Shemirat HaLashon שמירת הלשון

All this, [the foregoing,] for one who has not yet habituated himself to this sin, for whom it is [relatively] easy to rescue himself from this bitter sin through these counsels. But if he is habituated to it and it is extremely difficult for him to separate himself from it, he must treat this illness of his soul as one who has an illness of the body, which the physician wishes to cure — he seeks the source of the illness to know which dressing to apply. So is it with [the illness of] the soul. One must follow it to its source — Whence did he come to this evil trait? — so that he know how to take care not to succumb to its stumbling blocks again. There are several possible causes of this sin. Their sign is Kol Gihinnom: Ka'as [anger], leitzanuth [levity], ga'avah [pride], yeush [despair], hefker [abandonment], omer mutar [regarding as permitted.] We shall now explain them one by one.

One is sometimes habituated to lashon hara because of the abundance of his anger. That is, by nature he is an angry man, who is easily angered by anything. And, at the time of his anger, he cannot restrain himself and says whatever it enters his mind to say. A man like this cannot be counseled to guard his tongue, for whenever his anger gets the better of him, he is out of his mind — unless he sees to it to uproot this evil trait from himself.

Whoever has a brain in his head must flee this evil trait as one flees fire. For he knows in his soul clearly that because of this evil trait he will certainly emerge "liable" on the day of judgment, as it is known, that one who has an abundance of sins [over merits] is in the category of rasha [wicked]. And Chazal have said (Nedarim 22b): "If one is prone to anger, it is known that his sins are more than his merits, as it is written (Mishlei 29:22): 'And the man of wrath is abundant in offense [pesha].'" As to "pesha" being written, which is rebellion, and worse than meizid [malice], this is because at the time of anger, Torah and mitzvoth are entirely meaningless to him. As Chazal have said: "If one gets angry, even the Shechinah is meaningless to him." And our Rabbis of blessed memory have said: "If one tears his garments in his anger or breaks his vessels in his anger or scatters his money in his anger, let him be as an idolator in your eyes. Where is this written? (Psalms 81:10): 'Let there not be a foreign god within you.' What is the foreign god within a man's body? The yetzer hara of anger."

And this is the language of the holy Zohar (Parshath Tetzaveh) on the verse (Isaiah 2:22): "Leave off from the man asher neshamah be'apo, ki bameh nechshav hu." Here, the Holy One Blessed be He has commanded a man and warned him to guard himself against those men who have inclined their ways from the way of good to the way of evil and who have defiled themselves with that uncleanliness of the sitra achara ["the other side"]. And how shall a man know how to distinguish between one he should draw near to and one he should separate from? By his anger itself he can know that man and distinguish him [from the other]. If he guards his holy soul when his anger comes upon him, not to uproot it from its place and repose in its stead a foreign god — that is the man who is worthy, etc. And if he does not guard it, but uproots this celestial holiness from its place and reposes in its place the sitra achara ["the other side"], then certainly that is the man who rebels against his Master, and it is forbidden to draw near to him or to befriend him. And this is the intent of (Iyyov 18:4): 'Toref nafsho be'apo,' viz. He tears [toref] and uproots his soul because of his anger [be'apo] and reposes within himself a foreign god. And concerning this it is written: 'Leave off from the man asher neshamah be'apo" — whose soul [he tears] in his wrath [be'apo], whose soul he exchanges in his wrath [for a foreign god], ki bameh nechshav hu. With what [bameh] is that man to be distinguished? He is to be accounted a worshipper of idolatry [bamah, an altar to idolatry (like 'bameh'), etc.]"

And Chazal have said (Pesachim 66b): "Any man that gets angry — even if greatness has been decreed for him [by Heaven], he is brought down [from that greatness]. "and Chazal have said further (Nedarim 22a): "Whoever gets angry — all kinds of Gehinnom prevail over him." The intent is that for each [kind of] sin in itself there is, in Gehinnom, a distinct punishment for that sin. And through the trait of anger a man comes to all the different kinds of sin [as is clear] to one who reflects upon the evil of that trait, to the extent that Chazal have said about him that of a certainty his sins are more abundant that his merits. This is the intent of "All kinds of Gehinnom prevail over him." Therefore, a man must remove anger from his heart and he will be saved from Gehinnom and will merit life in the world to come.

And one is sometimes habituated to lashon hara because of leitzanuth. That is, by habituating his soul to levity and the company of scoffers, whereby, as a matter of course, he is drawn to mock men and to speak demeaningly of them.

Therefore, if one wishes to cleanse his soul, let him reflect upon the greatness of the issur of levity in several respects. For aside from the fact that he [the mocker] sins himself, it [levity] being one of the four things because of which one does not receive the Shechinah, as Chazal have said (Sotah 42a), he also causes many to sin, bringing them to multiply mockery. And the punishment of causing many to sin is well known, it not being granted one to repent because of this, as Chazal have stated (Avoth 5:18). And, aside from all this, involvement in idle talk, even if it contained nothing forbidden, causes one to lose the time that he could have spent in Torah study and the acquisition of the world to come. And he gives the impression that he scorns the words of the L-rd and the reward of the world to come, as stated in Sanhedrin 99a on the verse (Bamidbar 15:31): "For he has scorned the word of the L-rd" — R. Nehorai said: ['This refers to] one who could have studied Torah but did not do so.'"

