Shemirat HaLashon שמירת הלשון

And in Avoth 6:2 we find: "R. Yehoshua b. Levi said: 'A heavenly voice goes forth from Mount Chorev and proclaims: "Woe unto the creations because of the shame of Torah, etc.!"'" And, in Zohar Chadash it is stated that the destined day of judgment, viz. (Malachi 3:19): "For, behold, the day is coming which will burn like an oven" — this is the day on which Moses, our teacher, may peace be upon him is destined to 'claim the shame of Torah,' as we find in the Mishnah: 'Woe unto the creations, etc.'" For, in truth, it is a great shame to the Torah, whose holiness is rooted above all of the worlds, that the sons of man, moulded from matter, founded in dust, separate themselves from it!"

And in Ma'aloth HaTorah it is written: "One should take it to heart that if it were granted a lowly man to serve a great, awesome king with the same service that all the dignitaries of the kingdom performed, he would certainly experience infinite joy even though he received nothing for his service. And he certainly would not refuse the service of the king! How much more so should one rejoice for having merited to learn the holy Torah that all the celestial angels constantly disport themselves with, and that all the tzaddikim in Gan Eden occupy themselves with. How much more so, should he not keep himself from it! And Chazal have said that when a man occupies himself with Torah, all the angels who have been created by the breath of his mouth surround him in a circle as far as the eye can see — and he in its midst!

"We can infer from this the punishment of one who forsakes the Torah, about whom Isaiah has written (Isaiah 1:28): 'And the forsakers of the L-rd shall perish!' Woe to that shame! Woe to that humiliation! What will he do on the day of visitation? Is there an end to his punishment? According to the greatness of the reward [of one who studies it] is the greatness of the punishment of one who separates himself from it!

"And he should imagine the following: If a great and awesome king saw a man wallowing in filth, smitten and surrounded by all kinds of afflictions and sore illnesses, and lacking everything, and this man found favor in the eyes of the king and he commanded that all the filth be washed from him and healed all of his illnesses until he became healthy and whole in all of his limbs, and clothed him in kingly garments and adorned him with many precious jewels and pearls and gave him all of his treasures and commanded that all the governance of the kingdom be by his hand, and gave him his daughter as a wife and raised him over all the princes and the servants of the king, until he commanded all the great ones of his kingdom to serve him in royal garments according to all that he desired — and, behold, while he was clothed in these kingly garments and adorned in jewels, and all the dignitaries of the kingdom walked before him, leading him with lanterns — at that time, he saw children frolicking in the mud and picking stones to play with, and he envied them and did as they did and cast off all his costly clothes, and spurned all the delights that he had just enjoyed, and abandoned all the dignitaries that walked before him, and rolled in the filth and sullied himself in it as before — would there be an end to this man's punishment for having despised the honor of the king and his ministers, the doers of his will, and sullied his kingly garments, etc.? The analogy is self-explanatory: How much more so is punishment destined and readied for the forsakers of Torah, who separate themselves from it to gambol in the dust of the vanities of this world!"

This enables us to understand (Berachoth 5a): "If it is possible for one to study Torah and does not do so, the Holy One Blessed be He brings upon him sore afflictions which sully him, as it is written (Psalms 39:3): "I was dumb with silence, silenced from good [i.e., Torah] and my pain [i.e., my afflictions] sullied me." This is measure for measure. Because he shamed the Torah and made it like an unwanted vessel, he, too, was shamed before all.

Chazal have also said (Berachoth 63a): "All who are lax in Torah study will lack the strength to withstand a day of affliction, viz. (Mishlei 24:10): 'If you grow lax, in a day of affliction your strength will be straitened.'" And we find in the holy Zohar on this verse:

"When a man grows lax in Torah and walks in ways that are not kasher, how many foes are readied for him to be prosecutors against him in a day of affliction! And even the man's soul, which is his power and his strength, will become his enemy, as it is written 'tzar cochecha' ["Your strength (i.e., soul) will become your foe"]. What is meant by 'you have become lax'? You have loosened your hand from holding fast to the Holy One Blessed be He. And how can a man hold fast to the Holy One Blessed be He? By holding fast to the Torah one holds fast to the "tree of life" and gives strength to the Shechinah and many defenders stand up for him to mention him for the good, etc."

We further find in Avoth (3:8): "R. Meir says: 'If one forgets a single thing from his learning, Scripture accounts it to him as if he is liable for his soul, as it is written (Devarim 4:9): "Only take heed to yourself, and heed your soul exceedingly, lest you forget, etc."

Also, through this [(laxity in Torah study)] the idolators grow in strength over Israel, as we find in the Midrash (Eichah Rabba Pethichta) on the verse (Isaiah 5:24): 'As straw [Esav] will consume a tongue of fire [Jacob].' When will the straw consume the fire? 'When they [Israel] despise the Torah of the L-rd their [Israel's] root will be like rot.' The 'merit of the fathers' will not avail them."

We find further in the Midrash (Eichah Rabbah Pethichta): "(Bereshith 27:22): 'The voice is the voice of Jacob' — So long as the voice of Jacob "chirps" in the houses of prayer and the houses of study the hands of Esav will not prevail over him. But if the voice of Jacob, etc."

And, in Midrash Eichah: "When does the kingdom of the idolators make a decree against Israel and succeed in it? When they [Israel] cast words of Torah to the ground, as it is written (Daniel 8:12): 'And a time will be set for the [end of] the daily offering and it [(the idolatrous kingdom)] will throw truth to the ground and it will achieve and prosper.' "Truth" is Torah, as it is written (Mishlei 23:23): 'Buy truth and do not sell it! And it is written (Hoshea 8:3): 'Israel has forsaken truth; the foe will pursue it.' And "good" is nothing other than Torah."

