Shemirat HaLashon שמירת הלשון

Chazal have said (Bava Bathra 165a): "The majority [transgress the sin of] theft; the minority, illicit relations; and all, the "dust of lashon hara." From this, one can reflect upon the greatness of guarding his tongue. For do we not see it to be the nature of all men to take pride in something which mirrors his eminence? If he is extremely wealthy, he will exert himself greatly to have a magnificent courtyard; if a homeowner, to have a beautiful home; and even if he is a servant, he will see to it to have a beautiful uniform for Shabbath and Yom Tov so that he is not embarrassed before his friends. Now, if this is so in this transient world, whose pleasures and honor are only vanity and emptiness, then how much more so is it so in the eternal world.

Is it not known that because a man cleaves to the service of the Holy One Blessed be He to fulfill His mitzvoth there is created there in his honor a holy sanctuary for him for his pleasure, as stated in Midrash Koheleth, that each tzaddik is given a distinct dwelling for his honor. And if this is so, the man who guards himself in his lifetime from illicit relations, though his reward will also be great for this and he will be given a place readied for eternal pleasure, still, this kind of sanctuary and its pleasure are found for a minority of Israel in Gan Eden, and his eminence is not distinctively recognized, for do not only a minority stumble in illicit relations? And if he guards himself against theft, and a minority also guard themselves from this transgression, if so, they have a sanctuary like his. But if he guards himself in the trait of guarding his tongue, in all its details, the eminence of his sanctuary created by this mitzvah will be recognized by all in Gan Eden. For do not all stumble in the "dust of lashon hara" (if not one who bestirs his soul not to be lax in this), so that there is no other sanctuary like this one.

And, especially, one who scrutinizes carefully the introduction to the Chafetz Chaim, and, the first two gates of all of its chapters will see that in fulfillment of the trait of guarding his tongue there will be deducted from him every year several hundreds and thousands of sins and added to him in exchange many hundreds and thousands of mitzvoth. For even if there only be deducted from him through this ten words of improper speech each day, that he has muzzled his mouth from speaking, it would still amount to over three thousand per year (And in this way I have explained what Chazal have said (Arachin 15b): "All who speak lashon hara increase sins until the heavens," the meaning being that if one is habituated to this sin, then from this itself his sins increase greatly), and those [muzzled] words would be reckoned as mitzvoth for him in the world to come. As Chazal have said (Makkoth 23b): "If a man sits [idle] and does not commit a sin, he is rewarded as one who has done a mitzvah, and, for every moment that he muzzles his mouth, etc." And he will also arrive, as a matter of course, at many holy traits, as I have written in the Second Gate of this work.