called
Tit Yavan. Furthermore, the Chofetz Chaim
informs us that sometimes today, instead of
tzora’as, the one who speaks lashon hara is
struck with aniyus, poverty.
The Chovos Halevovos gives us a chilling
deterrent from speaking lashon hara. He warns
us that if we speak lashon hara about someone,
Hashem will take away some of our merits and
give them to the person we spoke badly about.
Since usually that person is someone we do not
like, we certainly wouldn’t want them to get
our merits.
We know that during the days of sefira, the
24,000 disciples of Rabbi Akiva died because
they didn’t give kavod, honor, one to another.
The Maharsha adds that they spoke lashon
hara about on another. The Gemora reveals
in Masechtas Yevamos that they all died from
the painful death of askara, diphtheria. This
is a disease where skin slowly grows over the
windpipe, leading to an agonizing death. The
Gemora in Berachos further informs us that
the posuk says, “L’maves totza’os – Issues of
death.” The numerical value of totza’os is 903
because there are 903 ways to die – and askara
is the very worst. Once again, we are being
reminded of how terrible the consequences are
of speaking badly about another person.
When we abstain from eating meat, drinking
wine, swimming, listening to music and going
to weddings, this is to cause us to reflect
about our losses due to the sin of lashon hara.
It should prompt us to take precautions to
eradicate this practice from our conversations
with our family, while in shul or at work, with
our neighbors, around the pool and under
the umbrella tables. The Tuvcha Yabi’u
recommends the following initial step. He says
that we should at least get into the practice of
never mentioning names of people or groups
when we tell a story. This will greatly minimize
our culpability in this deadly area.
In Tehillim, Dovid HaMelech says that
Hashem gave the mouth two gates, the

teeth and the lips, in order to remind us how
carefully we should guard what comes out of
our mouths. My good friend Robby Neuman,
of ChickensForShabbos.com fame (What a
good place to give tzedakah!), pointed out to
me that the posuk says, “Hamaves v’hachaim
b’yad halashon – Death and life are in the
hands of the tongue.” He observed that it
should have simply said, “Hamaves v’hachaim
b’halashon – Death and life are in the tongue.”
What does the word b’yad, in the hands, come
to convey. He answers beautifully that we
can speak lashon hara with our hands through
texting, WhatsApp, email, instant messaging
and the like. Our hands have no gates and they
are weapons of mass destruction.
As we come to the sad Shabbos of Shabbos
Chazon, our table talk with our family should
be about how all of us can take concrete steps
to ensure that, just like we’re careful that
everything that enters our mouths should be
kosher, so too, we should be certain that the
words that emerge from our mouths are also
glatt kosher.
In that merit, Hashem should bless us with
long life, good health, everything wonderful,
and the geulah sheleimah bimheira b’yameinu.