And (Shemoth 17:1): "And they journeyed … and they encamped in Refidim," after which it is written (Ibid. 8): "And Amalek came." This is expounded by Chazal as: [Amalek attacked them] because their hand "weakened" ["rafu yedeihem" (like "refidim")] in Torah.

And in the holy Zohar on Shemoth 5:17: "'You are lax, lax' — You are lax in Torah; therefore, (bid. 9): 'Let the work be heavier upon the men' — with taxes and assessments."

And [(by neglecting Torah study)] he especially injures himself, as Chazal have said: "Whoever forgets one item of his learning brings bout exile to his sons, as it is written (Hoshea 4:6): 'And you have forgotten the Torah of your G-d — I, too, will forget your sons.'"

And a man's sons also die young because of this sin, as Chazal have stated (Shabbath 32b).

He is also judged [i.e., punished] in Gehinnom for this sin, as Chazal have said (Bava Bathra 79a): "Whoever separates himself from words of Torah falls into Gehinnom, as it is written (Mishlei 21:16): 'The man who wanders from the path of wisdom will rest in the congregation of refaim' [the shades], "refaim" being nothing other than Gehinnom." And in the holy Zohar, Parshath Vayikra:

"R. Shimon said: 'Happy are those men of soul, those men of Torah, the sons of the service of the Holy King. Woe unto those sinners, who do not merit to cleave to their Master and do not merit Torah. For all those who do not merit Torah, merit neither spirit nor soul, and their cleaving is to sore judgments. One such as these has no portion in the holy King, has no portion in holiness. Woe unto him when he leaves this world. For he will be revealed to those evil hosts, creatures of chutzpah [audacity], hard as dogs, messengers of the fire of Gehinnom, who will have no mercy on him, etc."

And he is also rejected by the L-rd, as stated in Avoth 6:2: "Whoever does not occupy himself with Torah is called nazuf ['rejected']."

And, in the holy Zohar: "How much must men heed their ways and fear the Holy One Blessed be He. For one who does not toil in Torah and does not occupy himself with it is called "rejected" by the Holy One Blessed be He, is distant from Him, and the Shechinah does not repose itself upon him. And those "watchers," who walk with him, remove themselves from him. And, what is more, they call out before him: 'Remove yourselves from Ploni, who is not zealous for the honor of the King. Woe unto him, for he has been forsaken by the celestial and the terrestrial beings, and he has no portion in the way of life!" But when one occupies himself with Torah and, in the service of his Master, toils in Torah, how many "watchers" are readied around him to watch him, and the Shechinah reposes itself upon him, and all call out before him and say: 'Give honor to the image of the King, give honor to the son of the king. He is "watched" in this world and in the world to come. Happy is his portion!'"

And also because of this [(neglect of Torah study)] conflagrations are found in the world, as Chazal say (Shevuoth 39a): "All houses in which words of Torah are not heard at night are consumed by fire" — and it is known that all of Israel are 'guarantors, one for the other.'"

And Rabbeinu Yonah has written in Iggereth Hatshuvah that "when men finish their work and their dealings and go to their houses or idle on the [street] corners or speak idle talk, their evil is very great and their sin exceedingly severe, for they [thereby] shame the Torah. For if they believed that there is no end to its reward, why would they not turn their feet to the house of study to learn? Does not a man rush to work knowing that all is vanity? And how can he forget the life of the world to come and not devote a day or an hour to learning? And let him not say: 'There is yet time to do for the L-rd, to learn Torah, and to occupy oneself with mitzvoth and tzedakoth.' He is guilty! He has sinned greatly against the L-rd! And Chazal have said on the verse (Bamidbar 15:31): 'For the word of the L-rd he has despised, and His commandments he has broken. Cut off shall be that soul; its transgression is in it,' that if it is possible for one to occupy himself with Torah but he does not do so, he shames the word of the L-rd. Therefore, every man is obligated to set aside a place in his house in which to learn halachoth or Scripture, each according to his ability. And when he is finished with his dealings or with his work, he must turn in there to study. And by doing so, he will "do wonders" for his soul, to rescue it from the pit. And he must reflect upon his end and consider his latter end, as Chazal have said: 'Consider three things and you will not come to transgression, etc.' And it is fitting that one find himself a pashut or a half [(types of coins)] to give charity for every day he fails to go to the house of study or to a place where he has one of the holy books to learn from."

[I have heard about a prosperous businessman who separated himself completely from the world's vanities to occupy himself completely with the Torah of the L-rd, day and night. And his brothers and family members banded against him to get him to return to "normal," but he would not pay heed to them and they despaired of him. When his old acquaintances asked him how he had gotten himself not to be swayed by his family's outcry, he answered:

"I reflected upon the words of Chazal (Shabbath 83b): 'Torah endures only with one who "kills himself" over it, etc.'" That is, [one should imagine] that he has already died, and had completed all of his affairs, and, with them, his life. And he were brought to judgment before the King of kings, the Holy One Blessed be He, for all of the things for which he had spent his life in vanity, and emerging "guilty" in the Heavenly din, he screamed: "Woe unto me, for the wickedness of my acts and of my affairs!" If in the midst of all this he were permitted to return immediately to this world and to repent, he certainly would not hesitate for a moment, and would not incline his ear at all to hear of the business of his house.

If so, let a man bethink himself of his sins, and [imagine] that he should have died already, and that if after his death the Holy One Blessed be He had done him the great lovingkindness of permitting him to repent, he certainly would not hesitate to do so for even one moment. If so, what "harm" has the Holy One Blessed be He done him by extending his life so that he can repent in his lifetime itself? Certainly, he must bestir himself with all of his powers to repent of his sins and to study Torah always, or, at least, to set aside a specific time for Torah study and not be swayed by those who would turn him from this.]