19 Jul LASHON HARA

Some may argue

that lashon hara is

the worst aveirah

of the Torah. As

the Gemara

(Yoma 9:) writes,

 “  the,                        aveirah

of baseless hatred [and lashon hara] is

equivalent to the three cardinal aveiros of

idolatry, adultery, and murder.” And the

Ohr HaChaim (Vayikra 14:9) writes,

“Nothing distances a person from Hashem

as lashon hara does.” Yet, people do not

consider it to be so severe. In people’s

minds, lashon hara is from the minor

aveiros. If someone purposely gave you

non-kosher food to eat, you would be

angry at that person forever. You would

never forgive him. But when someone

speaks lashon hara to you, you forgive

him. He can do it so many times, and you

don’t hate him because of it. The Chofetz

Chaim discusses this and shows how

people don’t take this aveirah seriously.

The Vilna Gaon zt’l explains that every

mitzvah has a mazal. From all the

mitzvos, lashon hara has the worst mazal,

because it isn’t considered so grave in

people’s eyes. A sign of tzaraas is a white

hair in the wound (see Vayikra 13:10).

White generally represents purity, but by

tzaraas, white indicates tumah. This tells

us that when one is white and righteous

in all his ways if he isn’t cautious with his

speech, he is tamei. It is appropriate to

discuss the severity of lashon hara at this

time of year when we find ourselves once

again in the Three Weeks because the

Beis HaMikdash was destroyed due to

lashon hara.

Lashon Hara’s Arrows

I met a seventy-year-old bachelor in

Meron who is an alcoholic. He comes

from a respected Yerushalmi family, but

his life was shattered. He told me his

story: He was engaged to be married

when he was in his high twenties, which

was late considering the community he

came from, and his fiancé was of a

similar age. Two weeks before the

chasunah, a relative of the kallah told

her, “I learned with your chasan in

yeshiva. I just don’t understand; you

waited all this time to get married to

him?” She picked up on the

condescending tones, and one thing led

to the next until she decided that she

doesn’t want to marry him. When the

chasan heard that the shidduch was off,

he packed a few belongings and moved

to Meron. He’s been there ever since,

drowning his problems with his constant

drinking. All of this was the result of one

word of lashon hara. The following is

another story that shows what a word of

lashon hara can cause: There’s a young

man who is slightly slow and somewhat

“different,” but apparently, his wife and

in-laws are not so bright either, and they

didn’t realize it. They were pleased with

him. One erev Shabbos, the father-in-law

came to a bus stop, seeking someone

traveling to the area where his daughter

and son-inlaw lived so that he could send

them a package. He found a bachur

waiting for a bus to that city, and the

father-in-law described his

son-in-law to the bachur, so he

would know where he should deliver

the package. The bachur replied,

“Oh, that meshugener (insane

person)? I know him. No problem.”

Just one word of lashon hara, and it

caused so much harm. The

father-in-law didn’t want his

daughter to be married to a

meshugener, and he convinced her

to demand a divorce. Once, the

Chofetz Chaim’s front door was left

open, and a cow walked in and

began to do damage. After the cow

was led out of the house and things

calmed down, the Chofetz Chaim

said to his rebbetzin and his family,

“What lesson can we learn from

what happened? In a practical sense,

we must keep the front door closed,

so a cow won’t come in again. And if

the door is open and a cow comes in,

we must be careful that the cow

doesn’t break anything. And this is a

lesson for shemiras halashon: We

should keep the entrance of our

mouths closed and avoid speaking

lashon hara. And when we speak, we

must be extremely cautious that we

don’t harm anyone with our speech.”

Chazal (Bava Basra 34:) writes, 3

The             . Rebbe of

Zemigrad zt’l translates these words

as follows: ,         .mute a is    

whoever acts as if he is mute when it

comes to speaking lashon hara,    ,

this person is a man, an     ,as a

human being should be. As it states

89.),                Chulin(

What, “

is man’s profession in this world?

He should

pretend that he’s a

mute.” Let us

become an     ,a

human being, and

avoid speaking

lashon hara,

which harms

p e o p l e

n e e d l e s s l y .

Parnassah and

Success

The Sefer HaKanah says that tzaraas

exists in our generation, only it has a

different appearance. In these days,

tzaraas is poverty. In contrast, guarding

one’s speech is mesugal for parnassah.

The Chofetz Chaim (Shemiras

HaLashon vol.2 ch.7) writes, “When I

think about it, I am shocked: To earn

parnassah, people seek segulos and they

go to tzaddikim to receive brachos.

However, all segulos and brachos won’t

help them if they speak lashon hara

because speaking lashon hara brings

curses and not blessings. As it states in

the Torah Devarim (            

    24:27),’ ,Cursed are those who

smite their fellow man in concealment’

[and this refers to speaking lashon hara

about one’s fellow man]. This curse

wasn’t said by just one person. It was

said with the approval of the entire

Jewish nation, together with the kohanim

and the levi’im. And the curse prevents

him from receiving Hashem’s bounty. If

people would listen to me, I advise them

to be very cautious with their words, and

they will find blessing in their livelihood.

This counsel is better than all segulos.”

Guarding one’s speech has many other

benefits besides parnassah. It is a segulah

for health, long life, and success. As the

Chofetz Chaim (Chovas HaShemirah 6)

writes, “The ideal segulah is to guard

one’s speech. As it who,            

     ,states wants to live in Olam and,

                   ,HaBa he loves to

live a good life in this world, the counsel

is your guard,               speech.

This is the ultimate segulah for success

in both worlds.” Guarding one’s speech

will also help him in the world to come.

The Chofetz Chaim (Kvod Shamayim

1:10) teaches that in heaven, Hakadosh

Baruch Hu will refuse to listen to the

mekatrigim (malachim who speak lashon

hara on him) because he didn’t slander

and speak lashon hara on others. As we

see, there are many benefits gained from

guarding the speech. And the greatest

reward of all is that we have the privilege

to give pleasure to Hashem – and there is

no greater joy than that! It states (Shir

HaShirim 1:2), Yismach The.       

            Moshe explains that       

means kiss me, and             is

when one purses his lips tightly. Hashem

says that it is like we kiss with when,

            ,Hashem we close our

mouths and refrain from speaking

forbidden speech.