Shemirat HaLashon שמירת הלשון

First of all, the episode of the serpent, who spoke lashon hara of the Holy One Blessed be He and thereby brought death to the world. And (Bereshith 29:20): "If G-d will be with me and guard me," concerning which Chazal have said: "if He will guard me against lashon hara." And the episode of Joseph (Ibid. 37:2): "And Joseph brought their evil talk to their father," this being the catalyst of the descent of the Jews to Egypt. And (Shemoth 2:14): "In truth, the thing has become known" (see Rashi there and what we shall write below). There, too, (4:1) Moses our teacher, may peace be upon him, says: "But they will not believe me," and the Blessed L-rd counters (Ibid. 2): "What is this in your hand?" … (3) …and it became a serpent." Also there (6): "And, behold, his hand was leprous as snow." And (Ibid. 17:2): "And the people quarreled with Moses… (7) …over the quarrel of the children of Israel, etc." followed by (8): "And Amalek came and warred with Israel, etc." And (Ibid. 23:1): "You shall not bear a false report, which applies to both the speaker and the receiver [of lashon hara] (as we find in Makkoth 23a), followed by (2): "Do not be after many to do evil." And, in reference to the me'il [the outer robe of the ephod] (Ibid. 28:32): "A border shall there be to its mouth roundabout," and the entire section. And (35): "And its sound will be heard when he comes to the sanctuary, etc." And the entire section of Tazria and Metzora: the plague-spots of houses, the plague-spots of clothing, the plague-spots of men, (Vayikra 13:46): "Solitary shall he sit"— even outside of the camp of Israel. And his atonement— "chirping" birds. And (Ibid. 19:16): "Do not go talebearing among your people," (Ibid. 17): "Reprove, shall you reprove your neighbor, but you shall not bear sin because of him." And (Ibid. 25:17): "You shall not wrong, one man, his fellow," which relates to verbal wronging, which is also in the category of evil speech. And (Bamidbar 5:1): "And they shall send out of the camp every leper"— even if he were as great in Torah as Doeg. And (Ibid. 12:1): "And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, etc." And the entire section of Shelach Lecha, which speaks about the spies. And (Ibid. 21:5): "And the people spoke against G-d and against Moses." And (Devarim 23:10): "When you go out as a camp against your foes, guard yourself against every evil thing [davar ra]," concerning which Chazal have said: "davar ra" may be read as "dibbur ra" [evil speech]. And in Tetze, the "giving out of an evil name [motzi shem ra]," and (Ibid. 24:9): "Remember what the L-rd your G-d did to Miriam, etc." And (Ibid. 27:24): "Cursed be he who smites his friend in secret," which refers to lashon hara. And it is known that all of the "cursings" were preceded by blessings; and they opened with blessing, saying: "Blessed is he who does not smite"— whence we derive that one who is heedful in this is blessed.

Chazal have said (Sanhedrin 26b) that the Holy One Blessed be He said to Doeg, the wicked one: "When you reach the section concerning the speakers of lashon hara, what do you expound?" The meaning is: When a man commits a transgression, by nature he is ashamed and aggrieved to come upon the relevant section in the Torah. Because of this Eliyahu Rabbah writes (end of 138): "One who is blind or lame should not be called to the Torah for the section [that discusses these defects]. Similarly, one who is suspect of illicit relations should not be called for that section, or the like." If so, in our instance, we have demonstrated above that a great portion of the Torah speaks of these things [(lashon hara)] and a man who broadens his lips and abandons his speech in whichever direction his yetzer desires, will certainly in the course of his life transgress each thing many tens of times, and how his soul will storm when they show him in time to come that in the few days of his life he has transgressed many tens of sections in the Torah. It is known what Chazal (Chagigah 5b) have said on the verse (Amos 4:13): "For He that forms the mountains and creates the winds and tells a man what his speech is"— "even a man's lightest converse is related to him at the time of his judgment." How much more so will he be reproved for these grave forbidden matters [of lashon hara] and have them laid before his eyes, as it is written in Psalms 50:20: "You sit and speak against your brother. Against your mother's son you utter slander …but I will reprove you and set it in order before your eyes." And it is known what the GRA has written, that for every utterance of forbidden speech (such as lashon hara and rechiluth and the like) one must descend to the very depths of Sheol, and it is impossible to visualize the throes and afflictions one suffers for one such utterance.

And even in the end, when he is cleansed of his sins through the multitude of afflictions that he suffers, and merits because of his mitzvoth taking his portion in Gan Eden, how will he be shamed there forever when he comes to these sections (for every soul in Israel will merit there to bask in the light of the Torah that he learned in his lifetime), and like a mute will not open his mouth in them [(the words of Torah)], and this, not for a year or two; but for thousands upon thousands of years. Whenever he comes to these sections he will moan for his soul— how could he have allowed himself to abandon such a great portion of this holy, awesome Torah scroll! For there he will see for himself how all the holy angels sweat and tremble at the word of the L-rd, and he, a small, lowly, dark creature contemptuously ignored the words of the L-rd hundreds and thousands of times in his lifetime! Happy is the man who reflects upon these things when he is still in this world! How happy and blessed will he be in this world and the next!

It is known what is written in Sefer Chasidim, that a mitzvah that has no "patrons" is like a meth mitzvah (see Part One, Conclusion, Chapter III). And that mitzvah accuses and laments: "How unfortunate I am, that all have forgotten me!" And this applies to even an isolated mitzvah; how much more so, (as we have demonstrated to the reader) to one that occupies a great portion of the Torah, that deals with exercising care with the faculty of speech. And it is understood, then, that when men are not careful of this, but unleash their tongues as they desire, a great part of the Torah lies in shame. How great is the reward of those who are heedful of this, not to transgress in this area. He honors these mitzvoth, and about him Scripture has written (I Samuel 2:30): "For those who honor Me, I shall honor."

[And see, now my brother, that according to the epitomization of Chazal (Bava Bathra 165a), that all [men stumble] in lashon hara, there is no issur in the world that is as "abandoned" as that of lashon hara. For in theft, only the majority stumble; but in lashon hara, all! And even though they have said that this applies only to the "dust" of lashon hara and not to lashon hara itself, Rambam of blessed memory has already written: "Would that we guarded ourselves from the issur itself!" If so, there is no other mitzvah that has been abandoned to this extent. And one who strengthens himself in it, in truth, accords honor to the mitzvah, and it will ascribe merit to him above for doing so.]

And it is known that Chazal have said that one who fulfills a mitzvah, though we have been commanded to do so by the Blessed L-rd, is regarded by the Holy One Blessed be He as if he himself had originated it. And this is so with even an isolated mitzvah; how much more so with one which occupies such a great portion of the Torah. If one strengthens himself to fulfill them [(all the aspects of this mitzvah)], it will be accounted to him in time to come as if he himself had conceived of all these holy things that are written in these sections. How much greatness and honor he will be accorded in time to come because of this! And how much will his heart rejoice in this! In this man there will be fulfilled (Psalms 105:3): "The heart of the seekers of the L-rd will rejoice!"