Shemirat HaLashon שמירת הלשון

And let this not be cause for wonder in your eyes, that we find many who speak lashon hara and have no plague spots. We find an answer for this in the midrash of Chazal on the verse (Mishlei 21:23): "He who guards his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from troubles [tzaroth]" — (like "tzara'ath," plague-spots).

I have seen part of the explanation of this matter in the book, Nachal Kedumim, viz.: It is well known that all of G-d's punishment of a man is for his good, so that he be cleansed of his sins, and, sometimes, that he repent. Therefore, when the Temple stood and we had a Cohein who cleansed, if a man stumbled into the sin of lashon hara, the Holy One Blessed be He would bring upon him the punishment of plague-spots. And even so, He did not bring it immediately upon his body, but upon the beams of his house. And he himself would have to come to the Cohein and say to him that there appeared to him something like a plague-spot in the house. And the Cohein would exhort him to repent — "My son, plague-spots come only for lashon hara, etc.", as we find in Torath Cohanim — so that he should exert himself thereby to depart from the sin. And if he did not take this to heart, the Holy One Blessed be He would punish him yet further in this manner, as explained by Rambam at the end of the laws of tzara'ath-uncleanliness: "House tzara'ath is not in the order of nature, but was a sign and wonder in Israel to warn them against lashon hara. If one spoke lashon hara, the beams of his house would undergo a change. If he repented, the house would be cleansed, and if he persisted in his wickedness until the house were knocked down, the leather appurtenances in his house on which he sat and reclined upon would undergo a change. If he repented, etc. And if he persisted in his wickedness until they were burned, his skin would undergo a change, and he would become a leper. And he would be separated [from others] and exposed [as a leper] by himself, so that he not take part in the converse of the wicked, which is levity and lashon hara, etc." And there was great benefit in this punishment. For when he saw the greatness of his punishment and his disgrace, his having to sit solitary outside the [three] camps always, not being allowed to come even to the camp of Israel, and constantly proclaiming his grief to the populace so that they should pray [to the L-rd] to have mercy upon him (viz. Moed Katan 5a), and (Vayikra 13:45): "and 'Unclean! Unclean!' shall he cry," then, as a matter of course, he would be extremely humbled by his sin and would take it upon himself for the future to take great care against this bitter sin and to conciliate the one he spoke [lashon hara] about. And the Holy One Blessed be He in His [great] lovingkindness would send a cure for his tzara'ath, and the Cohein would go outside the camp to see if the plague-spot had healed, as it is written (Vayikra 14:3): "And the Cohein shall go outside the camp, and the Cohein shall see, if the plague-spot of leprosy is healed, etc.", and then he would proceed according to the whole order written in the parshah concerning sprinkling and shaving, and afterwards, he [the Cohein] would bring his sacrifices for him.

And when he came afterwards to his house, when he saw the great lovingkindness that the L-rd had done with him, having healed him of his tzara'ath, he certainly would do all that he had undertaken when he was outside the camp, and he would conciliate all those he had spoken lashon hara about. And through this he would be healed completely of this plague-spot and also of this sin. For his punishment and disgrace would atone for him for the past, and, as to the future, he would exert himself with all his strength not to come to [commit] this sin again.

And all this, when the Temple stood, as opposed to our situation today, in our many sins, when we have neither Temple nor sacrifices, nor cleansing Cohein, so that if the Holy One Blessed be He brought plague-spots on his body, he would remain in his uncleanliness forever, it being impossible for him to cleanse himself from it. Therefore, the uncleanliness of the plague-spot that came through this sin would remain in his soul alone and would not project from his soul outwards. And this is the intent of the midrash [brought in Yalkut, Parshath Metzora in the name of R. Yannai]: "He who guards his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from troubles [tzaroth]" — from the tzara'ath of his soul. For the plague-spot of tzara'ath is fixed in the soul.

Therefore, the man who is habituated to this sin, G-d forbid, must mourn always for his soul. For even though the Holy One Blessed be He "covers up" for him in this world and does not reveal his disgrace to all, in any event, after his death, when the soul leaves the body, the "pollution" of his tzara'ath will be revealed to all. And so long as the scum of this pollution remains in his soul, certainly, the afflicted one will not enter the sanctuary of the L-rd in Gan Eden, and he will have to remain solitary above, outside the camp of Israel, in the place of the "external elements" [impurities] if he did not repent as required.

And also, while yet alive, when his soul rises on high, all those words of lashon hara that he spoke during the day rise with it, and all of the holy ones separate themselves from it because of this. And there is no greater disgrace than this to the soul, as the Zohar states in Parshath Tazria:

"It is written: 'He who guards his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from troubles.'" For if his lips and his tongue speak evil things, these words rise above. And when they rise, all proclaim: "Remove yourselves from the vicinity of the lashon hara of Ploni. Make way for the coming of the mighty Serpent!" And then his holy soul flies far away from him and cannot speak, as it is written (Psalms 39:3): "I was dumb in deep silence. I was stilled from good." And this soul rises in shame and great suffering and is not given a place as before. And of this it is written: "He who guards his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from troubles." This is its language in short.

And I have found another answer to the aforementioned question in the book Davar Shebikedushah called Sefer Hakaneh, viz.: "See and understand that whoever utters lashon hara is judged [i.e., punished] by tzara'ath." Rabi said to him: "If so, all of Israel should be lepers, for because of the sin of lashon hara, Israel was exiled, etc." He answered: "Poverty is equivalent to tzara'ath, and he becomes impoverished and beholden to men." That is, through this, his pride, the major cause of lashon hara, will depart from him, as Rabbeinu Yonah wrote in the Sha’arei Teshuvah, and as will be explained, please G-d, below. And he also will be afraid to speak lashon hara of them for fear that the thing will become known and they will not be benevolent to him.] (See there, too, another awesome statement on this subject.) And thus is it adduced in Tikkunei Zohar, that this sin leads, G-d forbid, to poverty. Therefore, he who would live a good life will guard himself.