And let one learn from what we see of the prisoners who are brought before the judge for cross-examination. They guard their mouths and do not utter even a single word which might incriminate them. And they also take upon themselves all of the blows and revilings in order not to admit the truth, even though they know that in either event they will not live forever, and that even if they do confess, it is very likely that they will not be executed, only a minority of a minority meeting such a fate. In spite of this, they would rather take all of these sufferings upon themselves because of the possibility of a possibility of thereby lengthening their temporal lives. How much, then, should those people restrain themselves [(from speaking what is forbidden)], who sit in the company of mockers a few hours, without anyone beating or forcing them thereto. And if they restrain themselves from speaking what is forbidden, they merit eternal life, as we find in the Midrash, that for every moment that a man muzzles his mouth he merits the secreted light, which no angel or creation can conceptualize; and, conversely, they are punished for every article of speech. As the GRA has written in his holy letter, Alim Litrufah "(Koheleth 6:7): 'All of a man's toil is for his mouth.' Our sages of blessed memory have said (Chullin 89a) that all of a man's mitzvoth and Toroth do not suffice [to offset] what he utters with his mouth. 'What is the [proper] profession of a man in this world? Let him make himself mute and clamp his lips like two millstones, etc.' And all kaf hakela ["hollow of the sling" punishments] come because of the breath of the mouth of idle talk. For each article of [such] speech, he must be slung from one end of the world to the other. And all this, with superfluous speech. But with forbidden speech, such as lashon hara, leitzanuth, oaths, vows, quarrels, and curses, especially in the synagogue and on Sabbaths and festivals — for these one must descend to the nethermost depths of Sheol. And it is impossible to conceptualize the greatness of the suffering and afflictions that one must undergo for one article of [forbidden] speech. And there is not even one such article which is not written down. Angels accompany each man constantly and do not separate from him and write down each and every article of speech (Koheleth 10:20): 'For a bird of heaven will carry the voice and the winged one will tell the word.'" And we have learned (Avodah Zarah 18b): R. Katina said: "All who engage in levity fall into Gehinnom."

[It seems apt to explain "fall" instead of "will fall" according to what the GRA has written on Mishlei 1:23 in connection with men of levity: "They have a great lust to speak idle talk and levity even though they have no bodily pleasure therefrom. For with every thing that a man does he is given a spirit from on high. And this spirit does not rest until it does other such things, wherefrom he has pleasure — both in an act of mitzvah or in an act of sin. And this is the intent of Avoth 4:2: 'A sin begets a sin and a mitzvah begets a mitzvah.' And the greater the sin, the greater the spirit that it begets, and the more it lusts for more sin. Correspondingly, with a great mitzvah. A spirit comes from a very holy place and lusts greatly for that mitzvah and has great pleasure in that mitzvah. And it is known that the greatest mitzvah of all is Torah study, and, conversely, [the greatest sin of all,] idle speech and levity, which is the opposite of Torah. Therefore, there is more pleasure in idle speech and levity than in all other sins, even though there is no worldly [i.e., bodily] pleasure in this. But [the pleasure arises from the fact that] the spirit of uncleanliness is extremely great, like a 'bubbling spring,' as opposed to the [pure spirit of] Torah, which is [also] a 'bubbling spring.'" And it is known that the spirit of uncleanliness created by the sin, itself punishes the doer, after his death, in Gehinnom, wherefore Chazal have said "fall into Gehinnom" [rather than "will fall"]. For at the very utterance of the levity the great spirit of uncleanliness hovers above him. And he actually falls [that is, "dwells," as in (Bereshith 25:18): 'In the presence of all his brothers, he fell' (i.e., dwelt)] in Gehinnom in his lifetime, G-d forbid, (as written in Nefesh Hachaim, Gate One, Chapter 12. And their second apothegm is also to be explained along these lines.)]

And in this world, too, afflictions befall a man because of levity, as it is said there (Avodah Zara 18b): "R. Elazar said: 'All who scoff, afflictions come upon them, as it is written (Isaiah 25:22): "And now, do not scoff, lest your bonds be strengthened."' Rava said to the rabbis: 'I pray you, do not scoff, so that afflictions not come upon you.'" [And see Sha’arei Teshuvah of Rabbeinu Yonah, who wrote that it is forbidden to engage in levity, even adventitiously, by chance. In this regard, the sages had to exhort their disciples, many of whom stumbled in this by chance.]

And also his sustenance diminishes [because of levity], as stated there. And also, all the world is punished because of the scoffer. As stated there: "All who scoff bring destruction to the world."

And even if he does not scoff with them, but just sits in their company, this, too, is an absolute issur, as it is written (Psalms 1:1): "And in the seat of scoffers, he did not sit." And in Avoth d'R. Nathan 30:3, we find: "One who attaches himself to sinners, even though he does not do as they do, receives the same punishments as they do." Therefore, one must distance himself from their class and not sit in their place, so as not to learn from them. But he must sit in the seat of learning, and then he will be happy in this [world] and in [the world] to come.