Shemirat HaLashon שמירת הלשון

Aside from all of these parshiyoth mentioned above, which speak of the issur of lashon hara, the Holy One Blessed be He gave a special blessing to one who guards himself from this sin, and, conversely, about the man of lashon hara it is written Arur, ("Cursed"), viz. (Devarim 27:12): "These shall stand to bless the people on Mount Gerizim, etc." For all of the eleven arurim opened with Baruch ("Blessed") for one who guarded himself against it, and all of Israel answered "Amen." And then they [the Levites] said (Ibid. 24): "Cursed is he who smites his neighbor in secret," which refers to lashon hara, as we find in Sifrei; and all of Israel would answer "Amen." How much must one take care to guard himself against this sin, for which he is cursed by all of Israel. And happy is he who guards himself against this sin, for which he is blessed by all of Israel together!

(Devarim 26:17): "The L-rd did you single out this day to be to you as a G-d, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His mitzvoth, and His judgments, and to heed His voice." From this verse we learn the greatness of strengthening oneself to walk in the ways of the traits of the Holy One Blessed be He, to be merciful, gracious, and the like. For Scripture mentioned this quality ["to walk in His ways"] before keeping the statutes, the mitzvoth, and the judgments, whereby we infer that it takes precedence to the others [(as we find in Berachoth 41b on the verse that speaks in praise of Eretz Yisrael (Devarim 8:8): "a land of wheat, barley, grapevine, etc." — "That which precedes (in the verse) precedes for the blessing."] And one must greatly strengthen oneself in this — whence we learn in our instance to guard greatly against the issur of lashon hara. For this is one of the ways of the traits of the Holy One Blessed be He, as our sages of blessed memory said (Sanhedrin 43b) concerning the deed of Achan, who violated the ban, because of which Israel was defeated in the war. (Joshua 2:6): "And he [Joshua] fell on his face to the ground before the ark of the L-rd… (10): And the L-rd said to Joshua: 'Arise, why do you fall on your face… they have also stolen; they have also denied… (12): I will not be with you if you do not destroy the cherem [(the forbidden property] from your midst.'" Joshua said to Him: "Who has sinned?", to which He answered: "Am I a slanderer? Go and cast lots and it will be known to you." Even for something that it was a mitzvah to clarify, such as the act of Achan, where they were obliged to destroy the cherem, even so, since it could come to light of itself, it should not be spoken.

And, in truth, since the Holy One Blessed be He created a man in His image, as written in the Torah, he must liken himself to the Blessed Creator in every way that he can. And it is because of the greatness of this trait ["to walk in His ways"], which is the fundamental principle in the service of the Blessed L-rd, that Scripture singled it out (in Devarim 19:9) — "and to walk in His ways all of the days." That is, it is not sufficient that one be adventitiously a good man, merciful, gracious, abundant in lovingkindness and the like, but "all of the days" he must take care to cultivate this holy trait of walking in His ways. And as to the rest of the mitzvoth, even though he must keep them, too, all of the days, Scripture did not single out each mitzvah by itself [(for "all of the days")], but spoke of them only collectively, in (Devarim 29:28): "The hidden things are for the L-rd our G-d, but the revealed ones are for us and our children forever, to do according to all the words of this Torah." The reason is as we have written.

I have shown, before the eyes of all, the abundance of parshiyoth in the Torah which speak of and exhort against forbidden speech. And there are many tens of verses in Prophets and Writings, which abominate the man who abandons his mouth to everything that his yetzer desires. Happy is the man who is solicitous of the honor of the Torah of the L-rd and takes care not to transgress it. Of his portion may our portion be, and of his lot, our lot!