Shemirat HaLashon שמירת הלשון

It is written (Psalms 34:13): "Who is the man who wants life, who loves days to see good? Guard your tongue from evil." The commentators have explained that "who wants life" refers to eternal life in the world to come, and "who loves days to see good" refers to this world, which is only "days" relative to eternal life. Now, on the face of it, this is cause for wonder. Why does Scripture single out this sin in particular for "guarding against"? Has the Torah not prescribed for us 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments, about all of which the Blessed L-rd has told us (Devarim 30:15): "See, I have set before you this day, the life and the good … which I command you this day, to love the L-rd your G-d, to walk in His ways, and to keep His mitzvoth, and His statutes, and His judgments, etc."?

And according to what we wrote in the introduction to the Chafetz Chaim, concerning the many negative and positive commandments that he is wont to transgress through this bitter sin, as opposed to the case with the other sins of the Torah, the expression "Who is the one who wants life … Guard your tongue … Depart from evil, etc." is found to be very apt. For King David, may peace be upon him wished to intimate in general terms that we must guard ourselves from the sins against man and his neighbor and also from the sins against man and his Maker. And in the category of sins between man and his neighbor King David, may peace be upon him, counseled the man who wants life to guard his tongue from evil in all its details, so that as a matter of course, he will be circumspect in all.

And this stands to reason. For when one habituates himself to be careful with his tongue, never to speak demeaningly of his friend, even if he causes him no harm; how much more so will he be careful not to cause him to lose his livelihood thereby, and also not to "whiten his face" with his evil talk, and also not to foment strife through his tales, all this being "evil" in the tongue, and the same with similar negative and positive commandments, as mentioned in the introduction. He certainly will also be watchful in the area of robbery and theft. For has he not already taken it upon himself to be watchful even not to cause him any harm or to demean him by his speech? How much more so [will he not harm him] actively. And if so, in the long run, he will be clean of all the sins between man and neighbor.

And after that, Scripture states: "Depart from evil," relating to the category of sins between man and his Maker. This is followed by "and do good," relating to the 248 positive commandments. [Guarding oneself from sins between man and his neighbor ("Guard your tongue, etc.,") comes first because they include both — transgressing the will of the L-rd, who commanded against it, and also wronging his neighbor thereby.] And the opposite, G-d forbid: If he does not guard his tongue from evil, there multiply in him many transgressions and extremely grave sins which issue from this sin, as explained in the preface. And guarding one's tongue is the root and source of the sins between man and his neighbor and also of some of the sins between man and his Maker, as has been explained there.

However, according to the words of Chazal (Arachin 15a and 16b) and other places where we have expatiated upon the demeaning nature of this sin and the greatness of its punishment (as we shall show through their holy words in the chapters that follow, G-d willing), it emerges that the sin itself, in its very nature, is extremely severe aside from what issues from it. It, therefore, devolves upon us to explain why this particular sin is more severe than the other severe sins in the Torah.

This can be explained, with the help of the L-rd, in various ways. [See what we have written above in the introduction.] It is written in Yerushalmi Peah 1:1 that just as the reward for Torah study is over and against all of the mitzvoth, so is the punishment for lashon hara over and against all of the transgressions. It is found, then, that just as Torah study is the greatest of all of the mitzvoth, so is lashon hara the severest of all of the sins. The reason, basically, is this: Just as with the elements that the blessed One has implanted in this world — fire, wind, water, and earth — the spiritual element is far stronger than the material so that the material is almost nothing compared to it, as we see plainly that when fire gets the upper hand over a material substance it destroys it, and, likewise, when the element of wind gets the upper hand, it can split mountains and break rocks, as it is written (I Kings 19:11): "And a great, strong wind, splitting mountains and breaking rocks," so is the thing with the "higher elements," such as tzitzith, lulav, shofar, and all the mitzvoth. Just as through them great things are worked in the higher worlds, and through them, too, a man is sanctified to the L-rd, as it is written (Numbers 15:40): "And you shall do all My mitzvoth and you shall be holy to your G-d," still, there is no comparison between them and Torah study, as we find in Yerushalmi Peah 1, that all of the mitzvoth are not comparable to one word of Torah. The reason is that all the mitzvoth are combined with matter. So that, for example, it is impossible to fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzith without donning a garment, which is material. And the same with succah and lulav, and thus with all of the mitzvoth. Not so with Torah study, which inheres in the faculty of speech, which is an abstract, "spiritual" faculty alone. For this reason its higher workings are awesome, wherefore the study of Torah is "over and against all." The reverse is true of kilkul ["damage"]. For with all of the organs through which he sins, because they are material, the kilkul wrought by them is not so [relatively] great. Not so, with the sin of lashon hara and rechiluth, which works purely through a spiritual agency, wherefore its kilkul in the higher worlds is awesome. Its punishment, therefore, correspondingly, is "over and against all."